The liberty movement in Texas sustained difficult losses on Election Night. Senators Konni Burton and Don Huffines and Rep. Matt Rinaldi were tireless warriors for a limited government that allows the people to prosper, fighting crony corporatist and government bureaucrat alike at every chance they got.
Movement conservatives across the state are understandably disillusioned by the loss of these grassroots legislators; I am too. But we cannot lose sight of what we are fighting for — ideas.
Our fight is not and has never been for people or personalities, but for simple, time-tested, bold principles that outline how a moral people should be governed.
We didn’t elect Senator Burton because of her personality, though we love her for that all the same — we elected her because she has the audacity to advocate the ideas that undergird the conservative movement. We didn’t elect Senator Huffines because he was anointed to serve, we elected him because he was willing to fight a weaponized government bureaucracy. And we didn’t elect Matt Rinaldi for his character, either — unquestionable though it is. We supported these legislators and others because they dedicated themselves to a cause greater than themselves.
Elected officials are just people. They don’t have some divine spark that ordains them for leadership. The good ones are just individuals in a long line of torchbearers that have taken up a cause as old as this great republic: liberty.
Even in this election, we welcome the arrival of new voices to carry the torch. State Representatives-elect Steve Toth, Jared Patterson, and Mayes Middleton have pledged to lead based on the same principles. It will be up to them to prove themselves committed to empowering their constituents toward self-governance.
Don’t be disillusioned by the loss of some of Texas’ best freedom fighters. Become one yourself.
Get involved in your local school board, city council, and even the state legislature. Realize that national politics has never been our salvation; our fight in D.C. is and always has been the right to let Texas be Texas. In order for that to matter, we need to help Texas be the last bastion of liberty when all else fails. Take up the mantle of liberty, defend your state and the ideas it was founded on. Let the left celebrate their small victories, light your own torch, and march on.
