Why TX Grassroots Conservatives Are Rebelling #SaveTexas2020
Editorial, JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America – We the People
Commentary published in Texas Scorecard
In a Sunday, June 16 interview with Jason Whitely of WFAA-Dallas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he does not know why there’s criticism coming from some conservative groups in Texas over the results of the 86th regular legislative session.
“I don’t know why they’re disappointed,” Patrick said on WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics. “That’s for them to answer.We consider it a very successful session.”
Well, this is tiresome. From the Governor, Lt. Governor and most Republican legislators, it’s as if a collective amnesia has set in or a case of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Speaker Bonnen is the exception. He doesn’t even pretend not to understand. Bonnen declared he doesn’t give a tinker’s about conservatives, warned Republicans not to challenge each other or Democrats for House seats, and openly supports Democrat Joe Moody for Speaker next session should Democrats take the nine seats they need to take control. Meanwhile, Republican Party of Texas Chairman James Dickey has nothing to say about the Republican Speaker’s open support of Democrats.
Governor Abbott and Lt. Dan know exactly why conservative leaders and activists are not happy with the results of the session. They simply do not care. They worked very hard with Speaker Bonnen to make sure Republican legislators stopped caring about the conservatives back home. Getting along with Democrats and divesting themselves of conservative principles were far more important.
There is no Republican Plan for Legislative Success or for Fiscal Sanity. None. As a result, Texas Republicans are following the path of their counterparts in Washington, DC. The only difference is geography. Just like DC Republicans, Texas Republican legislators repeatedly squander legislative sessions, not using their majority to get long-promised reforms passed. Many of these issues have been talked about for at least the last FIVE legislative sessions (and have appeared longer than that as TX GOP Platform planks), which leads us to conclude that Republican leadership no longer values the grassroots or the values they claimed when running for office. They will continue to lose seats because they fail to do what they promise.
We had a purple legislative session because too many Republican elected officials have turned purple. Now, they are putting Texas at risk in 2020.
For those who cannot seem to grasp the reason behind our discontent, conservative grassroots leaders and activists across Texas are not happy because…
State Government – run by Republicans – is on an unsustainable spending spree. AGAIN – failed to pass spending limits on state government. Republicans grew state spending 12%, spending a $10 billion surplus above and beyond Hurricane Harvey disaster funds. Democrats cheered.
State Government – run by Republicans – supports election fraud. AGAIN – failed to pass paper ballot backup audit trails so that electronic voting can be verified in an election contest. Republicans have controlled all branches of state government since 2003; yet, voter rolls have NEVER been verified! According to numerous news reports and AG cases, illegal aliens, felons and dead people can and do vote. 2020 is around the corner. Republican leaders are doing nothing to protect legal voters.
State Government – run by Republicans – supports public labor unions. AGAIN – failed to stop state assistance in the collection of union dues by automatically deducting them from government employee paychecks. This colossally stupid failure means union dues will once again show up in 2020 campaigns against Republicans.
State Government – run by Republicans – supports taxpayer-funded lobbying. AGAIN – failed to stop the use of tax dollars to fund lobbyists hired by local governments to fight pro-taxpayer reforms. This failure helps drown out the voice of the people – the unheard little guys.
State Government – run by Republicans – refuses to recognize the right of law-abiding citizens to carry handguns without a government permission slip. AGAIN – failed to return gun rights that are recognized in 16 other states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming). This once again proves Texas does not lead on liberty.
State Government – run by Republicans – failed to advance legislation to save the life of preborn babies. Meanwhile, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, and Ohio passed heartbeat bills. Kentucky and Mississippi heartbeat laws, temporarily blocked by a federal court injunction, are headed to a US Appeals Court. Protecting lemonade stands is a noble gesture, but how about fighting for human life? It is shameful that Texas does not lead on life.
State Government – run by Republicans – supports the Left’s attacks on historic monuments. They failed to do anything to protect the Alamo, the Alamo Cenotaph, and other historical monuments from being “reimagined” or removed. We now understand that Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Bonnen – along with 95% of the GOP legislators – do not care one thing about these monuments. They like to invoke the names of our Heroes for Texas Independence as they draw rhetorical lines in the sand, but when it came down to honoring the bravery and sacrifice of our heroes, Republican leaders wouldn’t lift a finger to protect monuments from the rabid Left.
State Government – run by Republicans – passed a Democratic Party Platform initiative – taxpayer funded, all-day pre-K (daycare) for low-income children, including those here illegally. Never mind that multiple studies show no lasting academic results for such programs. Texas Republicans were always opposed to growing government at the expense of parental responsibility – until they weren’t. Democrats cheered.
