Counterfeit Conservatives

No more than twenty percent of Texans are liberal; yet almost fifty percent of the Texas House is Democratic. It is unreasonable to think that the liberal ideals of the Democratic Party appeal to almost half of Texans—and the Democrats know that. That is why many Democratic representatives in Texas campaign under the guise of moderate (or even conservative!) principles; it’s the only way they’ll get elected—and they know that. But moderate Democratic campaigns rarely result in moderate representatives, even if the legislator really is somewhat moderate. No matter what any given Democrat may believe, the Party is a liberal party at its core; and the true, unabashed liberals have a firm majority in the caucus. No matter what most “conservative” Democrats may say on the campaign trail, they end up voting with the liberal majority within their party. The examples are plentiful. Farabee, Heflin, McReynolds, Hopson, Homer, and Ritter, all Democrats who campaigned as “moderates” or “conservatives” to appeal to voters in their largely conservative districts, all said they supported the conservative initiative in favor of voter ID; but when push came to shove, they were silent on the disgraceful five day, liberal filibuster against it! Texans deserve better. 

How do these fake conservatives get elected? It is not enough to say they are clever, or they worked hard to fool the voters. We must also accept our part of the blame. Texans vote for pseudo-conservative Democrats only when they are lacking a strong, truly conservative alternative. It is the responsibility of the Republican Party of Texas to help identify, support, and promote those candidates. Where they are lacking, we are lacking as a Party. We must provide Texas voters with conservative candidates they deserve; the voters want them; and when they don’t find them, they will vote for the next best thing: a counterfeit conservative. 

Texas is a conservative state; conservatives should win almost every election in Texas; the Republican Party is the only conservative party in Texas; it follows that Republicans should win almost every election in Texas. When we don’t, it is not only the fault of the opposition, but it is our fault also. We have failed to make plain and visible our conservative ideals, especially as opposed to the liberal ideals of the so-called “conservative” Democrats. We don’t have to sell the conservative philosophy in Texas, Texans already believe it. We just need to give them candidates to believe in. We need to prove to them that the Republican Party is already their Party. To accomplish that, we need to ensure that voters are aware of the distinctions between the parties, and that conservative voters are not electing liberal legislators. We owe it to Texans to provide them with honest, capable, consistently conservative candidates—let’s give the voters what they want!