Texas

Texas Republicans
by Jennifer Shaeffer

           Texas is the second largest state in the nation, after Alaska, with an area of over 280,000 square miles. It borders Mexico on the southwest and the Gulf of Mexico on the Southeast. To the north and east, Texas shares borders with Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana and to the west, New Mexico. The vast area Texas encompasses includes forests, mountains, deserts and a long, subtropical coastal lowland. Its wealth of mineral resources is almost unequaled by any other state.
           With a population of 19,128,261, Texas is currently the second largest state in population, surpassing New York in 1994. In 1990, whites constituted 75.2 % of the population, blacks 11.9 %, Asians 1.9 %, Native Americans 0.4 % and those of mixed heritage or not reporting ethnicity, 10.6 %. Hispanics, who may be of any race, were 25.5 % of the people. Texas’ large Hispanic population is a reflection of its positive relationship with its neighbor, Mexico, with whom it shares an especially beneficial trade relationship.
           Nearly 85 % of Texas’ population resides in its surging metropolitan areas, a number which is expected to continue rising, while rural areas in the state continue to lose population. Texas is a state with vast income disparities, as evidenced by the affluent suburbs surrounding its major cities to its many poor crime-ridden neighborhoods. Approximately 18 % of the state’s population live below the national poverty level, yet Texas has some of the nation’s lowest income taxes and welfare levels. The large number of citizens living in poverty also affects the crime level in the state, as Texas is a violent state and leads the nation in number of executions.
           Few states possess as wide a variety of resources as Texas, and few support economic activities of comparable variety. In its early history, Texas’ economy was based on oil, cotton and cattle, but as oil prices began to fall worldwide, a need for diversification of the economy arose. Today its economy has become much more complex, as the former have now been joined by hundreds of other businesses and industrial activities. Texas’ low taxes and lack of income tax have helped attract many of the nation’s leading companies to the state while creating more jobs in the 1990’s than any other state. Today Texas is one of the leading centers of high-tech industries including the aerospace, telecommunications, and computer industries in addition to a large number of defense contractors. The service industry contributes the largest share of the state’s gross product and employs the most workers followed by wholesale and retail trade. Texas’ right-to-work law, which prohibits union membership as a condition of employment, prevents the majority of workers in its industries from becoming unionized. Its industries are also leading exporters to Mexico, exporting nearly 50% of total U.S. exports to Mexico.
           Until recently, Texas has been a stronghold of the Democratic Party in both state and national elections. Only since the 1970’s has the state witnessed the rise of the Republican Party. In presidential elections, Republicans have won Texas’ electoral votes only eight times, but five of the eight were after 1970. Today, the state of Texas is an indisputably Republican State, with the majority of its citizens supporting the issues of cultural conservatism, minimalist government, and individual self-government through God-given abilities, all championed by the Republican Party of Texas.
           The Republican Party’s positions concerning foreign policy are based on the ideal of a strong, individual nation able to defend itself. The party fully supports increased spending to provide a strong national defense, however, troops which contribute toward providing this defense must exclude from service homosexuals and HIV positive individuals. Women must also be barred from combat roles. It supports assistance to emerging republics throughout the world, which are trying to institute a republican form of government. The party feels the decision to assist other countries though should rest solely with the United States itself. Therefore it believes the U.S. should immediately terminate all financial and military obligations to the UN, as well as membership in the organization. All military troops should be immediately recalled from under UN control and resume their duties of defending the people of the United States of America. The U.S. should also disengage from all countries in which there is no clear national defense interest. In addition to the UN, the party also opposes multinational military alliances such as NATO, SEATO, and the Warsaw Pact along with the creation of an International Criminal Court. Lastly, funding of the IMF should cease, as the IMF supports foreign tyrants and provides international bankers with American taxpayer’s money.
           On the issue of health care, the party believes it to be a matter of personal responsibility. While the party desires adequate healthcare for all, this should not be a concern of the federal government. No individual should be denied care solely because of age, race, physical or mental disability. The party also opposes legislation that restricts a patient’s right to choose a provider or prevents providers from servicing the public and private sector. Appropriate research to find a cure for AIDS, a serious threat to human health, is also needed. While the party views with compassion individuals infected with the disease, the epidemic must be de-politicized. It must be made known to victims of this disease that behavior has personal and social consequences.
