Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

In Defense of Statesmenship

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I have been, and continue to be, unabashedly pro Trump. For all the good he has done one glaring weakness flows from him to the GOP: the democrats have room to argue they represent the moral high ground. It’s a flawed argument that only plays well with their base and the “social justice warrior Jesus” crowd, but the media will gladly promote the flawed narrative that the democrats have the moral high ground.

Statesmanship is like chivalry, a noble concept that enriches all who follow the discipline… and is a faint vestage of times past. As we follow the democrats in losing statesmanship we erode one buttress in the warrant that we hold the moral high ground. A good definition of statesmanship is found in The Art of Manliness’ excellent article discussing what constitutes statesmanship. 

Do the philosophical intangibles matter in politics? Sure they do. A background argument regarding who holds the moral high ground wouldn’t be taking place if they didn’t matter. But, more importantly, do the higher order intangibles like statesmanship matter? Absolutely.

Politics at it’s essence is the battle for hearts and minds, and we are fighting from a disadvantage. The social elite are, by and large, left of center. So, too, the media. Although time and experience tend to moderate the leftist message that is pervasive in the media and institutions of higher learning; the struggle we face is accelerating the process and combating the tenticles that spread from the leftist message.

The unformed conscience can recognize when words and deeds do not align. That’s what made Trump’s “grab them” comment damaging in addition to repugnant. Anyone who sat back and objectively looked at the statement in the context of what values we hold as a party can see it’s irreconcilable. The floodgates for arguing who has the moral high ground opened.

We can’t afford to add self inflicted wounds on top of what has been placed before us. As the poisonous tenticles of the left propagate into areas such as the church in the form of social justice warrior Jesus the battle for hearts and minds comes to us and we must defend.

Our remedy is to better form the conscience so the importance of the Hierachy of Truth is better understood, expand the tent to replace those we have lost, or take the battle for hearts and minds to areas that have been traditionally sympathetic to the left to capture those who really are aligned with us but do not know what we actually stand for. Prudece dictates some degree of action in all three areas.

If we aren’t the party with the big tent we are a party in trouble. Just as cement is useless without other materials the philosophical ideals of the party need other considerations to be useful. If only sand is added to cement mortar is the result. Adding in coarse and fine aggregate along with the sand turns cement into concrete, not mortar.

Empower Texans and fiscal moderates both add value to the party. Having only one makes the party mortar – the philosophical ideology will hold together, but can’t be used as a base of strength from which the party can grow and flourish. Both sides of the rural-urban divide add strength. The ongoing hostilities between the various factions within the party is where the weakness lies.

Which brings us to Straus. I am glad he chose not to seek re-election, and would have been in favor of censure if he were running again. However, when he elected to not seek re-election that should have been the end of the saga.

We hold ourselves out as holding the moral high ground and as the party who values human dignity. Censure after the fact doesn’t fall within those beliefs and doesn’t fit within the bedrock of principles or moral compass upon which we base our beliefs. The lack of statesmanship exhibited perpetuates the false narrative that we are the party of extremists rather than the party of the common good. This self inflicted wound will do more to weaken the party than to strengthen.

Oust Straus caucus still whining after winning

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When is a win not a win? When you are dealing with the Oust Straus crowd in Texas politics. From Scott Braddock in the Quorum Report:

House Republicans create process for selecting speaker nominee, starting with a two-thirds support threshold

Caucus adopted the new rule unanimously. The threshold for support of a speaker candidate is reduced to three fifths if it’s down to two members and two thirds can’t be achieved by either of them

(click here to read Braddock’s report on QuorumReport.com $$$)

Let’s recap. Speaker Joe Straus has decided to retire. The House GOP caucus has voted unanimously to move Texas politics away from the Texas Constitution and mirror the way the Swamp (Washington, D.C.) works. Because, you know, it works so well. To a rational person, it would appear that the Oust Straus folks in Texas have won the day. Key word: rational. From the headquarters of Oust Straus:

HOUSE GOP CAUCUS FAILS TO ADOPT MAJORITY-VOTE POLICY

In a stunning failure Friday, the Texas House GOP Caucus adopted a process for selecting a speaker candidate that is out of step with the Republican platform.

