Transparency, RINOs, and Truth

I have previously posted a positive comment on the Lone Star TEA Party Summit so that I am now entitled to post a negative comment. This is the ONLY negative comment I have on this Summit. I will be posting more positives in the future. In general the Summit was an awesome meeting. But this needs to be said.

My representative was attacked as a RINO and as a person that accepted money from gambling PACs and from "The George Soros of Texas".

First to the legitimacy of these attacks:

1) The RINO accusations are strange to me since we in the TEA Party are NOT Republicans so why would we dislike someone that is a "Republican In Name Only"? We support Democrats, Libertarians and any one else that will adhere to our core values of Constitutional Law and Fiscal Conservatism. Yes, my representative was once a Democrat. But so were many others in Texas. When I came to Texas in the mid 50s, there were NO Republicans. You were either a Liberal Democrat or a Dixiecrat (a conservative Democrat). So most Republicans in Texas that are over 50 years of age were either a Democrat first OR a Carpet Bagger from out of state. I think I prefer the former. Yes, my representative was once a Democrat. And the Bible tells us that the Shepard should leave the flock to find the lost sheep. I am glad he is now where he belongs and not still a lost sheep.

2) Taking money from a PAC that supports gambling is neither a crime nor does it violate our TEA Party core values. In fact as I pointed out several times during the Summit, taking money from the opposition seems to make more sense than burning your own constituents money on a campaign. The argument I heard against that was, "Well, now he owes someone something."

One of the people running against the current Speaker of the House spoke at the Summit. He made the point very vividly that "Pledges" were not worth the paper they are not written on. So called "Pledges" are only agreements to support a bill "If it meets my approval in its end form" He made this point several times as an argument to us to call our representatives to change their votes before January.

Now either this is true, and the so called "Pledges" that were perhaps made for campaign support are of little or no value, or its not true.

If it is true than there in no validity to calling someone names for accepting PAC money, or if it is not true, why are you asking me to support someone that campaigns on lies?

Now I have handled the validity of the charges, I will address the reasons for them.

The TEA Party makes a big thing about transparency. We demand it of our opposition. So we should practice it ourselves. This whole attack on the RINOs is not an attack on them because of their previous Democratic associations. It is not an attack on their funding choices. It is in fact, in my opinion, an attack on their failure to come out firmly against Gambling in Texas.

This is easily seen when you see that the PACs that they object to are ALL PACs that are funded by people that own horse tracks or have other gambling interests. "The George Soros of Texas" owns a horse track I am told. So What???

I would hope that those attacking would be transparent in their motives so we could hold a real discussion on the issue, gambling, and not just campaign against personalities. A discussion on gambling pros and cons would be much more productive.

Lets all practice transparency.

And now a final note on this unfortunate undercurrent of the event.

In the US the Christian church's all claim to believe in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They also claim to believe in the Bible. But they argue over the little stuff, the stuff that wont get you into heaven or keep you out. Things like whether a woman should preach from the pulpit, whether music is allowed in the sanctuary, whether drinking is a sin, and the list goes on. Things that are not CLEARLY defined in the Bible. So there are hundreds of separate "Religions" that, in some cases, wont even speak to each other even though they agree on the core values.

In the TEA Party we dont want to make that mistake. We all have our core values and we all agree on them. So lets not get caught up in trying to tell each other who our preachers should be. I doubt that anyone will argue with me when I say that the Dictator of Argentina should not be telling the American people who they should vote for for president. So lets not start casting stones at my rep lest I begin tossing them back. The people in district xx should not be telling the people in district 32 who they should be supporting. After all they dont know who the alternative was!!

There is an old Texas saying that fits this attempt to tell us in south Texas who we should be voting for, "Now you have stopped preachin' and have started meddlin'".


Jim Isbell
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