Dr. Kingmaker
Here we are, Monday, December 14, 2020. Last week, the “safe harbor” deadline passed, today state electors are meeting to cast their final ballots, and the current resident of the White House continues to flail and flop like an overacting extra in a shitty zombie B-movie. His most recent gambit was signing on to Ken Paxton’s sadomasochistic lawsuit, the sole intent of which was to curry favor with the defeated dictator whose power and relevance dwindles by the day, but also had the added bonus of thoroughly humiliating Ted Cruz and most of the Republican party. This is hardly a time to gloat, however. If there’s an unmistakeable lesson to be gleaned from all this clumsy bullshit, it’s this: It’s far too inefficient to steal the election after it’s over, you need to steal it before it starts.
Not to say that the GOP, especially in this godforsaken Republic of Texas, didn’t try. It may seem like years ago, but it was only November 2 (the day before Election Day) when a federal judge finally drove the final nail into a Republican lawsuit seeking to invalidate more than 127,000 legal Harris County ballots cast via drive-thru early voting. The damage to Election Day drive-thru voting had been done, however, as Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins ordered the closure of nine sites utilizing tents, due to his suspicion that the plaintiffs would eventually find a judiciary willing to disenfranchise those voters who cast their ballots at temporary structures. So who were these plaintiffs? In addition to sitting state Representative Steve Toth and a couple of Republican state candidates, none other than litigious “wellness authority” Dr. Steven F. Hotze.
Texas has no shortage of wealthy cretins willing to throw money at hate and stupidity. There’s oil heiress Kathryn Stuard, known primarily as an early patron of self-proclaimed “right-wing Banksy” Sabo; there’s James Leininger, owner of Promised Land Dairy and an essential figure in the state board of education’s embarrassing radicalism; but Steven Hotze is in a completely different league. CEO of the Hotze Health & Wellness Center in Houston, he essentially makes his living selling hormone therapies and vitamin supplements to affluent, evangelical rubes. He’s a fan of colloidal silver compound, which does very little in terms of germ-fighting but will turn your skin blue. He was also sued last January for knowingly and intentionally selling vitamin supplements containing dangerous levels of lead. If you’re starting to make the connection… yes, he is to medicine what Alex Jones is to journalism. And that’s not all they have in common. It’s his avidity for fanatical political causes toward which Hotze really directs his efforts. Fond of TV cameras, Hotze has been a frequent “medical expert” on Fox News, railing against vaccination, the “homosexual threat”, and COVID mask-wearing, but his apparent raison d'etre is starting groups with names like Austin Citizens for Decency, Texans for No New Taxes, Conservative Republicans of Texas (labeled an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a designation Hotze undoubtedly considers a feather in his cap). Like any well-healed booster desperate for influence and importance, he sees himself as a power broker, and has had great success in doing just that in Texas. Here are some highlights of his “moving and shaking”…
1982: Spearheaded a proposal that would have made it legal for Austin landlords to deny housing based on sexual orientation. The amendment was defeated 36,239 to 20,997.
1985: Organized the infamous Campaign for Houston, which introduced the world to the “Straight Slate”, a group of eight local candidates who utilized overt homophobia and hate in an effort to reinstate discriminatory ordinances in Houston, struck down just three years prior.
1986: Signed the Coalition of Revival’s Manifesto for the Christian Church, a batshit crazy, dominionist screed full of policy points which would sound familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of sharia law.
2001: Began an 11-year run of hosting his own show on Houston’s right-wing KSEV talk radio station, fortifying a friendship with fellow radio host (and future lieutenant governor) Dan Patrick and impressing Suzanne Somers so much that she would dedicate a chapter to Hotze in her book, Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness.
2001: Hit with a $5000 fine, the second largest in state history, by the Texas Ethics Commission for funneling contributions from the Texas GOP to his own Conservative Republicans of Harris County PAC.
2009: Threw his support and checkbook behind the Houston mayoral campaign of Gene Locke, a black democrat. At first glance, a shocking development, until it’s taken into account that Locke’s rival in the runoff was openly gay candidate Annise Parker. Parker was elected and served three 2-year terms.
