My Thoughts about Answers to Some Fundamental Questions

Ed Hubbard

Almost two weeks ago I received a Facebook message from a Republican precinct chair and Tea Party
activist in the Woodlands, who was concerned by the debate over the Speaker's race. Based on that
concern, he asked me to write a post addressing four fundamental issues:

1. What does "conservative" mean today in Texas?

Much of what I've posted on this website and on other sites over the last two years has focused on
aspects of the subjects addressed by these questions, and rehashing everything I've written could
lead to a book-length answer. I will try and cut through the first three questions "briefly," and focus
on the fourth questions, which I believe is the most important one facing Texas Republicans at this
moment—"What are our priorities now that we have a super-majority in the Texas House?"

What does "conservative" mean today in Texas?

The short answer is: "conservatism means the same thing to Texans that it means to any American—
only more so." And what I believe the term "conservative" means to Americans is based on my
understanding of the general definition of that word, and on my understanding of America.

A "conservative" in any society is someone who tries to guide the inevitable change that occurs within
society so as to preserve the fundamental principles and relationships that bind that society, so that
those principles and relationships may be passed on to the next generation. To properly discharge
this duty, a conservative must possess and use the passion of a Thomas Paine tempered by the
wisdom of an Edmund Burke. Essentially, conservatives are the active, responsible adults that keep
any neighborhood functioning properly.

The paradox of America is that the principles and relationships conservatives are charged with
preserving are based on ideas—not geography, race, or clan—and are arguably the most radical ideas
around which any society has ever formed: an American Conservative is charged with preserving a
society formed around the guiding principles established by the original European Settlers, written
in the Declaration of Independence, organized in the U.S. Constitution and our state constitutions,
and challenged in The Gettysburg Address; principles focused on the primacy and sovereignty of the
individual, and on the primacy of his corresponding responsibilities to himself, his family, his
neighbor and his nation, which government is formed to preserve and protect. The radicalism of our
founding ideas has led to great confusion over the use of the labels "liberal" and "conservative" from
generation to generation, for conservatives are charged with preserving a society formed around
liberating principles.

The slowly evolving discussion of these principles through the centuries can be found in the writings
of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, St. Augustine, Richard
Hooker, John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and the Founding Fathers (just to
name a few); and the evidence of these principles at work in America can be found in de Tocqueville's
"Democracy in America". Distilled to its essence, these principles provide a roadmap for addressing
the central challenge of Western Civilization brought here by the Settlers: the constant struggle to
accept and balance the gift of liberty with the admonition to love our neighbor.

When our zeal for liberty has led to a passion for the libertine, conservatives have had to step in and
provide guidance; when our zeal for improving our neighbor's condition has led to a passion for
grand schemes that create inhuman and dysfunctional organizations that impair liberty and do more
harm to our neighbors, conservatives have had to step in and provide guidance. But rather than
merely stepping in to the breach to correct for periodic lurches from extreme to extreme, the mission
of American Conservatives should be to accept Lincoln's challenge and remain constantly vigilant in
our dedication to make sure "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth." That vigilance should require that we Conservatives take an active role in
policy formation at every level of government—not just to periodically adjust the excesses of policy
decisions made by others.

How conservative are Texans in general?

I believe that Texas probably contains the greatest concentration of American Conservatives in the
nation. I believe this is the case because of Texas' unique history, and the type of people that are
drawn to move here and stay.

Texans, based on the unique history of

1. our own settlement, Revolution and sovereignty; and

have absorbed the duty of preserving this unique society into our DNA—regardless of whether we
were born here or came here later.

I believe that the breadth of the Tea Party movement in this state, and the results of the last
election—which led to GOP gains at the county, state, and national levels—show that political
independents in this state tend to be conservative in their philosophy toward government, and they
are willing to embrace conservative answers to the issues we face.

How conservative are Texas Republicans?

Having grown-up in an active Republican family in the Midwest, I can tell you that the Republicans
in Texas are generally more conservative on economic, limited-government, and social issues, than
in other parts of the country; the only area of broad agreement has been on foreign and military
policy and trade issues. However, I believe that Republicans in other parts of the country are
beginning to see the wisdom of what we believe and are moving closer to our positions on many
issues.

