January 29, 2015 5:08 PM

HK: The present quandary of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

Picking and choosing when to be visible is no longer an option for Governor Patrick. To the inflamed, he is the Texas Senate.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick this week reiterated that he did not have the votes to pass “Open Carry” out of the Texas Senate. On cue, talk radio and social media exploded with cries of “recall” and “impeachment.”

And therein lies the great question of the session: As a newly-minted part of the political establishment, can Governor Patrick sidestep or defuse the political inflammation that talk radio – of which he has been a part – has spent more than two decades igniting.

The Lt. Governor has two conflicting constituencies. The first is the inflamed Tea Party-style Republican primary voter who wakes up every morning certain that they have been betrayed or sold out by government and the institutions of civil society. They may not know the specifics of how they have been betrayed, but that does not reduce their certainty.

Talk radio and Fox News (and yes, MSNBC) all play to that sense of certitude. Their mission is to inflame, not inform.

By Harvey Kronberg