Let’s Talk About Austin
Obviously, I am following what is happening in Austin, more or less.
I am getting a lot of updates from some of our greatest patriots like Jill Glover, Allen West, and activists like Fran Rhodes, Mike Openshaw, Tom Glass, Erin Anderson, Joel Starnes, Luke Macias, Brandon Waltens, there are many more.
I can not say enough great things about these people, and I am truly grateful for their commitment and time invested in figuring out how they run screw jobs in the Austin swamp.
I see their updates and their calls to action, and sure, I could call and email.
I do, and I have. But…
Does this work?
Is this model sustainable?
Our current system of government was developed before modern communication. The idea that during the early years of our republic, someone hundreds of miles away would be “at the ready” with quill pen and paper, ready to write a sternly written letter urging action on a bill in committee is probably not how it worked.
I just don’t see how this is sustainable if it doesn’t even work when we try.
We can’t expect to ever be able to get tens of thousands of people to consistently show up to the Capitol, year after year, (especially when nothing is going on) in order to guard against these jerks in Austin setting up the framework for tyranny. I also don’t think it’s feasible to “educate” the public and get them involved in the numbers necessary.
Another aspect of this — the worse these politicians make the situation in our country, the less the citizens can afford to spend on luxury activities like political activism.
So you run into a situation of where when the times are good, nobody cares enough to keep an eye on what the legislature is doing, but when times are bad, nobody can afford to spend time on testifying about bills that these legislators don’t care about anyway.
The great Luke Macias has often said, paraphrasing some stupid economist, that we need to create an environment in the legislature where the wrong person is incentivized to do the right thing. I think he’s right, but not in the way everyone thinks.
I often think about last session and how all Republicans managed to accomplish was to ban a state income tax. This was something that, not only was nobody asking for, but it was something that was already banned. People actually campaigned on this as an accomplishment, which is still shocking to me.
Now we have this “new normal” where these people are setting up a framework of excuses they can use to avoid ever having to be around us at any time.
Last year, I wrote about my idea for a better, more accountable Party that will be designed to get results.
You can read about it here.