Patrick vs. liberty
The lieutenant governor doesn’t need to invent enemies; Texas has enough problems.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick needs to reread his Alexis de Tocqueville.
“Local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations,” the French diplomat wrote in his famous study of the early United States, “Democracy in America.”
“Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.”
Yet Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott have wasted no effort over the past year trying to squelch our institutions of local liberty and cast Texas municipalities as public enemy No. 1. The latest salvo came during the lieutenant governor’s appearance on the Fox Business Network last week.
“Where do we have all our problems in America? Not at the state level run by Republicans. But in our cities that are mostly controlled by Democrat mayors and Democrat city council men and women. That’s where you see liberal policies. That’s where you see high taxes. That’s where you see street crime.”
Patrick could stand to reread his FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, too.
Places like Chicago or Patrick’s hometown of Baltimore have their own idiosyncratic issues when it comes to crime. But here in Texas, our metropolises are doing fine and our police chiefs are working to make things even safer.
The real problem areas are in our smaller cities. Odessa and Lubbock have the highest crime rates in Texas. And Beaumont/Port Arthur have the highest murder rates.
If Patrick’s theory on problematic Democratic cities were true, you’d think that bold and blue Austin would be a hotbed of scum and villainy. Alas, the liberal bastion has some of the lowest crime rates in the entire state, clocking in at 21st out of 24 metro areas.
If you want to see cities send the statistics skyrocketing, look at the job numbers.
Texas’ big metro areas cover more than 75 percent of all jobs and 71 percent of the state’s total economic output, Chronicle reporter Lydia DePillis wrote last week.
Something is deeply unhealthy in Texas politics when our elected leaders resent and want to punish the places responsible for growth. You’d think that Patrick would want to use his opportunity before a national television audience to heap some praise on our big cities and attract new entrepreneurs or CEOs. Or maybe he’d promote rural Texas, which is in dire need of help.
Schools out in the country struggle to attract teachers, and that presumes the districts can even stay open. The expiration of a state funding program, Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction, is forcing small and rural schools to slash everything from teaching positions to football programs. Hopes of the Legislature crafting a new school funding plan continue to die in Patrick’s state Senate.
Seventeen rural hospitals have shuttered in Texas since 2010, yet a much-needed Medicaid expansion is dead on arrival in the Legislature.
Session after session our state leaders have proven themselves either unable or unwilling to address their responsibilities. Our broken foster care system, dangerously under-resourced Child Protection Services, third-world maternal mortality rates and all-but-unconstitutional school funding system fall squarely on Patrick’s desk. So what’s his big plan to solve these problems? Whooping up fears about a big city bogeyman.
Patrick is dragging our state into a new Republican reality where a pro-business, pro-growth agenda has been replaced by political philosophy that needs an enemy to survive. It is hard to imagine how Texas thrives when our elected leaders keep inventing monsters to fight instead of confronting the real challenges that face everyday families — whether urban or rural. Patrick could stand a visit to City Hall for a refresher course in the basics of governance and liberty. At least that’s what Tocqueville would recommend.