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This is going to take more space than most articles here on the vine. I promised a good number of people that I would do some research on Rick Perry and publish an article on the Governor's real record in Texas. I am going to make good on my promise here. The amount of information that I've found will take at least two articles. For the record, the quotes that I am using come from Governor Perry's own speeches. When I use someone else's speeches, I will quote the person and where possible, the specific source. The statistical analysis that I will be using come from a rather lengthy report entitled "Texas On The Brink" which was published by the non-partisan Texas Legislative Study Group in 2011. The biographical information that I am using comes from Wikipedia. No quotes or controversial information was taken from Wikipedia since there is no peer verification available.
With that stated, here is the real background on Governor Rick Perry {R, Tx}.
Rick Perry is the longest serving governor in the history of the state of Texas, having suceeded George W. Bush in 2000 and winning re-election in 2002, 2006 and 2010. He was born in West Texas, went to school at Texas A&M, graduated with an undistinguished academic record and proceeded to join the Air Force where he served from 1972 to 1977, leaving with the rank of Captain. He is married with two children.
Perry began his political career as a Democrat in 1984 when elected to the Texas House of Representatives. He supported Al Gore for President in 1988. He changed his registration to Republican in 1989 and proceeded to be elected Agriculture Commissioner and Lieutenant Governor before assuming the Governor's role in 2000. Throughout this period, Perry's politics became increasingly conservative.
As governor, Perry has touted the rapid job growth in the state of Texas as the achievement that sets his administration apart from every other state. That achievement has not come without cost. Governor Perry fails to talk about the rest of the record of Texas under his administration. I am more than willing to discuss that record.
The most controversial area of Governor Perry's agenda has been his religious revivalism. The governor has always been a man of faith, but the question of whether his faith dicatates his politics is open to debate. In the Longview News Journal on 2/22/2002, Governor Perry said the following:
I want people of faith on my side, not just voting on election day, but by hoisting me up by getting down on your knees and lifting me in prayer. Those who have a different point of view of things are already organizing against me .
His reliance on religion continued to increase and by 2005:
This I know. He who counts every hair on our heads and every drop in the oceans. He who knows the number of our days and every thought before it enters our heads, this all-knowing, all-powerful creator loves us so much that there is no matter so trivial or so small that we can't surrender it to him and say, "Father, your will be done!" I certainly know this to be the heartfelt prayer of this governor.
By 2011, Perry had moved so far to the right when it came to his peculiar mix of politics and religion that he decided to invite the other 49 governors to his 'Response' Prayer Rally in Houston on August 6. Perry openly managed to curry support from the hate group American Family Association. He tried to let people know that it was not government sponsoring religion, but that was even refuted by Eric Bearse, a spokesman for 'Response' and Perry's former communication director.
A lot of people want to criticize what we're doing, as if we're somehow being exclusive of other faiths. But anyone who comes to this solemn assembly regardless of their faith tradition or background will feel the love, grace, and warmth of Jesus Christ in that assembly hall, in that arena. And that's what we want to convey, that there's acceptance and that there's love and that there's hope if people will seek out the living Christ. And that's the message we want to spread in that in-gathering.
Not exactly a message of love and acceptance of non-Christian faiths.
Now faith is one thing, but what about the application of Governor Perry's faith? Well, a few quotes followed by a few statistics might help to demonstrate Governor Perry's belief system in action.
On school prayer:
Why not? They took it out. They can sure put it back in.
From my personal perspective, I think that a prayer life and a country and their schools must respect a higher being. Our God makes us a stronger country.
The governor has frequently led public prayer in Texas public schools at the risk of lawsuit for violating the separation of church and state.
On Intelligent Design and Creationism
I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside to theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our state's children.
Perry then went on to immediately appoint three staunchly conservative evolution deniers to the State Board of Education.
On Sex Education
I'm just going to tell you from my own personal life, abstinence works. And the point is, if we're not teaching it, and we're not impressing it on them, it won't work.
96% of Texas schools teach abstinence only. Texas has the third highest percentage of teenage pregnancies in the country, which costs the state 1.2 billion dollars in health costs per year.
On School Choice
I will tell you point blank that I will not allow a local school board to stop from allowing parental choice to happen in their community, when we make school choice the law of the land.
Since 2004, the Perry administration has introduced over two dozen school choice measures in the Texas legislature.
Some other education statistics:
Texas ranks 50th in the nation in students with a High School diploma. They are 43rd in the nation in High School graduation rate. Their SAT scores rank 49th for verbal and 46th for math. Texas ranks 47th in the nation in state aid per pupil. They rank 43rd on spending on the arts.
Governor Perry does a tremendous job talking about job creation and the wonderful climate for jobs that has been created in Texas. The question is who does this job creation help? Is it the worker in Texas or is it Governor Perry's corporate friends? What is the miracle of job creation in Texas all about?
It can not be disputed that jobs have been created in Texas. The problem is they are not good jobs. Governor Perry's Texas is a pro-business, non-union, non-benefit state. It is a state that has been willing to place itself into a 25 billion dollar hole [the third highest percentage deficit of any state} and is willing to cut 10 billion dollars from their already paltry education budget to stay business friendly. But what are the other statistics that make Texas so friendly toward minimum wage job creation?
Texas ranks: 50th in the percentage of residents with health insurance; 46th in income disparity; 48th in percentage of employees with employer based health insurance; 47th in individuals with employer based retirement plans;' 40th in hourly wages for manufacturing employees; 41st in union membership; 50th in workman's compensation benefits. Some of the things that Texas leads the way for employers include: ranking 1st in CO2 emissions; 1st in toxins released in the atmosphere; and 1st in hazardous waste generation.
This is just scratching the surface of Governor Perry's record. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that I will have to write a second article tomorrow to talk about the Texas record on Women's issues, health and welfare, senior citizens, gun control, home ownership and same sex marriage. We are going to hear an airbrushed account of Perry's record. The real record has to be put out there. This is a man who has driven Texas to the brink of disaster and the numbers back it up.
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