Editorial: Conservative train goes full steam ahead

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick helped set the tone for the Legislative session last week by partially squashing the voice of the minority party.

You can read the details of the new rules in the Texas Senate in a piece by the Texas Tribune that is reprinted in this week’s Enterprise, but suffice it to say that the action falls right in line with comments this column made two weeks ago regarding Patrick’s agenda.

In a nutshell, the Republican majority has made it difficult for minority interests to stop or slow legislation it considers harmful or ill conceived. The State Senate has 31 members, and for nearly 70 years it took 21 members to bring any bill to the floor for a vote. Now it will only take 19 members. And with the Republican dominance in the Legislature, it pretty much neuters any opposition to the conservative agenda.

Nearly two decades ago, when your editor was new to the job, a Clarendon College employee approached me about helping get a College Republicans chapter started at CC. The sponsor for the group knew that I had been a CR member at Texas Tech and was looking for some tips on how to have a successful organization here.

I agreed to come to a meeting and then proceeded to tell them what I thought they needed to do.

“The first thing you need to do is organize a Young Democrats chapter,” I told them as they sat in stunned silence.

“Why would we do that?” one of the officers asked.

“Because,” I replied, “otherwise you’re not going to have any fun or get anything done.”

In College Republicans I learned two very valuable things: 1) fanatical conservatives are no better than leftwing wackos (they just want to limit your freedom in a different way), and 2) parties need other parties to thrive.

Our best functions were debates with the Young Democrats and College Libertarians. Our intramural games were with the Democrats. Our food or coat drive contest challenges, etc., were successful because of the competition between the other parties. We thrived off each other, and, I think, made each other better.

In a generation, we have seen the Democrats go from being the majority party in Texas to being the vocal minority and now to having even that limited voice muzzled. That can’t be good, and Republicans should be wary that the wheel of fortune – and changing demographics – may one day reverse their current status.

Politicians always like to talk about the “democratic process” and what a great “democracy” we live in. But pure democracy can be the worst kind of evil, which is why our state and federal founders developed a system of republican (small “R”) government with checks and balances and protections for minority views. The heavy-handedness of the current majority, however, teeters on bringing Texas in touch with absolute democracy where the will of the majority (fifty percent plus one) can override any other concern.

You like open government and private control of groundwater in West Texas? Well, with absolute democracy and no voice for the minority, crony politicians can corrupt government functions and a majority of urban Texans can do what they want to with rural groundwater.

And what happens in a generation or two when the left is back in power? Perhaps a conservative nightmare comes to life with free abortions in clinics across the state, mandatory Pre-K classes, and strangling regulations on oil, gas, hunting, and fishing. Won’t that be fun?

According to the Tribune article, the new Senate rules also eliminated committees focused on open government, jurisprudence, economic development, and government organization. What’s the reasoning behind that and what does it mean for Texans?

For now, the right has all the “might” in Texas, and it’s marching forward at an alarming rate. But conservatives would do well to consider the long term ramifications of what their steamroller approach can bring down the line. The pendulum will one day swing the other way, and we may not like it when it does.