EDITORIAL
Our newly re-elected governor continues to spout off about his cockeyed version of American history, consistently proving that he must have been concentrating on the latest cheerleader routines rather than paying attention in his Aggie American and Texas history classes.
Almost a year ago he began spouting off how maybe it was time to secede from the Union because he was tired of all the socialistic federal laws that have been passed since the days of Franklin Roosevelt. He compared himself most flatteringly to Sam Houston, the best by far of all who dwelled in the Governor’s mansion. (That was before it burned down while our current incumbent was off on some meaningless but expensive overseas jaunt.)
Give him a D- on that comparison. Sam was a Unionist through and through. He was a staunch ally of Andy Jackson, who stood up to John Calhoun and his South Carolinian cronies when they tried to nullify laws they didn’t like. Houston stood bravely in favor of Texas staying in the Union in 1861, finally being removed from office because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America.
Now our Guv is busy proving he must have been taking a long nap when he took the second half of American history. Several times lately he has gotten off on a screed about how the Income Tax is a creation of Woodrow Wilson, whose dream of a League of Nations didn’t quite succeed, but who is acknowledged by most presidential historians as one of the better men to hold that position.
Of course, the first income tax goes back to the Civil War, and was instituted by Abe Lincoln, the first and greatest of the Republican presidents.
It came back to life in the 20th century, but its daddy that time was Theodore Roosevelt, by far the greatest of the Grand Old Party’s 20th century presidents.
This “blame everything on Woodrow Wilson game” originated from that great scholar Glenn Beck who performs on a regular basis on Fox News (when he’s not off in the corner weeping and wailing).
Let’s put things in perspective. Did the federal government mistreat folks like our governor, who grew up in Haskell County, a ranching and farming area with a population of about 6,000?
Over the last 80 years our national government created social security for all Americans, including Texans. Country folk finallly got electricity – like city slickers already had for a couple of decades. It came through subsidized government electric cooperatives.
In Lyndon Johnson’s presidential period, Medicare was established and today the aging populace in Hays and Haskell counties, along with the other 252 counties in Texas, have health services that were wanting for most people of modest income during he first 180 years of our country.
In the 1950s, thanks to the support of Dwight Eisenhower, we built the interstate highway system that enabled everyone to travel nationwide with much more safety and speed. Here in Texas, Governor Dolph Briscoe, with both state and federal funds, brought us farm-to-market roads that killed dust in the summer and mud in the winter, and almost instantly doubled the values of rural property.
We got government crop subsidies to stabilize the agriculture industry and federal guarantees against banks going broke and absconding with depositors’ money. More aid came our way with federally backed loans for students whose families couldn’t afford to totally support their kids’ college educations.
For the most part, these laws have advanced our country far ahead of where it was when many folk, including our governor, were born. Has there been too much irresponsible and unwarranted federal spending? Certainly! And ditto for state expenditures, too. But to label most of the aid rendered as anything less than beneficial is an indication of mindless partisanship or, let’s face it, downright ignorance.
We should not turn the state and national asylum over to the inmates, even if they have been recently elected. But these are tough times, and excessive partisanship or blind dislike for current or deceased political leaders wastes both time and energy.
Our governor also needs to come down to earth, and quit dipping his toes into national political waters that may be over his head. That is, unless he wants to follow in Sarah Palin’s footsteps and resign and start Tweeting and Facebooking with all the other aspirants who would rather talk than govern.