In recent months, GOP activists have urged House Republicans to adopt a process whereby they would unite around a candidate for Speaker. The move is designed to end a decade-long practice in which a minority of Republican legislators have partnered with Democrats to elect the chamber’s leader.

In September, the State Republican Executive Committee adopted a resolution stating “[T]he Republican Party of Texas expects Republican House Candidates in 2018 to indicate to the Republican Primary voters whether they will support the Republican Speaker candidate who wins the majority of the votes in the Republican Caucus.”

Until Friday, the only process proposed publicly by a working group of GOP legislators fit the party’s call by using a majority-vote threshold in order to select a nominee for Speaker. However, according to reports, only a small handful of the legislators voted against a last-minute amendment to raise the threshold to two-thirds and to allow for potentially unlimited rounds of balloting.

In other words, Republican legislators failed to honor the requests of GOP activists and voters to allow a majority of Republican lawmakers to nominate the next Speaker of the Texas House.

(click here to read the post by Tony McDonald on EmpowerTexans.com)

Braddock also had this:

Of course, it is still true that none of this would be binding on the members once they walk out onto the Texas House floor to cast their vote for speaker.

“If a member chooses to go their own way at that point, that’s their cross to bear,” said one Republican.

That’s because of that pesky thing called the Texas Constitution, which says this about electing a Speaker of the House:

Article 3, Section 9, (b) The House of Representatives shall, when it first assembles, organize temporarily, and thereupon proceed to the election of a Speaker from its own members.

Pretty amazing to me that the same people that scream every day about draining the swamp in Washington, D.C. want to move it to Austin, TX.

What does this mean in reality, assuming that all of the Republicans stick together and ignore the traditional interpretation of the Texas Constitution, which allows all members a vote regardless of their party affiliation? In practical terms it means that a minority of the elected representatives in the state could control the House. Ross Ramsey wrote about this in the Texas Tribune back in August.

Analysis: The tyranny of the minority

Changing the rules, however, could put someone other than an establishment Republican like Straus in the speaker’s chair. Whichever GOP faction controls, the next speaker could be “representing” a House where 102 members — the rest of the Republicans and the 55 Democrats — wanted someone else in the top spot.

That seems contrary to the name of the institution. If you’re comparison-shopping, it’s a move that would make the state House more like the federal House, which already relies on parties to choose their leaders. The Democrats, in particular, would have no investment in the political leadership of the House if the leader was chosen by a Republican bloc: That’s a recipe for stalemates.

(click here to read the article on TexasTribune.com)

When Ramsey wrote that, he used the Empower Texans preferred method of a simple majority of GOP members. And he assumed that there would still be 95 GOP members at the beginning of the 86th session. With the rules adopted using the 2/3rd / 3/5th process, it would take 64 or 57 members, either of which would still be a minority of the 150 House members.

Some would say that the tyranny of the minority is an apt description of what has become of Texas government because so few Texans participate in the primary process. If people really, truly want change, then the majority of Texas voters will have to start voting in the primary. Or, if you really, truly want a mess, vote for the Democratic ticket. After all, if you want it to be a swamp, why go swamp lite?

Texas Democrats assault Republican legislator

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sb4 poncho nevarez

Well, the 85th session of the Texas Legislature ended in high style yesterday with two or three Texas Democratic Representatives physically assaulting Republican Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-115). Here is a video from Rep. Gene Wu (D-137) showing the ‘peaceful protest’ that started it all:


Did you hear the Democrats clapping and cheering on the ‘protesters’? This is what passes for ‘peaceful’ for today’s Democrats – disrupting the people’s House and fighting with Texas Department of Public Safety Officers while Democratic elected officials cheer them on.

