For your last lecture discussion, instead of listening to me lecture you get to watch a movie! I will include some lecture notes about the readings at the bottom of this post, but films like the ones below tie together the stuff we’ve been studying better than any lecture could. Some of these are directly about Texas, others are about issues deeply important to Texas politics. So this week, choose one of these movies to watch keeping all the material we’ve covered in mind and respond to it in this discussion board. I’ve included trailers below for each. Choose a movie, watch the entire thing and answer the discussion questions toward the bottom of this page. Then respond to another student’s post.
There are lots of options because not everyone has access to every streaming service. Some of these are being offered free on some streaming services even for people without accounts, and some are available for free with advertisements on YouTube or iMDB. Some you can check out of Collin’s library. If for some reason you can’t access any of them, let me know and we’ll figure something out. (And please note, including any film on this list is NOT an endorsement of the film by me or Collin College – it is an exercise in analyzing Texas politics and analyzing the bias in films about Texas politics).
Option #1: The Texas PromiseLinks to an external site.
Option #2: After UvaldeLinks to an external site.
Option #3: Reversing RoeLinks to an external site.
Option #4: God Save TexasLinks to an external site.
Option #5: Into the AbyssLinks to an external site.
Option #6 13th
Option #7: Outcry (this is actually a five part series, but two episodes will work for this assignment)
Option #8: Hot Coffee
Option #9: The Revisionaries
Option #10: Boys State
Option #11: The Education of Shelby Knox
Option #12: Incendiary: The Willingham Case
Option #13: The Two Towns of Jasper
Option #14: The Longoria Affair
Option #15: Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly IvinsLinks to an external site.
Option #16: Deep in the PocketsLinks to an external site.
Option #17: A Run for MoreLinks to an external site.
Option $18: The State of Texas vs. MelissaLinks to an external site.
Discussion Questions for you to answer in the board:
- Paragraph #1: Post a screenshot of the film playing on your device or some other proof that you watched it. Then give a brief summary of the movie in your own words, and explain in your own words your view of the main message the filmmaker(s) wanted to convey.
- Paragraph #2: What new thing did you learn from the film? Mention something specific from it to demonstrate that you actually watched the film.
- Paragraph #3: Relate what you learned from the film to your own life (no need to reveal anything personal that you are uncomfortable sharing – this is an exercise in critical thinking through applying the subject matter of a movie to your own experience) Note that “It doesn’t relate to my life” is not an acceptable answer. With some critical thinking, a fictional story about Martians could be related to your own life. If you are stuck, think about how your experience differs from those of the main characters, or how you might feel if your life was more like theirs, etc.
- Paragraph #4: What bias was evident in the film? What things in the film reveal the filmmaker’s bias?
Again, respond to another student’s post as well.
And though I am not lecturing, here are some lecture notes to help you put the readings in perspective:
While local government is the level of government that most Americans know the least about (the vast majority of us can’t name anyone on our city council including the mayor, and know little about what they do and how they do it) it is also the level of government that has the most direct impact on your quality of life. The quality of schools, police protection, local roads, parks, the safety of buildings, the cleanliness of restaurants, the use of land, the purification of our drinking water, the removal of waste, etc. all are handled by our local government. The work of local government doesn’t make for as exciting news as the President’s conflicts with Congress, but it arguably matters more to your life on a day-to-day basis. Here’s a bit more on the differences between state, county and local governments:
The importance of local government was prominently on display in Texas during the COVID pandemic. For the first months of the pandemic, Governor Abbott largely left the responsibility to city and county governments, resulting in a patchwork across the state in which some cities and counties issued strict shelter-in-place orders and some remained quite open. He later asserted state power to end many restrictions, but then used state power again to shut down bars, scale back restaurant capacity and mandate the wearing of masks but various local governments resisted or ignored his orders. Likewise, during the civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd, some local governments responded to protests with force and some responded by trying to engage productively with protesters, with very different results.
Much of the quality of your local government has to do with its tax base – communities with valuable homes and plenty of businesses have lots of property tax to draw on to fund good services, which draws people to move that area, which brings more property taxes, which improves services, and the cycle moves in a positive direction. Plano, TX is a great example. Visit the local government website and notice how much the city has to offer. http://plano.gov/. Check out your own hometown’s website and compare. Think about all the ways in which your local governments have an impact on your quality of life, what they do well and what they could do better. Not only does local government have the most direct impact on your life, but you have a much better chance of having a direct impact on the decisions of your local government than you do on the decisions of your state or national government. With fewer voters, your one vote carries much more weight in a local election than in the presidential election.
