Going To Texas

There is a lot of buzz about whether or not Rick Perry (aka Governor Goodhair) will run for the Republican nomination for president. He sounds like a reason NOT to move to Texas. Granted, there are nutcases everywhere, but this guy is doubling down on the stupid.

There have been a few posts about him on The Immoral Minority, Dispatches From the Culture Wars and the Texas Freedom Network. I have also read articles elsewhere in which he goes on and on and on about how Texas is “open for business”. (A note to Governor Goodhair: I notice the “Wide Open For Business” website does not mention religion; so why are you pushing religion so much?)

Rick Perry thinks that Texas is doing well because it is good for business. (Why is it that things that are good for business are usually bad for people and bad for the environment?) He thinks that Texas is proof that conservatism works. I think that Governor Goodhair might want to stop and think about that. I think that Texas is partially getting by on its size. I also think that climate has something to do with it. If conservative policies alone are the answer to the world’s problems, then why aren’t people moving to Mississippi or South Carolina? Why do those two states have higher unemployment rates than Illinois?

When I went down to Texas last year, I saw my roommate from University of Illinois in Dallas. I also saw another friend from UIUC in Austin. She said there are a lot of UIUC people in Austin. Instead of bad-mouthing other states, perhaps Governor Goodhair should thank other states for providing Texas with healthy, well-educated workers. It’s not like Texas will be producing a well-educated workforce.

A commenter on The Immoral Minority in Texas said that a lot of the economic growth in Texas is largely due to construction on military bases and along the border with Mexico. I would love to move all the military bases in red states into blue states. Then let’s see all these conservatives grow their economies without all those pesky federal dollars.

Would this guy make a good president? I think not. He cannot grasp the concept that Christians do not have rights in this country that everybody else does not. This is a guy who talked openly about seceding from the USA. As Bill Maher said, can someone be president of the United States if he does not support the concept of the United States? He bad-mouths the federal government, yet used the stimulus to balance his budget. I noticed that articles talking about Texas having a huge deficit only started showing up after the 2010 election. What a coincidence. Plus, as I said, the workers are coming to Texas from other states. If he is president, where will the new workers come from?

Image from Wikimedia

I found a site that looks pretty interesting: The Texas Freedom Network. They also have a blog called “TFN Insider“.  Just going by the name, they sound like one of these conservative wingnut groups that think you are only “free” if you are just like them. I mean, a group in Texas that says it cares about religious freedom. Sounds fishy.

But it looks like they really do care about religious freedom for everyone. According to their site, “The organization has been instrumental in defeating initiatives backed by the religious right in Texas”. Sounds good to me.

Some of the friends listed on their blog include the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, the Center for Progressive Christianity and Sojourners. But if you read the whole list, it gets better: others include the Freedom From Religion Foundation and  the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. So there really ARE sane people in Texas.

One of the stories mentioned on the TFN Insider blog was the buzz that Rick Perry (aka Governor Goodhair). I was going to comment on that, but I decided that I may leave it for later. It seems like the talk of him running has suddenly died down.

Image from Texas Freedom Network website