Rep. Ramon Romero, Jr. (D-90) acknowledged that the group of Democratic legislators were ‘celebrating’ the ‘peaceful protests’:

As Reps. Cesar Blanco, Phil Cortez, and myself celebrated the enthusiasm for civic engagement being shown, Rep. Rinaldi felt the need to break up our appreciation by telling us he had called ICE to deport the protestors in the gallery. Our reactions were honest.

So we have a group of Democratic elected officials encouraging, cheerleading and celebrating the disruption of the House and fighting with DPS officers. Wonderful.

Then what happened? The entire session has been filled with hatred towards a few Texas Republican representatives, with Democrats constantly calling them racist and bigoted.  The celebration of lawlessness by Democratic elected officials apparently was too much and Rep. Rinaldi finally had enough. When he saw signs proclaiming “I am illegal and here to stay.” and Democratic elected officials cheering them on, he decided to do something about it. He called the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and advised them that there were people illegally in the country in the balcony in House chambers.

Today, Representative Poncho Nevarez threatened my life on the House floor after I called ICE on several illegal immigrants who held signs in the gallery which said “I am illegal and here to stay.” Several Democrats encouraged the protestors to disobey law enforcement. When I told the Democrats I called ICE, Representative Ramon Romero physically assaulted me, and other Democrats were held back by colleagues. During that time Poncho told me that he would “get me on the way to my car.” He later approached me and reiterated that “I had to leave at some point, and he would get me.” I made it clear that if he attempted to, in his words, “get me,” I would shoot him in self defense. I am currently under DPS protection. Several of my colleagues heard the threats made and witnessed Ramon assaulting me.

Apparently Rep. Nevarez (D-74) has never heard the government’s directive: “see something, say something“.

So if you see something you know shouldn’t be there—or someone’s behavior that doesn’t seem quite right—say something.

So Rep. Rinaldi sees someone flaunting the fact that they are here illegally. He sees them breaking the law by fighting with Texas troopers. He calls ICE to report the problem. Nevarez says them are fighting words:

Nevárez‏ told BuzzFeed News that he pushed Rinaldi after hearing him tell a group of about four Latino lawmakers “Fuck them, I called ICE on them.” They both started screaming at each other and that’s when Nevárez‏ told Rinaldi they should take it outside.

“I did push him. Where I’m from, those are fighting words,” Nevárez‏ told BuzzFeed News. “We should never condone pushing and shoving but the guy asked for it…I put my hands on him because he needed to get out of there.”

Nevárez‏ said he was shocked to hear that Rinaldi said he would shoot him in self-defense because he never threatened his life.

While the protestors broke decorum by shouting and disrupting the session, Nevárez‏ said the response shouldn’t be to call ICE on a group of brown people.

“How low and sniveling do you have to be to that kind of person, that guy is lower that rattler piss?” Nevárez‏ said. “We need to get these protestors motivated to not just come out to disrupt the chamber but come out to vote.”

What a guy, eh? He admits he pushed and shoved him but hey, he asked for it, right? After all, seeing something and saying something doesn’t count if the person breaking the law is brown. No, that’s only for….who? Pink skin? Black skin? Olive skin? Do we need to consult a brown person before saying something after we see something?

Of course the left is celebrating their new heroes because that is what the left does. Hypocrisy, thy name is Texas Democrat. But about that being motivated to vote thing? You might want to ask President Clinton about that one. Oh wait…..

 

Post 2016 Texas Primary Election quick thoughts

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The 2016 Texas primary election came early this year. And for once we had an impact on the presidential race.

About that presidential race, Ted Cruz held serve in his home state. Don’t believe the reports that it was a bad night for him because he didn’t get 50{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} +1 and take all of the delegates. He did very well and out-performed the polls and picked up Oklahoma. The Trump wave continues but perhaps Cruz’s win slows it a bit. Rubio was a disappointing third in Texas, failing to reach the magic 20{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} mark statewide but had a better than expected night overall. There is still time to stop Trump.

