Saturday, June 12, 2004

Our Own Texas Loons Crowing ABout Their Fantasies


Steve Gillard Examines the Texas GOP Party Platform 'Wackjobs of Texas'

I will excerpt this bit about who is paying the GOP to get a new school system:
Instituting a voucher program that will be a model for the nation has been a burning priority for certain Texans.

In particular, during the 2002 election cycle, a San Antonio hospital bed magnate named James Leininger invested $624,774 mostly in GOP candidates, according to campaign watchdog Texans for Public Justice, apparently with the goal of establishing a voucher program in Texas. From 2000 to 2004, Leininger's entire family gave $2,497,250 to state candidates, which does not include the contributions of numerous companies in which he owns sizable interests. This past February, Leininger and his wife joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his wife along with anti-tax guru and Washington lobbyist Grover Norquist, among others, on a private cruise in the Bahamas to "talk about school finance."

A month later, the governor called the Legislature into an unscheduled special session on the subject, which fizzled because of Republican bickering. Vouchers could soon become a policy reality. Perry has declared himself open to a voucher program as part of any eventual school finance package. But many of the faithful seem to be having second thoughts -- because they see vouchers as a Trojan horse for the federal government.
In looking at their entire platform and their intense debates I have to agree with Steve:
The GOP is so rent with ideological battles and bigotry, they have no solutions to real issues. This is like watching Trotskyites and Maoists battle each other over meaning in their self-created fantasy world.

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