For this reason, I believe that Texas Republicans can lead the national party toward a new
commitment to, and application of Conservatism--but only if we don't tear ourselves apart first.

What are the top 10 issues for Texas Republicans?

I think listing 10 items is the wrong approach to the more general question: with the historic
majorities that Republicans now have across Texas, what should be our priorities over the next two
years? However, as you will see, my list of priorities coincidentally tallies to the magic number, 10.

Generally, I would challenge our Governor, legislators and local officials to be bold, and to use the
next two years to ignore the federal government and to build a foundation for Texas for the next
generation based on conservative principles, which can serve as a model for other states and the
nation. In essence, I am challenging the Governor and others to live up to their rhetoric.

Specifically, I would challenge the Republican leadership to do the following 10 things over the next
two years:

1. Establish now that whatever priorities are set will be accomplished, and that the Texas
legislature will be kept in a state of "permanent" special session after the 2011 regular session,
until all of the priorities are accomplished;
2. Attack re-districting comprehensively (at the state and local levels, by the legislature and local
political bodies) in order to preserve as much Republican control as possible throughout the
state for the next decade, in order to make sure that the priorities written into law now are
implemented as intended;
3. Balance the state budget for the next two years, which will require fundamentally reorganizing
health care, education, criminal justice, transportation and infrastructure, and pension systems
(as well as to opt-out of as many federal programs that mandate spending as legally possible);
4. To reorganize public health care delivery, the Governor should follow-through on his idea of
opting-out of Medicaid, and then he should work with the legislature and local governments to
reorganize our the current structure of our system in order to create a cost-effective public
delivery system at the most local level possible for Texans who can not afford, or don't have the
opportunity to obtain, private health insurance;
5. To reorganize education, we need to rethink our current approach to, and organization of
education—from the classroom to the school district to the university—to determine the most
cost-effective way to provide the knowledge needed to become a productive American citizen
and a productive American ambassador in the world economy at whatever age a person leaves
the educational system, to determine the cost for delivering that education, and then to
determine the best method and organization needed for raising and spending the money to
accomplish the goal at the most local level possible;
6. Reorganize the criminal justice system by creating the most appropriate, cost-effective
consequences for crime while keeping non-violent, first-time youthful offenders in school so
they can get jobs and build neighborhoods as adults; channeling mentally-handicapped and
drug-addicted offenders into proper treatment; and keeping the truly dangerous offenders off
the street;
7. Comprehensively analyze the transportation and infrastructure needs of the state based on
projected population growth, and on the patterns of the movement of goods and people across
and through the state, and then to create a long-term plan and budget for addressing these
needs;
8. Work with state and local officials at all levels of government to begin capping future public
pension obligations by converting these programs to retirement-savings plans similar to those
used in the private sector;
9. Once these fundamental changes are implemented, promote the use of zero-based budgeting at
all levels of government through automatic "sunsetting" of all governmental agencies at the end
of each budget period, except those needed for public safety or required by constitution (or
charter); and
10. Secure the border and our ballot with appropriate legislation that protects us from the criminal
activity that is currently engulfing parts of Mexico in a virtual civil war, and that allows us to
know who is voting so that we can protect the "one-man-one-vote" election system from fraud
and abuse.

As we address these priorities, our party leaders should aggressively involve themselves in the
neighborhoods where Republicans currently are absent, show our neighbors in these communities
that we care about them and that the policies we champion will help all of us, and challenge them to
join us—in order to grow the Republican Party on the foundation of our principles.

In essence, what I am advocating is that we should not just say we are conservative, and then cherish
our principles as if they are trophies on a shelf; nor should we just say "no" to the growth of
government by cutting spending and taxes while leaving the current organizational mess in place.
Instead, we should take this historic opportunity to use our conservative principles to improve Texas
based on the principles of American Conservatism, which can then serve as a model for the rest of
the country. Then, I think Texas Republicans truly will be able to claim the mantle of being the
Conservative party in Texas, and the most Conservative party in the nation.