The most satisfying race of the night for me was for Texas House District 121. In that race, Speaker Joe Straus destroyed his two opponents who had raised a combined $710,000 to defeat him. Here is his victory statement:

“I want to thank the people of District 121 for their tremendous support and confidence. I’m proud of the campaign we ran and the positive message we delivered. A couple of people who live far away from here once again tried to take this seat from our community, and they have once again failed. Voters showed that angry rhetoric and dishonest ads are no match for a well-organized campaign that looks to a brighter future. It is an honor to represent the people of District 121 and I will continue to work tirelessly and gladly on their behalf.”

What it boils down to is this: represent the people of your district well and you don’t have to worry about outside agitators and outright liars. Congratulations Speaker Straus.

And did you see what Briscoe Cain did? He came very close to winning outright in HD128 against longtime incumbent Wayne Smith. Instead he will be in a runoff with Smith in May. And he did it despite being outspent 5-1. As a reminder of who Briscoe is:

Like I said above, if you represent your district, you have no need to worry about opposition. Clearly, Wayne Smith has not represented his district, opting instead to do the work of Austin lobbyists. That can be clearly seen on his campaign finance reports. The reason Briscoe Cain almost won this race is because he worked hard,  shook thousands of hands, went through several pairs of shoes, looked people in the eye and they believed him when he told them he would represent them and their values.

In Harris County, there were some disappointing results for several judicial candidates that I respect. Unfortunately the votes went the other way. It happens. But there were also races where the votes went to the candidates I respect. The contested judicial races always produce unexpected results.

In the Harris County Attorney’s race, Jim Leitner bested my choice Chris Carmona. But like I said earlier, this was a hard choice and the voters simply chose experience over potential. Leitner will be a positive change for that office and I can’t wait to vote for him in November against uber partisan hack incumbent Vince Ryan.

In the Harris County Sheriff’s race, I was confident that Ron Hickman would win but he exceeded my expectations. Maybe the lesson here is that negative campaigning doesn’t work against an extremely qualified candidate. And btw, can we put to rest the notion that we need a “constitutional” sheriff to protect us from the dastardly federales?

In the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector’s race, Mike Sullivan proved that if you are good at what you do and focus on the needs of your constituents, you don’t need to worry about self-appointed watchdogs. And now he has a sheepskin on the wall to prove that he really can walk and chew gum at the same time.

And then the one that everyone seems surprised by but shouldn’t be. In the Harris County Republican Party Chair race, incumbent Paul Simpson came in second. That’s right. Second. The establishment’s choice came in second.

And he came in second after spending $183,645.24 in this election cycle to keep an unpaid position. His two opponents combined spent $25,000. Think about that.

Now the question is whether Simpson will think about what happened or will he, as is already being said by his supporters, blame his loss on the “pay to play” endorsement slates? If he blames his loss on the “pay to play” endorsement slates, I think he’ll lose the runoff. If he steps back and thinks more clearly about the situation, perhaps he’ll come up with a plan to reach out to the 60+{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the people that voted against him and adjust his attitude towards them. We’ll have to wait and see. I assure you we’ll be writing about it here.

And the last thing about yesterday’s election is to send a huge thank you to Richard, Nancy, Ron, and Kathy. These were the folks that helped me run the election in precinct 377. We had the largest turnout ever for a primary election in our precinct, almost doubling the previous high. And although the lines were long at times, no one complained and we had no problems. Thank you!

 

Republicans again elect Joe Straus as Speaker of the Texas House

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Speaker Joe Straus
Speaker Joe Straus

So much for the “speaker’s race” in Texas. Of course, you already knew that there was no speaker’s race if you have been tuned in here because I told you that months ago.

In case you missed it, Rep. Joe Straus was re-elected Speaker by the Republicans in the Texas House. That’s right, by the Republicans. There were 96 Republicans that voted yesterday and 77 of them voted for Rep. Straus. And 76 is the magic number.