           The party supports the termination of the Social Security tax and the transition to a system of private pensions similar to individual retirement accounts. It recommends removing earning limits and making benefits non-taxable. Social Security funds should not be allocated to general revenues for spending nor should they be used to purchase public or private stock.
Human life, from conception to death, should be respected. The party strongly urges the reversal of Roe v. Wade and supports a human life amendment to the constitution. Public revenues and or facilities should not be provided for abortion services. Judges should be appointed at all levels who also hold the same value for life and who extend the protection granted by the Fourteenth Amendment to unborn children. Until such a time that the rights of unborn children are constitutionally protected, the party supports the passage of such measures as parental consent for minors and criminalization of partial birth abortions to restrict and regulate abortions.
           The welfare system of the U.S. has created in individuals a dependency on government and the inability and lack of motivation to be self-sufficient. It is for this reason that the party calls for continual reduction of welfare rolls. This reduction will allow recipients to work, learn, or train for benefits and start them on the road to self-sufficiency. Current welfare recipients should be limited to a benefit term of two years and mothers who have additional children while receiving benefits should not receive a benefit increase.
           A quality education, the vehicle to opportunity and success, is the right of al children of this nation, regardless of race, wealth, or religion. The party believes that quality education is best achieved by increasing state and local control of schools and empowering parents with the choice to select the best schools for their children. In an effort to grant parents this freedom, the party supports a tax deduction/credit or voucher system to be used in the parents’ school of choice. The party also recognizes that in order to maximize local control over schools, several steps must be taken. First, tax revenues collected within a school district should remain in that district. Second, and most important, the immediate dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education. The regulations imposed upon local school districts by this agency should also be terminated. Several of the U.S. Department of Education programs the party opposes are the emphasis on global political interdependence in the current curriculum, and the re-writing of American history to portray its heroes negatively. The party also strongly opposes the value-less instruction of students, which denies the existence of morals and the Creator. Instead, the party supports a safe, learning environment for children, where corporal punishment is used when necessary, and an educational curriculum based upon biblical principles and traditional moral, political and economic values is taught. Finally, sex education is viewed as a parental responsibility and if taught in schools, must teach abstinence until heterosexual marriage as the only responsible way to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted teen pregnancies.
           The party recognizes and supports the constitutional right of all citizens to keep and bear arms and opposes any measures aimed at restricting this right. Contrary to public opinion, the responsibility for criminal actions should be placed on individuals and not guns. The party directly opposes any legislation creating a system to register and monitor the ownership of firearms and calls for the repeal of “the Brady Law”. Individuals should also be responsible for the storage and operation of their firearms.
           The party detests all forms of discrimination based on creed, race, color, age and disability. Equal opportunity is the right of every citizen in this nation, equal outcome is not. The party thereby opposes all forms of racial and gender preferences in areas including, but not limited to, education, employment and contracting. Instead, the party supports private efforts to assist in minority business development in addition to gender and race-neutral methods such as tax deductions and public housing tenant ownership programs. The party also opposes mandatory multicuralism courses require in educational institutions.
           Marriage is a God-ordained union between a man and a woman, and serves as the foundation of our society. Homosexual relationships and the practice of sodomy, which is illegal in the state of Texas, are not only a major contributing factor in the breakdown of the family unit, but also contribute to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Homosexuality is a violation of the God-ordained truths in this world and should not be taught as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. The party opposes any legislation granting privileges to individuals who engage in such conduct including custody of adopted children, granting of insurance benefits through a partner and same sex marriage.
           The party believes in the concept of equal pay for equal work but opposes legislation enforcing “comparable worth” or the creation of any agency whose purpose is wage adjusting. The party also opposes the minimum wage law and believes it should be repealed.
           Concerning the issue of the budget and taxes, the party calls for a reduction in spending and a decrease in taxes. To minimize government spending, many government agencies should be privatized and public money should never be used to fund private projects. Legislators in Washington must only vote for balanced budgets and if ever a budget surplus exists, it should never be used to increase spending.
           The Republican Party of Texas is confident its principles can successfully lead the country into the next century. Through limited government, fiscal responsibility, a strong national defense, and equality for all, a prosperous United States of America will emerge for all.