Happy Sixth Birthday, Political Chicken!

Happy Sixth birthday, Political Chicken!  Yep, the little blog that could is turning six years old!  Looking back, I think I may have missed writing a fifth birthday blog, so look for this blog to be twice the birthday fun!

Honestly, I haven't been super active on the blog for the last year, but what I have been doing is  physically being active on the local political scene.  To me, that's the most important part, physically doing something instead of sitting behind a keyboard talking about doing something; sometimes termed a 'keyboard warrior', something that I'm not.

Last year found me busy as the Vice Chair on the Local Government Committee, which has been one of my favorite roles within the local party structure.  I think I'm a great fit for that position since I've made it my business to write about almost nothing besides local elections, local taxing authorities and the like.  I have a wealth of information that I've put together right here at The Political Chicken Blog.  Don't just take my word for it, take a look for yourself!

Working on this campaign as we speak, but again, physically doing something AND simultaneously writing about doing it, is the race for District K on Houston City Council.  The late Larry Green left a position to be filled and two Republican party precinct chairs are running to fill that seat along with seven Democrats.  If we turn out just the right amount of Republican voters, we could make into the runoff.

Normally on all of my birthday blogs, I share with you the top performing posts, the ones that have the most page views.  Not this time, though.  I'd like to mix it up a bit and share with you some of the posts that never got published here on The Political Chicken until now.  I'll be opening the vault, much like Disney when they reproduce some of the classics.  I hope you enjoy.

This one coming straight to you out of the vault is called "They Didn't Let Us in at First Either" which discusses the struggle that the tea party faced to be accepted into the rank and file GOP.

I also wrote another article shortly after Britain exited from the EU entitled, Does A Brexit Equal a Texit? in which I discuss the plausibility of Texas seceding from the United States and becoming it's own nation. 

Just to mix it up even further, I'll include one of my own personal favorites because it discusses something that I do every day: home school.  The title is We Will Not Conform: Portrait of a Home School Family..

That concludes another trip around the sun for yours truly, The Political Chicken!  And as always, stay tuned to The Political Chicken!  You won't want to miss!

Does a Brexit Equal a Texit?

Texit.  Secede.  You knew it was coming.  After Britain decided to leave the European Union, in my estimation, it may have girded the already enthusiastic secession movement that is alive and well in Texas.

It's also known as the Texas Nationalist Movement, headed by Daniel Miller, (at least he's the one quoted in the articles I've read).  From the articles I've read, most of them from left leaning news sites, they are all poking fun at the 'idiocy' coming from the desire of Texans to leave the United States.  Words like 'treasonous' and 'idiotic'  have been thrown around by the authors of these articles. The conversation is going to have to be had before long.

Since my involvement in the beginning of the tea party movement, I have heard those desiring to restore the 10th amendment and give power back to the states.  Matter of fact, I've even seen and heard my own Congressman, John Culberson claim to want to restore states' rights.  So how's that legislation working out for ya, John?  Not too well, since I haven't personally seen it gain any traction.  Personally, I think it's all talk. 

Thing is, I have heard rallying cries and shouts made by my own compadres about secession, but I have seen no plan put in place to do it.  What would that look like, exactly?  I am no expert on secession, so I turned to my friend Google to find out more about it.

From a Forbes article written in 2012, that discusses the success or failure of the state of Texas after declaring independence, there were a few interesting points made in favor of secession.

"After all, it has in spades everything that made America’s economy so great–lots of land, natural resources, deep human capital (Texas universities are world-class), the rule of law, the “protestant work ethic”/”frontier mentality” (or whatever you want to call it), etc. plus something else that America used to have, which is a political and social consensus which is hostile to regulation.
Thanks to this Texas, already a very healthy economy in its own right, could essentially arbitrage America’s most egregious regulations to suck economic value away from America."
A few examples, and I'll just list them here in bullet point style.  You can click the link here if you want to read them in their entirety.

