Election Day has come and gone, and Texas gubernatorial campaigns across the state are regrouping based on Tuesday’s results.
As a registered voter, I am not very concerned about the status of Texas seats, whose notorious turnover rate toward lobbying has garnered national attention. I am, however, concerned about the fact the upper level of the Republican Party in Texas is going to have quite an internal fight this coming year.
Gov. Rick Perry is running again in what will be a historic campaign; it will be his third run for office.
If he wins, it would amount to 14 years of consecutive service to Texas. Not only will this be quite the accomplishment, but it will be a record in itself. As monopolistic as Texas is, even the previous longest-running governor’s terms were not consecutive.
Of course, this strategic move is not without opposition. Interestingly, Perry’s main opponents at this time are not Democrats. I will not get too detailed since the primaries are not until March. However, I can say that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is the major Republican player vying for the much-desired post under the notion that senators and governors should have term limits.
Indeed, she has been consistent on the term-limit issue but has passed her own proposed benchmark under the excuse she cannot rest until a term-limit bill has passed.
As a Republican, I cannot disagree with either side. The questions posed are very similar to those in Middle Eastern countries, where a continued dynasty can be considered better regardless of how well the land is ruled. Of course, being an American, it is much easier on the conscience to choose the democratic route in an effort to rotate power.
Yet I refuse to choose “sides” when we are still in need of consistent leadership from the very bottom to the very top of the government structure due to war. It seems as though the closest turnover the governor’s seat has seen in the last decade is an apple turnover.
Major moves by Perry in the last decade involved merit-pay for teachers, the Trans-Texas Corridor, a requirement HPV vaccines and deregulation, none of which have made my life any easier. If Perry was trying to teach us students something, it was not through benchmark testing.
I learned far more from a political science professor who constantly complained about his rising electric bill and how his ranch would be under eminent domain than I ever did on the benchmarks, TAKS, SAT, ACT and LSAT combined. Perry succeeded in making us hate standardized tests that waste paper, are not very hard, or have no point in existing at all other than determining which school or teacher receives more money. (Let’s keep the exit test; there’s a purpose for that.)
I suppose Perry did not expect to stay in office long enough to see the kids who were put through all of those to actually come back around and vote for or against him.
Don’t get me wrong, though: I am not a big fan of Hutchison. She started off very quiet, and I liked her in that position. Over time, though, she has become fairly aggressive and that has made me feel uncomfortable. She’s even from South Texas like I am, which would make you think I would lean toward her. Yet, I still feel the switch came too sudden. She may better serve Texas as a senator; I have my reservations.
To an extent, all candidates research what we want to hear and spoon-feed it to us. I do not necessarily blame them; it is their job. However, if a candidate is going to say it, he or she had better be ready to back it up with a vote when it comes down the pipeline. Saying one thing and doing another is not OK, but there are very few entities that have the time and energy to match votes and statements up, many of which may have been cast more than a decade ago.
So, I encourage students and faculty to keep an eye out. I am not sure how nasty the commercials will be this year, but it does not look very promising. There is always a massive effort to brainwash us, and all I can say to that is to conducing independent research on issues brought up along the way.
There are always two stories that flurry around: the true story and the skewered story. What matters in the end, however, is how your life has changed on the last two terms.
Have you fared better or worse because of the direct actions of this particular person?
