As James Talarico's US Senate race against Ken Paxton enters its final weeks, Texans report a frightening outbreak of good manners.
As James Talarico's Senate race against Ken Paxton heads into its final weeks, Tucker Blaze reports a wave of Texans yielding, waving and paying for strangers' burgers. A newly founded grit preservation council has issued urgent guidance.
On Monday morning, a pickup truck on Interstate 35 outside Austin let a Prius merge. It did not honk. It did not ride the bumper for six miles out of principle. It simply... waved.
This is how a state falls, folks. Not with a bang, but with a polite little wave. I traced the incident back to a recent rally held by James Talarico, the Democrat running for US Senate against Ken Paxton.
Talarico is a former teacher who studied at a seminary. He is trying to become the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas in over 30 years. And he talks, constantly, about loving your neighbor. Now I ask you. Who taught him that? And why does he keep saying it out loud, in public, in Texas, where people can hear it?
Since that rally, I have logged six separate outbreaks. A man in Lubbock returned his shopping cart to the corral. A tailgater in Waco backed off. At a burger drive-thru in Odessa, a customer paid for the car behind him, and that driver paid for the next. The chain ran six cars deep before a retired deputy pulled in, ordered a double with jalapeños, and paid only for himself. That man is a hero.
"We're seeing classic signs of neighborliness exposure," said Dale Pruitt, executive director of the Lone Star Grit Preservation Council, a group he founded on Monday. "Eye contact. Unprompted 'after you.' A woman in Amarillo apologized to a parking meter."
"Texas has survived floods, droughts and fire ants. I am not confident it survives this."
I'm just asking questions here. Is it the scripture he quotes from memory? Is it the way he says "y'all" without a single drop of menace? The mainstream media won't touch it. The New York Times wrote about his fundraising. Fundraising! While grown Texans wave each other through four-way stops like it's a Hallmark movie.
A state on the brink
Pruitt's council has issued emergency guidance. Any Texan who feels a sudden urge to hold a door should stand still, count to six, and remember the Alamo. "The Alamo was not about holding doors," Pruitt said. He paused. "Well. Technically it was about holding a door. But not politely."
The damage is spreading to families. "My husband gave a stranger the last parking spot at H-E-B," said Marlene Dobbs, spokeswoman for Truckers Against Courtesy. "Thirty years married. I don't know who he is anymore."
The Paxton campaign did not respond to my request for comment, mainly because I never sent one. I meant to. Then I held the elevator for a man from accounting, and the whole afternoon got away from me.
There are only a few weeks left in this race. If nothing changes, Texas could wake up on Election Day sharing lanes, returning casserole dishes and asking strangers how they're doing. Then actually waiting for the answer. Lock your doors, people. Or, God help us, hold them.
