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First, the easy parts. He had no chance of winning South Carolina and a weak last place finish would have been embarrassing, so Rick Perry decided to do the obvious and “go home to Texas with pride”. Perry’s campaign for the Republican nomination will go down as one of the quickest, most complete failures in modern American political history. He came into the race last August, roaring like a lion just let loose from a cage. He leaves, yes, meek, humbled and sounding like a lamb who saw the slaughter awaiting him and decided to skip it.
Perry mentioned the word “conservative” about every other breath in his withdrawal announcement. No one ever defines what this means. In Texas, you don’t have to define it, because it is part of the consensus idea that assumes everyone knows what it means and everyone agrees, more or less. We like warm summer days, oil wells that pump black gold, pretty women, big cars that go fast and conservative principles. You got a problem with that?
One of the main tenets of conservativism, as it is understood and practiced in Texas, is a strong distaste for everything “Washington”. The lesson of hating the national government is drilled into kids there as they grow up and it has been thus long before the idea spread to the rest of the nation. As much as anything else, it is a legacy of the Civil War era when northerners tried to occupy and run the losing, southern states. That didn’t work out too well and Texans never forget it. It has been handed down from each generation ever since like a kind of catechism.
So, Perry came boldly onto the national stage preaching what? Basically, every state should be like Texas and the national government should get out of the way. What is forgotten in all of that is that Washington step in where the states and local governments either failed or were unable or unwilling to try to meet specific needs. That fact, along with the massive power of the national income tax, is why Washington has gotten so strong while the states have grown weaker. That displeases people like Perry, who think all would be wonderful and right with the world, if only the states controlled about 96% of everything important. There is a “ but” in this, however. But we, Texas conservatives, would like to have the best, biggest and strongest national military in the world and we’d like to be prosperous, so don’t stop the national government from being strong around the world and ensuring the growth of commerce, okay? In other words, cut the government down to size, just don’t cut out the parts we like and need, like farm subsides and tax breaks for oil companies.
None of this strikes any Texas “conservatives” as contradictory or problematic. Further, these are not the reasons Perry slipped on the great big banana peel of his campaign. He fell because he wasn’t ready for the national stage. He seems, at base, a guy who should never have risen above Lt. Gov. of Texas or maybe even County Commissioner, a job his father held in west Texas. His plan to turn the entire US into a model of Texas was not a great winner, either, but he lost because of who and what he is, not because of the policies he tried to advocate.
Doug Terry, 1.19.12
Footnote: Perry sounded the charge for the anti-democracy movement in the US, supporting the idea of a super majority for future tax changes getting through Congress and for the non-popular appointment of senators by state legislatures. If in the future the anti-democracy movement should advance, Perry deserves a special place in infamy for having supported turning back the clock and taking away the vital role of citizens in our society.
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