It’s time to shift from the Circus to the Neighborhood

This column originally appeared at Big Jolly Politics.

After the RPT’s State Convention in Dallas earlier this month, Dave asked me to give him my recap. Since that time, I’ve sat down on several occasions to try to write the recap—but no words seemed to come out.

In many ways, what happened in Dallas is a culmination of what many of us have worked for since late 2008, and it is hard to put into words the optimism I feel for the party at this point—even as I hear that the financial condition Steve Munisteri found when he took over the party was worse than anyone outside the organization had known. He has a big job ahead of him, and we all need to help.

I’ve decided to leave it to others to someday tell the story of how Steve engineered his victory. It is a story that needs to be told, and those closest to his effort deserve the credit and the opportunity to tell that story when they are ready. However, I can say this—driving home from work one night shortly after the convention, I heard a certain State Senator who hosts a radio show (and who gave a raucous, divisive speech just before the floor vote at the convention) spin how and why Steve was elected, and he was wrong about almost everything he said.

In fact, much of the challenge we face as a party, and will face as we move together into the future, is to stop taking the word of such self-anointed “ringmasters” as gospel, and to start thinking for ourselves. And these “ringmasters” need to be careful about over-use of circus analogies, because some in our party are tired of such clowns and midway acts anointing themselves to be the “ringmasters” of our party’s future.

Now, rather than get further side-tracked by circus metaphors and divisiveness, I want to follow the lead of Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, whose truly Reaganesque convention speech (which followed and eclipsed that State Senator’s speech) called on us to unite against the Democrats and to lead our country away from what the Democrats have done. Therefore, I want to continue to address a topic that I started to talk about in a post at the end of May—how will we lead if Republicans are again given control of government nationally, and are kept in office at the state and local levels? To answer this question, I want to return to that concept I discussed in that previous post: “Renewing the American Community”.

At the heart of this concept is a word that we don’t often use anymore: Neighborhood. We often talk of families, of churches, of organizations, of communities, of villages, of cities, etc.; but rarely do we talk about neighborhoods. If you’re like me, the word conjures up memories of friends and families that lived on the same block, who went to school with us, who played on the same teams with us, who served in the same scout troops with us, or who attended church with us. It brings back memories of our friend’s mothers and fathers, who looked out for us as we walked to school, or to the school bus; who kept an eye on us as we played in the street, or down at the park; who took us in when our parents had to go on a trip or out for an evening, or just gave us a safe “home away from home”; and who told our parents if anything went awry, but who could also give us a safe and confidential ear when we most needed it. More than a place, it was a shared experience, in which the members took responsibility for the other members—a civil congregation.

If we have lost anything over the last generation, we’ve lost this sense of neighborhood—this civil congregation that has been the heart of American Exceptionalism from its beginning. I believe the mission of American Conservatism and the GOP is not just to unravel Obamaism, but to re-establish this sense of neighborhood applicable to the 21st Century. To do that we must first remember how we got those neighborhoods in the first place.

It was the enterprise of spreading neighborhoods across a continent to which prior generations committed their hopes and dreams. When those dissident European Protestants first arrived and settled the Eastern seaboard, they started the process and created colonial and state governments to protect their settlements. Then, from the earliest actions of the first Congresses under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government promoted the creation and spread of neighborhoods. If you look at the Land Ordinance of 1785, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the founding generation was intent on devising a scheme for establishing the physical blueprint for future neighborhoods—surveys of townships to include schools and churches and post offices.

As new settlers migrated westward during the 19th Century, they often moved as whole communities or congregations; for example, settlers, and their offspring, who left Salem, Massachusetts together and started west eventually (over one or more generations) reached Salem, Oregon, and left Salems in many states along their journeys. As immigrants came to the cities, they created neighborhoods in city sections—“Little Italy”, “Chinatown”, “Brighton Beach”, “Hyde Park”, and many others. Neighborhoods were home to factory workers and bankers, to every social and economic strata of the community.

