There should be a notice to all state and local Republican Party leaders, that GOP Party supporters do not exist to serve the will of the Party, but rather the Party should reflect their politics. If it doesn’t then the Party must change or fail.
For example, Texas house speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) and his Party supporters have shown an antagonism toward grassroots conservatives by ignoring and dismissing several state legislative bills that were based on the state Republican platform, such as the “Privacy bill”. The Platform was crafted by a majority of Party activists who were grassroots conservatives.
Texas grassroots conservatives have been loyal to the Republican Party and given them a political majority in the state government. In fact, they have made it the most Republican state in the union.
Since 1994, every statewide elected office has been held by a Republican. After the 2010 elections, Republicans held a super-majority of 101 Republican representatives in the 150-member body Texas state House, but that number has dwindled only slightly to 99 out of 150 seats. In the Texas state Senate, Republicans hold 20 of 31 seats after the after the 2014 elections.
At the federal level, the Texas congressional delegation is composed of 24 Republicans and 12 Democrats, and both of its U.S. Senators, Ted Cruz and Majority Whip John Cornyn, are Republicans. The last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Texas was Jimmy Carter in 1976.
However, despite all the gains, the Republican Party seems have failed their supporters. At the state level, speaker Straus, the third most powerful Republican in the state, has been an impediment to the conservative legislative agenda. Straus has stated that he does not support the state GOP platform, and he has blocked important conservative legislation.
At the national level, John Cornyn, the senior senator, serves as the Senate Majority Whip whose role is to gather votes on major issues. However, Cornyn has failed to gather votes on the repeal of ObamaCare, even though that ssue has been the rallying cry for Republicans for the past seven years.
Texas Republicans owe grassroots conservatives for their party’s success, and as the late University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal used to say, “you need to dance with who brought you to the dance.” Unfortunately, some of the Republican elected officials seem to forget who brought them to the dance.
With the Republican Party in control of every major state wide office in Texas, and in control of the presidency and congress in D.C., failing to deliver on the “will of the people” who put them power to represent them is not an option or tolerable.
Republicans in Washington must repeal ObamaCare, and those in Austin must pass legislative bills proposed by Texas governor Greg Abbott. They should also remove Straus as speaker.
Political power in Texas and America starts at the grassroots, not in D.C., Austin, and it is not granted by any government. In a representative form of government, the elected officials should/must reflect the will of voters they represent. Republican leaders and elected officials who do not hear the people should be replaced…or perhaps the Party should be replaced.
George Rodriguez is a San Antonio activist who worked in the Reagan administration for the Justice Department, coordinating with the Heritage Foundation on civil rights and immigration issues.
