And so it, it really seemed indicative to me that this is, one, as you point out, just about skin color, but also about this idea that, you know, for lack of a better i- better term for it, it's like they want bizarro DEI, but for white men.

I mean, not to get too much into the, the, the things that undergird white supremacy as an ideology in general, but, uh, I think it's fair to say that, uh, uh, crucial planks of it is both being perpetually under the foot of some imagined enemy while also maintaining that you are, uh, the superior race.

Um, so I think that, you know, this is a good example of this, where you see th- these kids in their minds have to be not deserving to be there, because if they are deserving, then the entire narrative falls in on itself.

Um, but to your point, I mean, I think that, you know, one of the other things that's important to talk about in the context of this is that this is all happening in Texas as there has been in, over the last few years in Texas, a really, really intense ramping up of, uh, anti-Indian and anti-Muslim bigotry.

Um, I mean, if, if you go to Frisco, if you go to some of these Dallas suburb- suburbs right now, you know, every single city council meeting seemingly has some internet troll using the, the public comment time to say horribly racist things.

You know, they are...

Y- Greg Abbott recently, you know, a few weeks ago, was going to war with one of the airports because they had a foot-washing station for Muslims.

Yeah

Yeah.

You know, they kind of coalesce around this strategy in the Texas House in particular, where they're going to basically just accuse anyone who's not sufficiently far right enough for them as being a RINO, and pump all of this money into a media and political ecos- or, you know, network that kind of just becomes almost like this, this way that they are holding people's feet to the fire to the point where, you know, they, they are, you know, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars to primary opponents, uh, for incumbent lawmakers.

A lot of these opp- you know, these candidates are, you know, dead on arrival.

They have no actual chance of winning a primary, but the whole point is just kinda like bruise up these lawmakers, deplete their campaign coffers, and kind of make them second-guess any time that they're thinking about defying this political network in the next session.

And so Paxton really emerges out of that, I guess, kind of movement.

You know, you start to see around 2012, 2013, these groups that are funded by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks really start to hold him up as this taxpayer champion.

And then in 2014, he launches what was kind of thought to be a, uh, long shot bid for attorney general, that he ends up winning against, um, a m- a little bit more moderate Republican candidates with key help from these billionaires, and that kind of, you know, he, he's off to the races from there, so.

Yeah, your feelings on it.

Yeah.

You know, they kind of coalesce around this strategy in the Texas House in particular, where they're going to basically just accuse anyone who's not sufficiently far right enough for them as being a RINO and pump all of this money into a media and political ecos- or, you know, network, that kind of just becomes almost like this, this way that they are holding people's feet to the fire to the point where, you know, they, they are, you know, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars to primary opponents, uh, for incumbent lawmakers.

A lot of these up- uh, you know, these candidates are, you know, dead on arrival.

They have no actual chance of winning a primary, but the whole point is just kind of like- Bruise up these lawmakers, deplete their campaign coffers, and kind of make them second-guess any time that they're thinking about defying this political network in the next session.

And so Paxton really emerges out of that, I guess, kind of movement.

You know, you start to see around 2012, 2013, these groups that are funded by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks really start to hold him up as this taxpayer champion.

And then in 2014, he launches what was kind of thought to be a, a long shot bid for attorney general, that he ends up winning against, um, a, a little bit more moderate Republican candidates with key help from these billionaires, and that kind of, you know, he- he's off to the races from there, so.

That is really interesting.

Yeah.

You know, they kind of coalesce around this strategy in the Texas House in particular, where they're going to basically just accuse anyone who's not Sufficiently far right enough for them as being a RINO, and pump all of this money into a media and political ecos- or, you know, network that kind of just becomes almost like this, this way that they are holding people's feet to the fire to the point where, you know, they, they are, you know, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars to primary opponents, uh, for incumbent lawmakers.

A lot of these opp- you know, these candidates are, you know, dead on arrival.

They have no actual chance of winning a primary, but the whole point is just kinda like bruise up these lawmakers, deplete their campaign coffers, and kind of make them second-guess any time that they're thinking about defying this political network in the next session.

And so Paxton really emerges out of that, I guess, kind of movement.

You know, you start to see around 2012, 2013, these groups that are funded by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks really start to hold him up as this taxpayer champion.

And then in 2014, he launches what was kind of thought to be a, uh, long shot bid for attorney general, that he ends up winning against, um, a, a m- a little bit more moderate Republican candidates with key help from these billionaires, and that kind of, you know, he, he's off to the races from there, so.

That is really interesting.

Tell us about kind of the power line threat that people are concerned about in Glen Rose.

So the proposal by Dallas-based Encore does not call for there to be power lines within the park.

However, one of the three proposals that they've put forward and which regulators are set to choose, I believe, sometime this month, they're expected to make a decision.

One of the main tracks would kind of encircle two corners of the park in these tracks.

very tall power line, somewhere between, I think, 140 to 180 feet tall.

Again, while they would not be in the park itself, one of the big kind of, you know, the kind of ethos of the park is that you are connecting not just with nature, but really need to be kind of away from civilization, I guess, to really appreciate the fact that you were standing amongst, you know, these massive dinosaur fossilized footprints.

And so I think that's really one of the big things that is being at risk here for the park is it's not just the views.

Can you talk about the economy, its dependence on the park and what people are worried about changing because of these power lines?

Would you say that in dissecting his situation as a case study that it really is emblematic of, of how these s- how this institutional coverup of abuse is handled across the board?

I mean, I think that Dwayne's case was emblematic in so many ways.

One, just the way that he processed his trauma.

You know, the average abuse survivor doesn't come forward roughly until their, their, after their 50th birthday.

We know that from a lot of, of, a lot of science.

And you know, he was, he was one of those people who would fall into that category.

Um, and also just the way that he kind of, that trauma and that abuse affected his life.

What reforms, if any, came out of that?

I'm wondering what you see French's victory saying about where Republican primary voters are right now.

Sure.

And, you know, I think Railroad Commission is one of those things that, you know, it is a lesser known, little attention paid to body in Texas.

But it means quite a bit, especially, obviously, if you're in the oil and gas industry.

And I think that French's win, especially over an incumbent who had all that support, really does just signify how far right the party's, you know, I guess, runoff and primary voters are going.

You know, we've seen in the last few years really a concerted effort by GOP politicians and candidates To focus on Islamophobia, to focus on, you know, a whole host of, I guess, kind of different threats to Texas way of life, each of them representing about 1% of the state's population, but able to be kind of turned into a broader boogeyman that they can run against.

So I'm curious, realistically, what path, if any, do you see Rosenthal having?

You know, it's tough to speculate, but I believe of all the kind of statewide primary or statewide runoffs from Tuesday, Beau French had the smallest margin of victory.

Tell us about his lineage and his grandfather and the ways he found himself into power.

Sure.

And you know, this is something that we, we, we get into a little bit in the piece, but was something I spent a ton of time in this reporting process that I think a lot of it actually is new within the history of Southern Baptists.

I mean, I, I, I, uh, was finding stuff about Pressler's, you know, family that I think even to some Baptist historians I brought it to, they were, they were surprised by.

But Paul Pressler was born into, you know, kind of the closest thing that the South has to aristocracy.

I mean, his, his a, a lineage of, of people, of, of secessionist lawmakers, of judges, of, of state lawmakers, um, and oilmen.

And I think-Probably the most important person to Pressler's life was his grandfather, this man named Edgar Eggleston Towns, EE Towns.

Do I have all of that right?