May 2013: Filed a lawsuit to prevent enforcement of the Affordable Care Act. In an effort to publicize his lawsuit, released two auto-tuned anti-Obamacare songs (yes, seriously): God Fearing Texans Stop Obamacare and Texans Stand Against Obamacare. If you’ve ever been curious to hear what T-Pain would sound like reciting a New Gingrich speech transcript, this is for you.
August 2015: In anticipation of the November referendum for Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), launched a multi-city tour of Texas to decry the evils of the gay rights movement and continue his comparisons between homosexuality and Nazism.
October 2015: While still railing against HERO, resurrected his Campaign for Houston organization to drive the repeal effort, preying on the fear and transphobia of voters by perpetuating the hackneyed “no men in women’s bathroom” tropes. The ordinance was repealed.
January 2016: Flush with victory over HERO’s repeal, hosted a Conservative Republicans of Texas dinner where the “Warrior of Biblical Values Award” was bestowed upon Dan Patrick. Speaking at the dinner, lobbed claims of intimidation from critics, stating, “If they have their way… they will put you in jail and they will fine you. Pedophilia is the next point. They’re going to come down and change that law.”
March 2017: Threw his weight behind old buddy Dan Patrick’s “Bathroom Bill” (Senate Bill 6), a law that would have regulated bathroom use for transgender Texans. The bill died after the end of a 30-day special session in August.
April 2019: Was a primary backer of TX Senate Bill 17, which would have given state-licensed professionals, including those in the medical and child care fields, permission to refuse services to LGBTQ Texans on the grounds of “sincerely held religious belief”. In defending his position, accused LGBTQ people of “undermining the Biblically based moral values of our nation.”
April 2020: Filed a lawsuit against Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, alleging that her order requiring people to cover their faces in public violated the Texas Constitution. This came on the heels of filing a separate lawsuit a few weeks earlier, again against Hidalgo, over her emergency stay-at-home directive. It was also followed by yet another lawsuit, this one demanding a religious exemption for places of worship from Harris County lockdown orders.
June: Filed a lawsuit challenging Governor Greg Abbott’s COVID contact tracing program, alleging that it violated the first and fourth amendments.
July: Filed another lawsuit against Abbott, this time over his statewide mask order.
July: Inspired by the response to George Floyd’s killing, took a break from suing Greg Abbott to merely leave a phone message with his chief of staff, suggesting, “…he has National Guard down here and they have the order to shoot to kill if any of these son-of-a-bitch people start rioting like they have in Dallas, start tearing down businesses. Shoot to kill the son of a bitches. That’s the only way you restore order. Kill ‘em.”
September: Was back to filing lawsuits, this time joining fellow right-wing clowns Allan West and Sid Miller in their challenge against Abbott’s extension of early voting and expanding the period in which mail-in ballots may be delivered in person.
October: Filed a lawsuit against Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, claiming he and his Republican co-plaintiffs would “suffer irreparable injury” if curbside drive-thru voting was allowed to continue. He further requested an injunction that would have resulted in memory cards from 10 Harris County drive-thru location be secured and rejected, effectively nullifying 127,000 legally cast ballots. The Texas State Supreme Court decided 6-1 against.
It’s a long list, I know. That’s the thing, voter fraud has been just another faux-scandalous cause that affluent conservative activists like Hotze feel the need in taking up in an effort to bolster political dominance by an increasingly dwindling minority. As is evidenced by Hotze’s laundry list of grievances, it quickly replaced the “tyranny of the COVID plandemic response” as summer faded into fall and itself will be replaced by another one soon, most likely the war on “religious freedom”. None of these causes are waged in good faith and ultimately they’re all rooted in bigotry and lies. Voter fraud is a lie. It’s a lie used to justify voter suppression and is spread through far-reaching campaigns of disinformation. Voting, the most fundamental method an individual can employ to influence how their government is run, and the lynchpin of our democracy, is just one of many issues that the Republican party has targeted with propaganda, subversion, and ratfucking. GOP politicians learned to weaponize disinformation well before Trump ever took office. What’s become clear now is not just how comfortable their constituents are with being lied to, but how they genuinely prefer it to reality.
And Steven Hotze will be involved somehow, starting up a political action committee or special interest group, filing lawsuits, doling out absurd TV interviews, maybe cutting another single (or even a mixtape), all to make sure that it’s the “godly, righteous people” who maintain autocratic power.