State Government – run by Republicans – passed another Democratic Party Platform item – Big Nanny State Mental Health legislation. A $100 million psychiatric consortium with connections to the pharmaceutical industry deployed to our community schools puts Texas children at risk of dangerous psychotropic drugging, data mining, and profiling based on family values, religious beliefs, and economic circumstances. Perfectly normal children will be at risk for subjective mental health labels or viewed as potential threats, which can destroy their rights and the rights of their parents. Too much liberty is being risked in the name of preventing school shootings. In the hands of Democrats who hate gun rights, we fear this is the camel’s nose under the tent.
While we wish these legislative results were not true, ignoring the failures changes nothing and endangers Texas. Republicans have energized the Democrats and given them wins to run on!
While Republicans passed some “good intention” bills, far too many bills important to preserving and advancing Texas-style liberty were either killed by Republicans or not filed at all this session. That is how we ended up with a purple session. That is why conservatives are not happy, Lt. Dan and Company.
“What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. What you tolerate, you deserve.” Michelle Malkin
Grassroots America has never supported purple, progressive Republicans who love Big Government if they can be in charge of it. We don’t intend to start now. Texas is at stake.
JoAnn Fleming Executive Director Grassroots America – We the People PAC
A very bad bill will be on the Texas Senate floor later today!
You MUST ACT. NOW!
Downward pressure on your State Senators from statewide Republican officials has them signing on to bills that are big Nanny State expansions that will cost all of us plenty.
SB 10 is one of those bills. It is titled, “Relating to the creation of the Texas Mental Health Care Consortium.”
When EVERY Democrat and EVERY Republican Senator signs on to a low number bill like this, you should understand that means a whole lot of “inside ball” horse-trading has happened.You can bet that it has NOTHING to do with your liberty or saving you money!
“The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions.” A Hand-book of Proverbs, Henry G. Bohn, 1855
Seven reasons we strongly oppose SB 10:
SB 10 infringes on the principle of limited government by creating an expensive new $100 million program that is outside the core functions of state government.
SB 10 will jumpstart exponential growth of unelected bureaucracies. Taxpayer-funded universities and the dysfunctional Health & Human Services Commission will have direct authority over millions more of our tax dollars. We all know that once they are funded to start looking for a problem, they are going to find one. Conflicts of interest from pharmaceutical companies, special interests, and the universities themselves will be unavoidable under this structure.
SB 10 duplicates what is already being done under existing authority. Several Texas medical schools already participate in a mental health consortium that meets quarterly. A new bureaucracy is not necessary to enable further collaboration and coordination of higher education institutions to improve access to mental health care.
SB 10 has a high risk of evolving into a “Red Flag” monitoring program with respect to gun ownership. The 2018 Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Platform Plank #73 opposes red flag monitoring programs that seek to deprive someone of their right to keep and bear arms if their child is identified under mental health programs.
SB 10 has the potential to make mental illness a cottage industry within our schools. The sale or sharing of any information collected in research or counseling for any commercial purpose is an affront to the constitutional liberties of Texas children and families. SB 10 clearly opens Pandora’s Box of unintended consequences.
SB 10 further endangers privacy of parents and their children. It will erode parental authority. Stigma attached to any child misdiagnosed or even inadvertently revealed can severely damage children and their families. Information gathered through research or treatment should not be included in a student’s permanent file, should not be shared in a database, or released without express informed consent of the patient or guardian of the patient. Such sensitive information should be delivered to the parent(s) or legal guardians only and destroyed after the student leaves the school or graduates.
SB 10 is ripe for political agendas and abuse. Indeed, political abuse of psychiatric diagnosis is an important tool in stifling political dissent within socialist countries. Is there any doubt – given today’s headlines – that the Democratic Left intends to push the United States into socialism? Mental health issues are becoming the “go to” tool of choice in today’s political circles and are being used to attack gun ownership and threaten the ability of veterans with a PTSD diagnosis to retain their Second Amendment rights.
We believe that using existing laws and programs to support children with special education conditions, including mental health conditions, can enhance childhood mental health care without creating an expensive new liberty-stealing government bureaucracy.
SB 10 is NOT right for Texas! Texans DO NOT WANT big Nanny-state government.
Nanny State Central Planning mental health care bills are sweeping the nation. If you don’t believe this is a threat, click hereto watch this 7.5 minute video.It will make your blood boil.
His FAKE “Toll Payer Protection Act” is Anti-Taxpayer!
