Odd intrusion
Perry’s rebuke devalues his alma mater’s commitment to a code of ethics.
As Ronald Reagan might say to Rick Perry: “There you go again,” boot in mouth. The peccadillo of the moment is an op-ed Perry submitted to the Houston Chronicle criticizing the recent election of the student body president at his alma mater, Texas A&M University.
It is heartening to know that the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Energy has become so comfortable overseeing the nation’s massive nuclear arsenal, monitoring the Iran nuclear deal, figuring out how to fix America’s energy policy, and reading President Donald Trump’s tweets that he had time to scold a bunch of college kids.
The facts behind the letter are straightforward. The candidate for university president who got the most votes, Robert McIntosh, was disqualified by student government election officials because of irregularities in his campaign: voter intimidation and failing to properly report campaign expenditures. The first half of the ruling was dismissed on appeal by the student body judicial court; the second upheld. So McIntosh had every procedural opportunity to make his case, and he failed.
Perhaps the most salient fact is that the mother of the losing candidate is a longtime Republican fundraiser, Alison McIntosh, who has contributed to the campaigns of such big-league Republicans as Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney.
We don’t know if Perry’s op-ed was written in deference to a big party donor, but if it was, it came at the expense of Texas A&M and its student body. His criticism of particular students devalues what has for nearly 150 years made Texas A&M special: Its unwavering commitment to a code of ethics and the chain of command. Failure to follow the rules is a breach of the code, no matter if the failure is small and seemingly insignificant.
Nor is it reasonable to complain that “things would be different if the other guy had won,” a claim that takes direct aim at the sexual orientation of Cooper, who is gay, and repeats the go-to argument that “political correctness” is the source of all Republican setbacks. This argument demeans every single student election official who voted to disqualify McIntosh and every member of the student judicial court who voted to uphold the disqualification. And his charge that the Texas A&M administration “stood passive while equal treatment was mocked in the name of diversity” is way out of bounds. He has no way to know the truth of any of his claims or the motivations of those involved. The whole purpose of student-run government is so young people can learn to navigate these kinds of issues successfully — or, on occasion, screw up.
Adults, that means you; Rick Perry, should stay out of it.
Surely Perry knew and honored the university’s ethics traditions as a student leader, and we would like to believe he still does. We would also like to believe that a campaign donor’s influence isn’t the source of his odd commentary. Better, we think, to hope that Perry can avoid these “oops” distractions in the future, keep a watchful eye on the nukes and his boots planted firmly on the ground.
We don’t know if Perry’s op-ed was written in deference to a big party donor, but if it was, it came at the expense of Texas A&M and its student body.