If you want to read something really sad, read this latest executive order (GA-23) by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Or watch this video of him explaining it. (That’s right, the Governor is discussing his 23rd edict this year.)
What is sad is that we see a good man who has spent his entire life studying the laws and Constitutions of Texas and the U.S. who has been persuaded that the right thing to do in the face of the COVID-19 scare is to violate the Constitutions he has sworn to protect.
It is sad to see a man who loves the great state of Texas and its people persuaded to take dictatorial action that he thinks will help them, when in reality, a large portion of his considerable skill and hard work is actually harming them, to the tune of over 2 million Texans out of work due primarily to his edicts.
We see a man who, despite having been a champion of the superiority and flexibility of markets and a free people over command and control, engaging in devising and decreeing intricately involved plans involving multiple details of 29 million people’s lives. As if one man or small group of man can devise one-size fits all for the length and breadth of the diverse people of Texas.
We see a man who, during his tenure as the Attorney General of Texas and his first campaign for Governor advertised how much he believed in standing up to the bureaucrats in DC, basing all his plans for running the lives of Texas on the advice of those very bureaucrats.
If you want to see how far to the absurd turning a talented, energetic individual into our daddy-in-chief can go, read his advice (thankfully it WAS advice, not edicts as in many other cases) to those over 65. He advises social distancing BETWEEN FAMILY MEMBERS if one of them has left the home in the last 14 days. Talk about politicians in the bedroom!
You can’t really grasp the level of how delusional our governor has become until you read the breadth and complexity of his latest order. On one day, it is OK for restaurants to open to 25% of capacity, but on the next it can be 50%. This is not about policy based on science. It is split-the-baby, Goldilocks politics by fiat.
Our framers warned us about how too much time in public office changes a man – NEVER for the better. That is why they gave us our Constitutions and Bills of Rights and separation-of-power and federalism.
Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
Fellow Texans, we have some binding to do.
Tom Glass lives in Northwest Harris County. Click here to reach his email. He is also on Facebook as Tom G Glass. He leads a group called Texas Constitutional Enforcement which can be explored at its website or Facebook group.
Why is this story not being told everywhere in Texas and Nationally ? Greg Abbott has been a wonderful governor up to now but who got to him? Mr. Abbott, Sir, DO NOT TRACK TEXANS - STICK TO THE CONSTITUTION WHICH YOU TOOK AN OATH TO PRESERVE. YOU ARE NOT TOO BIG TO REPLACE.
Well said, Tom. This is not so dissimilar to Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus. It is times of crisis, like these, that test a person's commitment to the principles of liberty. Few people that hold power pass those tests. It is all the more reason to limit the amount of power given to any particular position. We, as a people, simply can't elect "good governors" all the time. What we *can* do is reduce the power of government, so those bad governors can't hurt us as badly when they inevitably fail.