A peek at the double life of the Texas Republican Party
[T]he current greatest threat to our individual liberties is overreaching government controls established under the guise of preventing terrorism.
- Texas Republican Party Platform
Yes, Texas has become an overwhelming Republican state. I can't help but wonder, though, if Texas voters have any idea at all what it is that they're supporting. If you were to ask any Republican voter what their party's platform says, I'd wager heavily that you'd get a deer-in-the-headlights blank stare. Were folks to actually read the platform, they'd be in for some surprises.
In opposition to President Bush, his state party insists that Social Security funds "should not be commingled or spent with general revenues or invested in private or public corporate stock." And it adds, Social Security benefits should "be non-taxable," until private pensions replace Social Security.
Talk about abolishing government! The Texas Republican Party wants to terminate the U.S. Department of Education, (there goes Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" hoax), the Internal Revenue Service, along with the elimination of the personal income tax, inheritance tax, corporate income tax, payroll tax and the minimum wage.
That is not all. The party wants to close down the Department of Health and Human Services, Commerce, Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and for good measure, the "position of surgeon general."
There is nothing "compassionate" (or reasonable) about the Conservatism of the Texas Republican Party. This is very much an "I got mine, you're on your own" philosophy written as political ideology. Is this REALLY what your average Texan believes in? I find that prospect difficult to imagine. It would seems the Texas Republican Party has done a masterful job of masking it's true intentions. It's just too bad more people don't know how craven and "out there" their party really is.
