Perry-weary Texans brace for another four years of the state’s longest-serving governor, as many are wondering if he’s posturing for the White House. Republican Rick Perry won his third term over Democrat Bill White with just over 55 percent of the popular vote in the November 2 midterms.
The constitution of the Lone Star State established a rather weak governorship, but many Texans say they’d never know it now. Back in the Sixties, although there was only one Republican county among 254 in Democrat Texas, the political climate was much more conservative than it is now with a powerful establishment Republican governor at the helm.
The day after Perry’s victory he released his book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America From Washington. According to a story in the November 4 Dallas News about the governor’s media tour to promote the book, Perry “runs from TV studio to TV studio — to say he’s not running for president.” The book outlines Perry’s case for dismantling the federal government and returning power to the states. He’s appeared on "Fox & Friends" and Glenn Beck’s radio program. Though Perry denies any presidential aspirations, the Dallas News is of the opinion that his actions are those of a candidate.
On "NBC Today," Perry assured Meredith Vieira that he is not running for President, claiming he already has "the best job there is [governor of Texas]." Anyone with presidential ambitions, he pointed out, wouldn’t bash Washington as he does in his book. “Governors, Republican or Democrat, should say ‘leave us alone’ and push back at Washington," he asserted. "The government that’s closest to the people is the best government.”
But the November 4 New York Times agrees with the Dallas News about Perry’s presidential aspirations, observing that the book tour has given him a national platform and made him look and act like a candidate, in spite of his claims to the contrary. TheTimes noted that “whispers grew louder in Texas last weekend when he declined to commit to serving out his four-year term.”
When asked about his book, Perry asserted, “We’ve got to get back to fiscal conservatism, that’s what people want.” What would he cut in the budget? He replied, “Earmarks.
Perry proposes to rein in federal power and spending on every front, leaving most questions up to the states:
We are fed up with being overtaxed and overregulated. We are tired of being told how much salt we can put on our food, what windows we can buy for our house, what kinds of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kinds of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what political speech we are allowed to use to elect candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what kind of food we can grow, what doctor we can see, and countless other restrictions on our right to live as we see fit.
The Times continued:
Mr. Perry takes on several sacred cows. He says the constitutional amendments establishing the federal income tax and allowing the popular election of Senators were mistakes. The Social Security system, he writes, is essentially a "Ponzi scheme."
“This country needs to ‘cowboy up,’ as I said in the book, and have this conversation,” he said in the Times interview. “That’s what I’m interested in doing.”
About cowboying up: many Texans have never accused Perry of having "hat hair." They are still fuming over his 2007 mandate that young girls be forcibly vaccinated against STDs, for free if they couldn’t afford it. Perry bypassed the legislature, issuing an executive order for the vaccinations and circumventing the will of a majority of Texans.
And though he’s right about Social Security being a Ponzi scheme, Perry can’t forget the shellacking he took over the Trans Texas Corridor and its proposed financing. Certainly Texans haven’t forgotten it. While the Texas Department of Transportation claims the corridor is “dead,” the facts reveal a different story. Perry himself has asserted that the corridor "will be built" — it will just be done incrementally.
Governor Perry welcomed the socialist Public-Private Partnerships to fund the Corridor, a huge transportation behemoth that would facilitate the integration of Canada, Mexico, and the United States into a North American Union. The scheme has already piratized land along the proposed Corridor by the use of eminent domain.
Rick Perry also attended an invitation-only, secretive Bilderberg meeting during the 2007 legislative session of Texas. It was after his return from that gathering that he vetoed the Corridor-killing bill passed by the state legislature.
Many Texans are asking if these are really the actions of a small-government, fiscal conservative. Perhaps they are Fed Up!
Photo of Gov. Rick Perry: AP Images