The next chapter discusses finance and fiscal policy in Texas. It sounds like a snooze, but if you live here, this chapter may be the one that most directly impacts you. The state runs its programs using your tax money, and spends it on things that you may or may not agree with or benefit from. Here’s a brief video from another professor on the state’s very regressive tax structureLinks to an external site.:
As explained by the video, the tax structure chosen by the state will hit you differently depending on your own financial status. But revenue is just one side of the equation. What the state spends your tax money on (or decides not to spend it on) has just as much or more impact on your quality of life here as the revenue side of things. As you look at the state’s spending priorities on higher education, infrastructure, etc. think of the ways each impacts you directly now and how they might impact you directly in the future (particularly if you have or intend to have children). But note that spending has more impacts than just its direct impacts.
Remember that money continues to flow throughout the state economy and does not “stop” at its initial investment point. It has indirect impacts. For example, tax money invested in public transportation does not stop at buying a train or bus. That money flows to the companies that build the trains and buses, to the employees that operate and maintain the trains and buses, to the ancillary companies that make signage for the trains and buses etc. These companies and employees in turn spend what they make in the broader economy when they purchase goods and services. In addition, public transportation reduces traffic and pollution, which has a ripple effect throughout society and the economy – protecting health, reducing healthcare costs, traffic, etc. It is easy to identify the upfront costs of a government spending item, but more difficult to calculate its downstream indirect impacts – which may be positive or negative.
Public policy and administration is where the fiscal policy comes alive, so to speak. The way that government actually impacts your life is through the policies and programs that they put in place (or choose not to put in place) and how they administer and enforce them. These programs enable and encourage certain behaviors and discourage other behaviors. The process of making public policy varies depending on the country, the state or city. The process is generally described the way this videoLinks to an external site. breaks it down. While policies and how they are made vary from place to place, one thing is common to all public policies. They are all attempts to shape public behavior. There are several ways that policies can seek to influence peoples’ behavior: using punishments, using rewards or using persuasion.
One method is through punishment. Things our leaders decide are bad (dealing drugs for example) can be criminalized and met with punishment – from fines to incarceration to execution. Another method is through reward. Things that our leaders decide are good (like having an educated publicLinks to an external site. or a healthy populationLinks to an external site.) can be encouraged with incentives, like scholarships, low-interest loans, tax credits, public health programs, etc. Finally, the government may seek to shape behavior using persuasive methods that provide neither punishment nor reward. For example, the famous “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign against littering attempted to active peoples’ state pride, sense of personal responsibility and concern for the environment.
Sometimes multiple methods are used on a problem simultaneously. For example, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins attached a fine of up to $1000 and up to 180 days in jail for violating the stay-at-home orders. The federal government tried to encourage additional consumer spending by sending people stimulus checks. And federal, state and local governments tried to persuade people to follow CDC guidelines by providing information via press conferences, press releases, advertisements and the like. All of these were efforts to shape public behavior.
The trick is to find which methods work. Sometimes our theories of what will drive behavior are wrong. For example, many governments (including the US and Texas governments) sought to stamp out drug addiction through increasingly harsh punishments for decades. The theory was that fear of punishment would influence people to not use or sell drugs. However, drug use continued to rise. In contrast, over a decade ago the country of Portugal abandoned the punishment method for drugs. In Portugal, all drugs were decriminalized and addicts were instead provided rehabilitation, job training programs and help reintegrating into the workforce. The result has been dramatically lower rates of drug use, drug addiction, drug overdoses, etc. While Texas has not decriminalized drugs, the state has been quietly been moving away from “tough on drugs” toward “smart on drugs” with alternatives to tough sentencing and incarceration.
As we read this week, think about what you think is working well in Texas and what you think should be changed. What kind of behaviors do we want to encourage and discourage during and after this pandemic? How might punishment, reward and persuasion best be used in our public policies? Which programs should receive more money and which should receive less?
Have a good week,
Prof. R