Texas Legislative Keep Away

Robert West | May 30, 2021

For 20 years elected Republicans have held majorities in Texas. For those 20 years Democrats have picked the Republican Speaker of the House every time.

During those 20 years imitation conservatives have been playing a sick game of “keep away” with Texas voters.

The 2021 session was another example of Texas Legislative keep away.

You see, there are big political “donations” for doing things voters hate. These same donations are also there for ignoring what voter’s want.

You don’t show up to a ball game and slip the referee a bribe, so they call a fair game.

The problem we face is greater than career politicians who are more concerned with the next election than what you or I want.

As voters, we have to take responsibility for allowing this to continue and admit that we have been fooled.

Nobody Wants to Admit They’ve Been Fooled

People hardly vote and voters hardly pay attention, some just get tired of the game and walk away.

The papers are more interested in advertising revenue than informing people and nobody wants to admit they’ve been fooled.

Con artists and bad politicians have long careers because those that have been taken are too embarrassed to report the crime or spread the news.

There was a guy that had plastic wands made with a beeper, a button and a battery.

He had them made in China for a few bucks and sold them as gun detectors.  Who did he sell these to and why was he in business for five years?

He sold them to sheriffs and chiefs of police for $500 each and he sold a lot of them.

It was five years before a cop that had been tricked into buying them cared more about what was right than how stupid he looked.

When the Elected Switched Parties

When Texas Republicans first took power 20 years ago, many elected officials switched parties. Not because they believed in conservatism but because they believed in staying elected.

These politicians and their replacements promised voters to pass conservative laws but “Darn, those pesky Democrats won’t let us.”

They told us, “You need to work harder and you will get what you want.”

When Republicans gained control of the State House, Senate and the Governor’s Mansion these same legislators put Democrats in charge of committees.

They placed items they did not want passed in these committees where those bills died. “Those pesky Democrats, you voters need to vote them all out.”

• WHO put those Democrats in charge of committees?
• WHO put bills we conservatives wanted into those committees?
• WHO voted for the Speaker that did these things?

Running out of Time

The next thing they will blame is “Running out of time.” The State legislature meets for 140 days every other year.

Have you ever wondered why they don’t show up with bills already written? It’s like the first day of the session came as a complete surprise.

They had a year and a half notice and they waited until the session started to “craft” their legislation?

• “Reelect me and I will get it done next time, I promise.”

140 days to get things done and they put in less than two hours in session for each of those days. I have worked more than a hundred hours in a week, for a job that was not nearly as important.

WHO votes at day 51 to take SIX days off? They showed up empty handed, worked 12 hours in 51 days and then voted themselves a six-day weekend.

Now they want to claim they ran out of time?

The Conservative Legislative Priorities

Every self-described conservative in the Texas House and Senate voted for every conservative piece of legislation but only two of those items made it to the Governor’s desk.

Folks, that does not happen by itself.

• The House delayed Senate bills to speed up the Senate.
• The Senate retaliated and slowed down House bills to speed up the House.

News flash, those were the voters' bills they were having a staring contest over, not theirs.

News flash number two, most of these clowns were given generous donations to make sure none of these bills got passed.

The weasels in the Senate blame the House and the weasels in the House blame the Senate.

Not only are they lying to you, they want you to admire them for “standing up,” when all they were doing was slowing down progress until they ran out of time.

Now that this session is over you can see a lot of the “hair on fire” conservative candidates got nothing done.

Very little that you wanted got accomplished and now they’re dangling a special session in front of you.

They are promising this time, with a double-dog-dare pinkie swear that they will do what you have wanted them to do for 20 years.

Done with Keep Away

How old were you when you figured out that “keep away” was not a fun game for the person wanting the item but a blast for the bigger, sadistic kids?

How long before you will not only admit to yourself that they have made a fool of you but admit it to those around you?

Thousands of Texans have called, written, visited, protested, posted and testified.

You and I can beat our head against the wall until one of them cracks, but we cannot get bad people to do good things.

We need to find good people to send to Austin to represent us.

All of us are imperfect, so perfect is not the goal, just better.

Don’t tell me the collection of Elected Republicans in Austin is what you want the world to imagine all Texans are like.

A representative should be someone you want to represent you, to stand in your place, to do mostly what you would do if you were there making the vote.

If your elected representative is not that, then find another, even if it is yourself.

If you are still jumping while they lift what you want just a little bit higher, enjoy yourself.

I am done playing keep away and will admit to one and all that I have been fooled.

We need to find a better representation for Texas and we need to start looking now.

Robert West