Dennis Nixon is the CEO of the International Bank of Commerce, the ninth biggest bank in Texas, the kind of person the state's Republicans used to listen to. These days, however, he's feeling woefully neglected.

"I personally think it's a disaster," Nixon says, about the legislative session that just ended. "They basically disregarded the business community of Texas, just threw us under the bus."

Nixon is particularly exasperated by the passage of Senate Bill 4, which directs local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration officials in arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants. He says the immigrant workforce is essential to the state's economic health, and that driving them out is self-sabotage.

He pointed to Arizona, where anti-immigration laws drove out workers, created labor shortages and hurt economic growth.

"This could have really serious consequences for Texas," he says. ""My argument is, we have to have these people. They're working already."

It's not just the immigration issue: Nixon is also fuming at the Texas legislature's focus on social issues like abortion and transgender bathroom access, its failure to address high property taxes, and the Trump administration's determination to build a wall on the border with Mexico. He says he's brought these issues up with lawmakers, to no avail.

"I don't get it," Nixon says. "I'm just one guy in the night, screaming."

But Nixon isn't alone. Much of corporate Texas has been disappointed by the state's political establishment. The state's largest business association fought hard against the bathroom legislation and called the sanctuary cities bill "a step back for Texas" that will "hurt the business community and families alike."

The political director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses' Texas chapter, Annie Spilman, put it this way: "In my 17 years at the Capitol, it was up there with — the worst."

So how did it come to pass that Texas started ignoring the voices of the companies that power its prodigious economy?

A thorough answer is beyond the scope of today's analysis. Some of it has to do with the grassroots power of religious conservatives. Some of it has to do with the ideological inflexibility of politicians such as Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, the driving force behind much of the social legislation that passed this session.

Also, Gov. Greg Abbott may be less vulnerable to charges of being anti-business as long as Texas continues to rack up awards like those from Site Selection magazine pronouncing the Lone Star State tops for new products. And as my colleague Ryan Handy has shown, businesses still have tremendous influence with agencies like the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas drilling.

For his part, Abbott denies that anti-immigrant, anti-transgender rights measures are bad for business.

"No amount of misinformation and fear-mongering about a law that keeps dangerous criminals off the street, and that a majority of Texans support, will stop business from thriving in Texas," said Abbott spokesman John Wittman, of the sanctuary cities bill. He also expressed confidence that the bathroom bill wouldn't hurt the state's economy.

"The truth is that businesses look at what is best for their bottom line, and Texas is that place," Wittman says.

Nixon disagrees, and worries that Texas' open-for-business reputation isn't indestructible.

"That's a very slippery slope to get on, when the government disregards the business message, you're really getting yourself into trouble," Nixon says. "Especially if you're a Republican state, you want to retain the business community as a political ally."

Still, businesses are in a little bit of a box: Democrats aren't exactly their cup of tea either, with their preference for higher taxes and tighter regulations.

"They've moved to the left, and gotten so crazy out of whack," Nixon says. "And we've got the Republicans who've moved far to the right, they've gotten crazy out of whack. So we've got to get back to the middle here."

In Texas, as in D.C., it's not clear he has much to look forward to.