Texas Republican Party the Republican

Texas Republican Party

The Republican Party of Texas

The Republican Party of Texas explains that it is "...a true reflection of traditional Texas values (http://www.texasgop.org),and those "values core Republican principles that will sustain Texas into the future" and continue to make Texas "strong, prosperous and proud," the Texas GOP Web site asserts. And as to the things that the Texas Republican Party believes in and promotes as it's platform, "Strong Families" is at the top of the list. The Texas GOP believes that families should be intent on making sure their children have "the hope of a better tomorrow," the "promise of a safe and secure today," and a healthy respect for what has gone before.

The Texas GOP believes in "Limited Government" that will promote certain practices and ideas, which will "unlock individual potential" and "unleash" growth in the economic sphere. Important to the Texas GOP is that is does not try to be "all things to all people." Other important aspects of life in Texas is "opportunity for all" (everyone should have a chance to "chase a dream" or have a decent life no mater what "race" or "gender" or "religion" that one is linked to.

Texans should take "Personal Responsibility" for anything they do and there should be a "criminal justice system based on this idea," because freedom doesn't stand alone, it comes with "responsibility," according to the Texas GOP. "Rugged Individualism" is another plank on the Texas GOP's platform; "The entrepreneurial spirit of the individual that continues to solidify Texas as a world economic power" is to be kept strong through individual efforts.

The Texas GOP supports "Principled, innovative Leadership," that is to say, people are needed in the party who understand the heritage of the Lone Star State, and have a clear vision of what the future of Texas should be. Moreover Texas GOP leadership should not waver in the face of criticism, be "steadfast when confronted with adversity," and be committed to building a "better state." Honest "compassion" is important to the Texas GOP, in the sense of helping those less fortunate but Texas government should not try to solve problems by "simply throwing money" at the problem.

The Texas GOP stands for quality education through a system that prepares students for their entrance into the economy no matter their "race, wealth, or geographical location." After all, education is "the bedrock of freedom" as well as being the "gateway to opportunity," according to the Texas GOP. Finally, "Freedom" is a major plank in the Texas GOP's platform, and indeed freedom "is God given," and it was "affirmed by our Founding fathers" and it was articulated well in the Declaration of Independence and is "protected by the Constitution." (Republican Party of Texas (http://www.texasgop.org).

The Republican Party of Texas makes clear that members of all races and social classes should have an equal opportunity to prosper and thrive in Texas, but according to the book Race and Class: Texas Politics, the author, Chandler Davidson, points out that in the past the Texas Republican Party was the "party of the white race." He writes that Republican conventions were "overwhelmingly white Anglo affairs" (Davidson p. 238). He backs this up by pointing to the fact that only one percent of the Texas Republican delegates to the 1984 Republican National Convention were black, and 9% were Hispanic. Davidson compares those statistics with data from the Texas Democratic delegates to the Democratic National Convention during which 24% of the delegates were black and 20% were Latino.

The Texas Republican Primary in 1988 Republican Primary featured only 1% African-American voters within that GOP electorate, and one half of one percent of the delegates to the Republican State Convention in 1988 were black. By the mid-1980s, Davidson writes on page 238 of his book, "The Republican Party's hard-line racial policy...had drawn large numbers of racially conservative Democrats and erstwhile supporters of George Wallace into its ranks."

Meanwhile an article in the Journal of Southern History (Baggett 1974) points out that the Texas Republican party was founded between 1865 to 1867 by "Unionists" (those who supported the antislavery sentiments of the North against the pro-slavery intentions of the South). The Republican Party in Texas between 1865 and 1883 grew out of the "Whig, Know-Nothing, Constitutional Unionist or antisecessionist backgrounds," Baggett writes. Baggett continues by pointing out that the Texas Republican Party was basically born out of the policies of the Whig party, and reflected the vision of Henry Clay.

What was the Whig party all about? In the Wikipedia encyclopedia explains that the Whig Party was "formed to go against the policies of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_whig_party.The Whigs believed that Congress should have more power than the president and Whigs favored a program of "modernization and economic protectionism."

Two Whig party members, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were elected to the Presidency of the United States. The party was joined by those who were angry at President Andrew Jackson - considering him "a dangerous man on horseback with a reactionary opposition to the forces of social, economic, and moral modernization" Wikipedia explains - and in particular they were angry because Jackson "killed the bank of the United States." The Whigs who came to Texas and other Southern states promoted the idea that education and commerce "would equal physical labor or land ownership as a means of productive wealth."

Meantime, a more updated look at the Texas Republican Party was published in July, 2007, in the Wall Street Journal ("Cross Country: The Troubled Texas GOP") (Gurwitz 2007) explains that there "are signs of trouble" for the Texas GOP. Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, won re-election in November 2007, he "only achieved a plurality in a four-way race that featured a Democrat and an independent as well as a former Republican-turned-independent." And moreover, Republicans lost two races in Texas in the past year that they would normally be expected to win - seven-term incumbent Henry Bonilla, a state representative, and the only Mexican-American Republican in Texas' Congress, was defeated by Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, "who ran a haphazard campaign," Gurwitz reports in the Wall Street Journal.

And in Dallas, during the recent elections, "Republicans imploded," Gurwitz asserts. Democrats won the county judge's seat, the district attorney's office, and "41 out of 42 contested judicial races"; these losing races for the Republicans were called a "Democratic deluge" by the Dallas Morning News, according to Gurwitz. Another sign that the Texas Republican Party is losing some ground to Democrats came through a recent poll conducted by CBS News, the New York Times, and MTV, Gurwitz explains; the poll found that 54% of young people 17-29 years of age "would vote for a Democratic candidate for president," but only 32% of Texas youth in that age category would vote for a Republican presidential candidate.