A Texas Governor for President
Rick Perry is the current governor of Texas. He has held that position since George W. Bush stepped down in 2000. He started his career in politics as a Reagan Democrat, supporting Al Gore in the presidential primary race of 1988, even chairing the Gore campaign in Texas, before converting to being a Republican in 1989. Currently, Rick Perry is seen as a ‘Tea - Party Favorite,’ which is a highly sought after title for Republicans in this primary process, even having been invited to The Redstate Gathering, where he announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America. And I would say, despite the early blemishes in his record, like voting for a 5.7 billion tax increase while in the Texas Legislature, in 1987, he seemed to fit the Tea-Party bill as I understand it.
Perry touts his ability to create jobs and economic success. He has cut property tax and taxes to small businesses and since 2009, more than forty percent of all net new jobs in America have been created in Texas. These things combined with his intention to repeal Obamacare if elected, and the truth that every budget he has signed has been balanced make him very appealing to fiscal conservatives. Still despite his ‘ability to create jobs‘, as of August 2011, Texas has an unemployment rate of 8.2% and also has the highest percentage of workers paid at or below minimum wage. And while Texas faces these problems, Governor Perry has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into border security and billions into education, while refusing $555 million in stimulus money for unemployment insurance.
My biggest issue with Perry, putting aside his pro-death penalty views and his anti - gay views (and his anti - sodomy) views is his opposition to the seventeenth amendment. How is it that a ‘small - government’ ‘for the people’ candidate could want to take the power of the people to elect their senators and give it back the government?
After scratching the surface, it seems that Perry has a questionable record as a fiscal conservative, a strong record as a social conservative (being against gay marriage, the EPA and being a two tier pro - death candidate [supporting the death penalty and war]) and shows signs of being an elitist in his opposition to the seventeen amendment. So, depending on how the mainstream media treats him, we may see his elitist attitudes and his fiscal blemishes show, or they may try to hide them from us as they hide Karger, Roemer, Johnson and some 180 other candidates from us. Remember that this is your country and the information is free to spread. The choice is yours.
Question Everything,
"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."
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