Why do I stress that and what does it mean? I stress it because the “oust Straus” goons repeatedly say that he is elected by Democrats. It means that these folks are going to have to admit that they are wrong. Well, not really because they never will. But the plain fact of the matter is that not one single Democratic vote meant anything in yesterday’s voting. The fact that all of the Democrats voted for Speaker Straus was merely icing on the cake.

Speaker Joe Straus was elected by Republicans. Republicans who care about their districts and the state more than they care about fringe ideology. Republicans that are authentic conservatives, not populists, secessionists, libertarians, grandstanders, or sycophants.

Put that in your hat and stuff it.

 

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!

Wow, time flies! 2015 is here and has started with a bang in the political world. We’ve been kind of slow posting around here and instead of telling you why and we’ll do better, I’ll send you over to Mark Bennett’s Defending People and let him tell you. Go ahead, click over, it is well worth the read to remind us of what truly matters in life. Well, except the prime rib: I’m more of a brisket/ribs/pulled pork kind of guy!

Speaking of starting out with a bang, the US House chose Rep. John Boehner to be Speaker again yesterday. I think that is probably a good thing because I think Boehner has done a better job than he gets credit for. We’ll see how he performs now that the Senate should be able to help. I would say that I’m disappointed in my new representative, Dr. Brian Babin, for not having the courage to vote either way but I knew going in that he would be a weak rep, which is why I voted for Ben Streusand in the primary. Voting “Present” was the worst vote he could have made. Heck, why didn’t he just stay home?

The Texas Legislature starts up its 84th session next Tuesday and once again, Rep. Joe Straus will be picked to lead the House. I think that the way he handled the attackers this year was good for all of Texas. Instead of staying back and letting them attack at will, he went out and got early commitments from the vast majority of Republican legislators, pretty much shutting down any real opposition. Oh sure, the attackers are keeping it up and that tiny fraction of activists are very loud, but as I said way back, there is no speakers race.

One of the best things to come from the attacks on Speaker Straus is that it actually raises the profile of Straus. November Republicans roll their eyes at the charges that Straus is “liberal” or against the pro-life movement. Anyone that has lived in Texas more than a few months knows that isn’t true. Be it our low state spending levels or the fact that we have some of the toughest laws on abortion in the country, the charges simply do not pass any type of sanity test.

If the Straus attackers would put just a fraction of their energy into learning how to pass legislation and how to get along with others in the sandbox, they’d be light years ahead of where they are now.

The vitriolic rhetoric that passes for political debate these days is disheartening. I’ve seen both Republicans and Democrats calling each other evil. We seem to forget the fact that those “evil” people are our neighbors, co-workers, fellow worshipers, and friends. Perhaps 2015 will see a reawakening by the vast number of people that don’t engage in these tactics and will produce bi-partisan legislation that enhances our lives. After all, wasn’t the sequestration idea originally a Democratic idea? For those of us that are fiscal conservatives, it worked out great. And wasn’t the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) originally an idea that came out of the Heritage Foundation? No single party or person can claim to always have the “best” legislation.

One of the things that we are going to do here a BJP this year is host a series of non-partisan educational forums. Our first one is this coming Monday, January 12th, from 11:30 – 1:00 pm at Stag’s Head Pub in the Montrose area. The speaker will be Steve Lonegan, former US Senate candidate in New Jersey. Mr. Lonegan will be presenting Fix the Dollar’s plan for sound monetary policy.

2015 should be a fun year for political junkies in Texas and in Harris County. The 84th session will be entertaining if nothing else. The City of Houston open mayoral race will be like a wild west show. Harris County Commissioner’s Court might decide what to do with the Astrodome.

But don’t forget about Mark’s post. Do whatever makes you happy and brings you joy, be it golf or tennis, bbq or prime rib, or quiet date nights with your spouse!

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the folks at Fix the Fed have cancelled their trip to Texas, so the meeting will not happen. We will continue to search for speakers that bring insight to today’s politics.