Texas Monthly Left Out Once upon a time, liberals like the late Billie Carr changed texas politics for the better. Now you can't even find a liberal—except in a republican TV ad.

In the end, what makes Billie Carr worthy of a place in the mythical Texas Politics Hall of Fame is that she offers us an important lesson for our time: Politics matters. We live in a cynical age, when participation is low and passions are lower still. At a time when most of the people who are involved in political combat are money-grubbing hired guns who are as cynical as the voters, she stands as someone who cared deeply about politics and stood to gain nothing—except to remake the world, committee by committee, precinct by precinct, and convention by convention.

Will the fight to save the democratic republic from the new imperialists provide a unifying banner for liberals?