State Rep. Matt Krause, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, just filed a bill that seriously undermines Gov. Greg Abbott’s ‘No toll’ pledge by re-authorizing public private partnership toll roads. These types of toll roads are opposed by both the Texas Republican and Texas Democratic Party platforms. In a very bizarre flip-flop, Matt Krause is now supporting the very toll road schemes he helped us kill last session. What happened?
Texans for Traffic Relief – an Austin lobbying group front – is headed up by a guy who was once a leader in the Young Conservatives of Texas. So what? He now shills for contracting and engineering special interests and has declared war on conservative grassroots activists:
The Big Road Lobby doesn’t like the promises made by Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick, nor the tremendous grassroots support these statewide officials have earned because they’ve stood firm on their campaign pledges for “no more toll roads.”
This FAKE “Toll Payer Protection Act” claims to take the tolls off a road once it’s paid for, but then allows the Transportation Commission to extend the toll every 10 years into perpetuity (forever in gov’t terms)! That’s not toll cessation – it’s toll extension!
This is what our Executive Director has to say about HB 1951. She gets to the heart of the matter by pointing out The Problem our Republican legislators are ignoring as they get all cuddly with the Big Road Lobby:
“We are stunned that Rep. Krause would be convinced by the Big Road Lobby to file a bill that undermines the promises made by Governor Abbott and Lt. Governor Patrick to end toll roads. Rather than supporting a fix to TxDOT’s underlying structural management problems as cited in the 2017 Sunset Advisory Commission’s Report to the 85th Legislature (page 2), the Big Road Lobby continues to wail that there’s just not enough money. As long as TxDOT is ‘not meeting expectations andis not prepared to effectively handle the influx of new transportation funding projected to double over the next decade,” nor has it “met key on-time or on-budget measures for several years,’ there can NEVER be enough money poured into the transportation bureaucracy! We are deeply disappointed in Rep. Krause for filing a fake “toll payer protection” bill that undercuts taxpayers, our Governor, and Lt. Governor in order to appease the road lobby. We call on him to reverse course, and we call on current House authors and co-authors to remove their support immediately.” JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America – We the People PAC and its premier project – the Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition
Texas-style liberty cannot survive if its leaders are driven by pragmatism, which divorced from principles, drives one’s decisions to be based on political expediency (AKA raw fear of losing the next political race).
The media and a myriad of political voices – on both the left and the right – proclaim conservatism on its last legs – if not completely dead in Texas. This prognosis fits their self-focused, self-justifying narratives, which declare our demise – based solely on the results of one mid-term election.
We got their memo; promptly filed it our circular file.
But, since some folks appear to be going all wobbly, we’re reaffirming our principle-based legislative priorities for the current Texas Legislative Session.
Most of these priorities are ones we’ve talked about EVERY legislative session for the past FIVE sessions (you know, back when Republicans had a super majority in the House and a larger majority in the Senate?).
Truth be told, Republicans have had trifecta rule down at the Capitol since 2003. We suggest they stop listening to consultants and listen to the people who hired them at the ballot box…before they go the way of the Dodo bird and are consulted into extinction.
Why We May Not Endorse or Recommend a Candidate in Every Race
The Board of Directors of Grassroots America – We the People sets a very high standard for granting endorsements. Endorsement of a candidate is a serious matter. We don’t make endorsements in order to participate in a popularity contest. We don’t make endorsements based on appeasing interested groups. We thoroughly and intensely vet candidates by checking into their stated qualifications, credentials, training, experience, voting and work records. We hold candidate forums and debates, attend forums held by other organizations, review candidate web sites, questionnaires, Facebook and Twitter postings.
We seek to determine the character, core values, temperament, judgment, management style, and practical vision of the candidates.
We reserve the right NOT to endorse anyone in a particular race if the choices all fail to meet a high standard. We won’t lower our standards to simply check a box.
In the 2018 General Election, for the Commissioner of the General Land Office and Commissioner of Agriculture races, the “on the job” records of the Republican incumbents in these two offices did not meet our endorsement standards for rehire at the ballot box. We did not endorse them in the Primary or the Midterm, based on job performance, state audits, etc. The Democrat and non-party choices also did not meet our standard.
In the judicial races for Texas Supreme Court, Place 6; Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals; and Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals Place 7, none of the judicial candidates met our standards.
Again, we reserve the right NOT to endorse anyone in a particular race if the choices all fail to meet a high standard. We won’t lower our standards to simply check a box. There are plenty of mere box checkers, and that is not who Grassroots America is.
Every voter has an opportunity to decide for themselves to vote in each race or skip some. This is the very essence of personal responsibility.