Neighborhoods furnished the primary support for those who needed help. In his ground-breaking book, The Tragedy of American Compassion, which helped lead to the welfare reform legislation in 1996, Marvin Olasky, a professor at the University of Texas, outlines the history of neighborhood-based efforts to provide help to those in need. The combination of local religious and private organizations, and of ad hoc volunteers, created a safety net of people who knew who needed help, who knew who they were helping, who knew the specific needs of those they were helping, and who could properly assess the type and amount of help needed. This familiarity with the person needing the help also provided an incentive for both people to succeed—to get the person to a state whereby they could help themselves; government help was reserved for those who truly could not help themselves. The volunteers were not professionals—they were neighbors. It was this volunteer spirit is one of the attributes that de Tocqueville found so exceptional in America.

Frederick Jackson Turner, the famous University of Wisconsin and Harvard University History Professor, gave a keynote speech at the Columbia Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, in which he noted that the frontier was gone. Almost thirty years later, Turner would note

Western democracy through the whole of its earlier period tended to the production of a society of which the most distinctive fact was the freedom of the individual to rise under conditions of social mobility, and whose ambition was the liberty and well-being of the masses. The conception has vitalized all American democracy, and has brought it into sharp contrasts with the democracies of history, and with those modern efforts of Europe to create an artificial democratic order by legislation. The problem of the United States is not to create democracy, but to conserve democratic institutions and ideals.

Between 1893 and 1920, when Turner wrote those words, the country began to cope with the problems created by the Industrial Revolution that Europe had been dealing with since the mid-19th Century. European movements had tried to change the social dynamic through laws designed to give the common man more direct say in their monarchical governments, while giving those governments more responsibility over the welfare of the common man. What Turner noted was that America already had created a system whereby citizens’ liberties were protected and they could participate in government—it didn’t need to legislate it into existence, but it did need to preserve it. Part of that American system was the neighborhood.

Throughout the 20th Century, we failed to heed Turner, and we followed Europe’s model for the “democratic welfare state”, and helped to slowly destroy our neighborhoods. First in the cities, and then in outlying suburbs and towns, the places remained but the sense of neighborhood disappeared. Some of the changes to the social dynamic were well-intentioned—even necessary, at least in the short-term. For instance,

* arguably, the Great Depression required some infusion of federal action to organize resources to get the country back to work, because the problem was national (even international) in its scale; and

* the extension of the recognition and protection of real liberty to minorities and women was long overdue.

However, each of these changes created consequences that destroyed neighborhoods:

* the change in the relationship of the individual with the national government; the national, programmatic approach to public welfare; and the professionalization of social work became a permanent fixture of American life, which the welfare reform legislation of 1996 did not fundamentally change;

* the extension of real liberty to minorities led to greater social mobility for middle-class minorities, which led to the separation of those persons from their traditional communities and led to a permanent underclass left to be cared for by the national and state governments; and

* the extension of real liberty to women took them out of their roles as the permanent sentinels of the neighborhoods—the mothers on watch for the care of the children, the volunteers to help those in need, the teachers and volunteers in the local schools—and placed them in the permanent workforce.

While each of these steps created positive benefits for individuals or groups, they left a fundamental void in our unique, American society.

We never have addressed the void that these actions left in our society—the loss of our neighborhoods—and the consequences of that void on our liberties. Today we live in gated “communities”, subdivisions with fancy names, fenced-in yards, large houses or high-rise flats with so many built-in conveniences that we never have to leave them except to go to work (that is--if you don’t work from home), and many of us now home-school our children. We have all these material benefits, but many people don’t know the people who live in the next house or apartment, or on the next street--let alone, know of their needs. Obamaism is a further extension of this model, that would limit our liberties and redistribute our wealth to bestow material benefits and safety directly to each of us, without calling on any of us to be good neighbors.

If we don’t begin to accept the responsibility that liberty expects of us, I fear we will ultimately become a “Place” where taxes are compelled from some to bestow benefits to others, rather than continue to be a “Nation” where we share an interdependence and a love of liberty.

How can the GOP begin to address these issues? The answers are at once simple and familiar—we need to promote those activities that build strong neighborhoods. Here are some examples:

* Promote policies that encourage small-business creation—small business creation is the easiest way to help people balance their need to make a living with our country’s need to rebuild neighborhoods. Businesses employ people, and employing people effects their lives. Every paycheck sets aside a retirement fund, pays for health care, provides for the sustenance of a family and (indirectly) for the support of the neighborhoods where employees live. Products or services generated by a business effects its customers, and those people touched by its customers. Wealth created by businesses increases the tax base and tax rolls, which in turn fund our schools—more wealth, creates better-funded schools. Programs that a business supports can enrich the lives of residents in the community where the business is located, as well as the lives of its employees. Each of us spends more time every day with our co-workers than with our family: the positive bonds you formed through this activity ripple out in every direction.