-Obviously, the biggest room for arbitrage is immigration..."You could also argue that Federal policy has been holding Texas back, and that in an independent Texas a coalition of Latinos and business interests would create a pro-immigration equilibrium."

-With a devalued currency and very little labor regulations, Texas would become a manufacturing haven

-In turn, Texas could become a technology haven.

-Same thing with healthcare..." It’s interesting to wonder whether Texas healthcare policy would be a “free-for-all” or a kind of Friedmanite voucher/HSA utopia, but in either case it’s easy to see how starting a biotech or medical devices company could be made easier in Texas.  

So, IS a Texit feasible?  The author of the Forbes article made the argument FOR an independent Texas merely for fun, for speculation.  Could it work?  That remains to be seen.

They Didn't Let Us In At First, Either: Tea Party vs. GOP

Lots of times I write about my political involvement and my faith and draw parallels between the two.  Well, I'm feeling inspired again to do just that.  I like to get you thinking; share my inspiration with you and hope to get you motivated and involved in some way.

Last Sunday while I was sitting in church, the pastor was talking about how to be a fisher of men.  How to draw others to Jesus and lead them to salvation.  Pretty normal discussion to be had in church, I suppose.  While I was sitting there, however, it hit me that in some ways, those who are GOP or part of the conservative/tea party movement could also be considered evangelists of sorts, spreading the word of limited government and personal responsibility to the masses.

The title of the sermon was "How to Land a Fish".  We could title ours, "How to Land a Voter".  He gives us in step one the instructions, find a pond.  Find a pond?  What does that mean?  It means find a place to fish; not your usual circle of friends or Christians, but those who need desperately to hear the gospel.  Again, same thing with us; find someone who needs to hear the conservative message.

Step two was to develop patience and perseverance.  

The pastor was teaching from Mark 2:1-4.  Here it is for your reference:
"A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.  So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.  Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.  Since the could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on."

Picture it, a room so crowded with people that no one could get in.  People standing shoulder to shoulder and even though they turned and saw the four men carrying the paralytic on their shoulders, they didn't move a muscle.  Hold it right there.  Now, imagine the crowded room is full of establishment Republicans.  They're crowded in there like sardines and they're happy with their stagnant, stuffy ideals.  They love BIG government and the idea that government knows better than the average joe.  Hmph.

Then the tea party comes to the meeting.  Heh.  They've got a heavy load on their shoulders, too.  What is that heavy load, you say?  LIBERTY.  FREEDOM.  AMERICA.  The tea party looks inside and sees there isn't any room being made for them.  Do they give up?  Nope, and neither did the men who came to get Jesus to heal the paralytic.

So what did those men do?  They carried that heavy load, the paralyzed man up on the roof top and they started digging through.  Yeah, they did.  Then they lowered that man on his mat down in front of Jesus.  Right in front of Him.  "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

The tea party did something similar.  We weren't given an easy entrance to the party.  We may have tried to shove our way through the crowd, elbowed a few folks out of the way and began to make a difference.  Then with the heavy load of liberty and freedom on our shoulders, we climbed on the roof top.   That wasn't enough, though.  We started digging.  We started phone banking and block walking, we started running people for office, We elected conservatives to the Senate, Congress and to the state house.    We're not done yet, either.

Now, I realize that by all counts the moniker of 'tea party' is essentially done being used.  I still, however, count myself as a small part of what I look back on as the tea party movement or contingent of the GOP.  Did the tea party make a difference?  I'd like to think so.  Did the direction of the country go exactly the way we wanted?  No.  Does anything ever go according to plan?  No.  I know I'm personally willing to cut my losses and stay involved.  Others may disagree, but that's the freedom that we all share.  The freedom to continue to fight for principals and ideals, as well as the freedom to not.

The pastor also mentioned that fishing is dirty work.  I think we can all agree that the work of maintaining liberty and freedom is dirty work, too.  It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.  Count me in, and I hope I can count you in, too!