Austin, Tx, might have the key to move America forward

AUSTIN, Texas – The Lone Star state has always been a big prize in presidential elections, but it has gone solidly Republican since Jimmy Carter won in 1976. So it was no surprise that former President Donald Trump won handily on Tuesday and took all of its 40 electoral votes.

Being here in Austin, a blue dot in the middle of this red state, is as good a vantage point as any in America to observe how these Divided States of America are trying to move forward and plunge into the future. There are legitimate reasons to be deeply concerned about a president who is a convicted felon, who has openly expressed authoritarian instincts, who boasts about carrying out mass deportations of immigrants and who has shown a consistent hostility to so many constitutional issues; from the right to a free press and to the rights of women to not have the government interfere with their bodies and their reproductive health.

We all have to start a dialogue around how this happened. And for those of us who work in journalism, we have to shine a light on the threats that the second Trump presidency is likely to pose to our country. But we also have to do some soul-searching on how it is that journalism failed to enlighten and inform the electorate in an election that seems to have been free and fair and in which we seem headed for a peaceful transition of power as the Democrats prove their allegiance to that idea despite Trump’s menacing threats of violence if he lost. The Democratic party can hold its head high, but it will also have to do some honest assessments of how it fared so poorly in these elections and how it lost so many voters who were once loyal, such as Arab Americans and Latinos and working class white males who feel increasingly disaffected and abandoned by the party.

So what am I hearing in this city in these fateful and fretful days after one of the most consequential elections in our country’s history?

Interestingly, the short answer is: “not much.” People in Austin are not talking about the election here in any obvious way. Whether it is a polite avoidance or a uniquely Texas spirit that believes everybody should mind their own business, the fact is the discussion is not about Trump and his decisive victory. I don’t know this city well, but I am often struck by just how great a job the local news organization, The Texas Tribune, does day in and day out in covering this city and this state at a time when local news organizations are going out of business at a rate of 2.5 per week across the United States.

And one of the things I love most about this city is that it is a study of contrasts that echo the different, and sometimes competing, visions of America:

• Its crown jewel, the University of Texas at Austin, is a world-class academic institution built with oil money in a state that boasts the highest per capita usage of renewable energy. Hardened, old-school oil executives with leathery faces walk the same streets as tech bros riding scooters and equally brilliant environmental engineers changing the way we think about energy.
• In the archives of UT Austin, you can find an extraordinarily rare, original copy of the Gutenberg Bible from the 16th Century which lies behind glass for all to see. And just 10 minutes up the road from there is the place where Elon Musk came to set up a sprawling factory that is more than one mile long, the largest plant in the country. The modern titan of industry is also planning to move here to the home base of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, one of the world’s largest social media websites with nearly 500 million users worldwide and 100 million in the United States. Gutenberg and X are both right here.
• There are hard right figures like Ken Paxton, the state Attorney General, who works in the beautiful statehouse up on the hill and who, some political analysts are saying, may serve as the next U.S. Attorney General in the Trump White House. And there are fierce liberals like Beto O’Rourke, who ran for governor and lost in 2022 and who follows in the proud tradition of the late governor Ann Richards, after whom the bridge is named that crosses over Lady Bird Johnson Lake.

Okay, these sketches of contrasts are admittedly based on only three days in and around UT Austin, but the unique mix of red and blue leaders who were coming together for different reasons including the big football game today has caught my attention. I have been here listening to construction workers who are working on a significant road project through downtown and to young tech executives who are building pioneering startups. I’ve talked to a great musician well known in this town and an accountant who no one knows in the lobby of my hotel. And I can say that not once did anyone ask me what I thought of the election, or if I was worried about the future of the country, a constant refrain back in my home state of Massachusetts or on the streets of New York.

Maybe this city can serve as a model for how we can get along and maybe those of us from the so-called coastal elite voting districts could listen and learn. And it is perhaps no coincidence that the local news organizations are strong in many corners of this state, including our Report for America partners, who are hosting this year 17 reporters covering everything from health and politics, to communities in the Permian Basin and the impact of rapid development on the state. We are going to need more of them here and across the country to foster a conversation that can close the gap between Americans of different ideologies if we are to find a healthy way forward.

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