Rick Perry and the Right's Contention of U.S. Founded as a Christian Nation

Rick Perry, as part of his flirtation with the Republican base in preparation to run for President in 2012, called on leaders to join him in Houston next month for a day of Prayer and Fasting.  In response to this, many on the right point to the U.S. as being founded as a Christian Nation as justification for such a proclamation from a constitutionally bound public servant. In reality, one look at the men we consider our Founding Fathers tells a different story.

This generation of thinkers fed off the energy of enlightenment philosophy, where men such as Locke, Voltaire and Montesquieu wrote about man being able to discern his place in the world around him through the use of critical thought.  For many ages Europe found itself embroiled in wars which centered on which religion one followed.  In England this was no different, Catholic and Anglican factions fought for years as to who would control the fate of the nation.  This is party why the U.S was founded as a secular nation which respected all religions yet would not endorse one or make religious affiliation a test for public office (Yes Herman Cain, you would be constitutionally barred from requiring Muslim-Americans to take a special loyalty oath as test for public trust).  The First Amendment and later through the Fourteenth Amendment, the Federal Government and States were prohibited from establishing official religions.

If you want further proof, look no further then a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Horatio Spafford in March of 1814: " In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose"

The Republicans have fanatically courted the Christians, especially through the Bible Belt, through the use of coded language meant to goad them into voting for the Republican Candidate.  In recent times the same Republicans, elected partially on the strength of the voting in the bible belt have attacked public education and these maps might show why:

The greatest concentration of those with the least education sits in the bible belt, an area that is quite reliably Republican leaning, even thought Republican economic policy ignores the economic circumstances for the vast majority living there.

The Republicans must attack education, because the greater the level of education the less of a chance that they will blindly follow something rather than question and examine the world around themselves. 

Rick Perry's Real Texas Miracle

Time for another humorous look at the state of Texas politics today.

Rick Perry, when he isn't scheming with his cronies in the Lege, has been flirting with the Republican primary voters hot and heavily.  He has been touting what he and other call the "Texas Miracle" and I am pretty sure that he doesn't mean the precise makeup of his hair care product regimen.

He points out to all the jobs he created in the face the great recession as proof positive that a steady diet of lax regulation, low taxes and fervent pro business environment are the keys for economic prosperity.  But as Tip O'Neill was fond of saying, "You are entitled to a difference of opinion, but not your own set of facts..." and Slick Rick certainly has a problem with the facts.

In a recent article in  Fiscal Times by Merrill Goozner, the truth of the state of the Texas economy becomes clear, it isn't the land of milk and honey.  Beginning with W, or as Molly Ivins christened him, Shrub,(Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush) Texas began a race to the bottom, see how far they could go toward privatizing everything.  Such brilliant ideas as No Child Left Behind, got their start right here in the Lone Star State, and boy have the standardized testing companies showed their appreciation for getting all that extra business.

Sadly today, Texas is slipping in education, and with another $5 billion cut from that budget, maybe they can finally achieve Perry and his cronies goal of finally getting that coveted 50th place ranking in education.  Texas is the only state that ranks in greatest number of citizens among the wealthiest and living in poverty, with more headed to the latter group monthly.

While Rick Perry may boast of all the jobs that have been created here, we are nowhere close to North Dakota in unemployment rate or job creation. Also with a future where the Texas labor pool will gradually become less well educated, companies that came here to tap into a well educated workforce will leave and take their jobs with high salaries to other states who can provide an educated workforce.

When and if Slick Rick announces his intention to run for President in 2012, we should all remember that when he speaks of a Texas Miracle, he is really talking about him still surviving as Governor.....but as Kinky Friedman said, the job of Governor of Texas is so easy, George W Bush could do it.

The Race to the Bottom

These days it has become too routine to turn on the news and find out that a Republican governor proposes to cure their state's budgetary problems by eliminating that which actually benefits the citizens of their state.

Chris Christie, when he is not commandeering a police helicopter to make a short trip to his son's

baseball game, keeps busy by trying to undermine the successes New Jersey has earned over the years. He told the federal government that they could keep their money and cancelled a tunnel project that would have employed hundreds and helped alleviate congestion on the existing structures linking NJ with New York City. He then proposed to cut the eligibility threshold for Medicaid to less than $6000 for a family of 3...or so that a person who works 20 hours per week at minimum wage would be too wealthy for assistance.

In Florida, Rick Scott refused money to help create a modern rail network in his state. He didn't want the jobs or the prosperity that jobs and work might bring to his state.

Go to Texas, and witness what Rick Perry and his cohorts did this legislative session. At the beginning of the session the Governor may declare some projects emergency priorities and thus getting them moved up on the list of projects to debate on the floor of the legislature. With the state facing a large deficit, the emergency priority included nothing that addressed this. Instead his emergency priorities were, an assault on women's health and reproductive rights, replicating the Arizona Papers Please law and getting guns on college campuses. Proposals that would have brought jobs, such as the proposal to allow slot machines at the state race tracks could get the same expedited treatment.

In all of these examples, the governors of these states are falling all over themselves to shower money on business interests and paying for it by gutting education, funding for nursing homes, and programs that actually work to help the citizens and attract businesses by providing a well educated workforce capable of innovating with the best on earth.

In 2012, you must ask yourself, is the person you are voting for working in your best interests, or for his wealthy patron's interests.