* Promote involvement in a traditional community-based service organization—between 1870 and 1920 many of the organizations that we remember as the backbones of our neighborhoods were created, and most still exist: Rotary, Kiwanis, the PTA, and many more. These organizations were designed to help serve the needs of their communities, and provide the social networks that build and maintain neighborhoods. Most of these organizations are crying for new members, but time and other commitments keep people from joining. The GOP at every level should be promoting policies that shorten commutes to work, offer tax breaks to companies who give employees paid time to work for schools and volunteer organizations, and offer tax breaks to individuals to donate time to charities (and faith-based organizations) as well as money or assets.

* Promote assimilation programs—To be a nation we must assimilate. Schools, churches, and childhood activities in the neighborhood were designed to assimilate children into our society as adults. Newcomers need the same help. Let’s not just argue about it, let’s act. Like the local GOP is now doing with its new Eastside Office, lets promote policies that give incentives to private organizations to create community centers and teach adults English and citizenship; that give children a safe place to meet, do their homework, and play; and that give families a safe place to interact and get to know and care for each other.

* Promote policies that keep families and neighborhoods intact and building wealth—Locally, our GOP Juvenile Court Judges worked to create a model program, funded with private dollars and partnered with neighborhood churches, that is keeping first-time, non-violent juvenile offenders in school and out of jail. These types of programs will fight the long-term problems of under-education, under-employment, and chronic poverty that fester in communities where too many young people drop out of school and get a criminal record. We need more of these innovative programs that help rebuild strong schools, strong families, and strong neighborhoods.

Some of you may think this agenda is too simple and too short—it is, but I must stop this post at some point. What I really want to do is to start you thinking about how we can build a positive agenda for running the government based on our ideals—based on that sense of Neighborhood that focused our liberty and built this country—and to re-build the nation we believe in. Give me your thoughts.

Some Thoughts about American Conservatism this Memorial Day

This column originally appeared at Big Jolly Politics.

As I enter this Memorial Day weekend, I’ve been reflecting a lot on life and the last few years. As this Friday came and went, my emotions ran the gamut as:

• I remembered the tenth anniversary of the passing of my mother, whose principles and values formed the basis for how I would approach my life;

• I remembered my late father, who, though blind in one eye from birth, memorized the eye chart to pass his Army physical, and when caught at the end of basic training, had already proven himself to the point that, though he never went overseas, he spent the duration of his tour of duty during World War II training marksmen for the Army—and his quiet tenacity shaped how I would attack every challenge in my life;

• I received a letter from my oldest daughter, who moved to Los Angeles after graduating from college last year, telling me that she would be producing and starring in her first professional theatrical production this summer;

• I talked to my middle daughter about her plans to move to Austin by the end of the summer to strike-out on her own; and

• I saw my youngest daughter receive the highest academic awards from her school as she graduated from 5th Grade.

My reflections also turned to that small band of people, who starting in late 2008, I worked with as we began the struggle to re-awaken our local GOP to needs it has to address, and to how these friends have seized this last year and a half to make a difference with Tea Parties, with radio shows, with internet blogs, with national organizations in African-American and Latino communities, and with grass-roots efforts in our precincts. But, on Friday, I received a phone call from another of these friends who worked with me over this time, who told me of an extraordinary project he has now undertaken. Of all the many projects this group has undertaken, I think I may be the proudest of what he is now doing (and that is saying a lot). To explain my special pride in this effort, let me digress for a moment.

I’ve always believed that American Conservatism is more than a political movement. For it to work, American Conservatism must promote principles for individuals to live as neighbors in a community of free people, and our political principles and policies should flow from and compliment these “life” principles. I believe Goldwater was talking about this when he wrote in The Conscience of a Conservative:

Conservatism is not an economic theory, though it has economic implications. …It is Conservatism that puts material things in their proper place—that has a structured view of the human being and of human society, in which economics plays only a subsidiary role.

…Conservatives take account of the whole man, while the Liberals tend to look only at the material side of man’s nature. The Conservative believes that man is, in part, an economic, an animal creature; but that he is also a spiritual creature with spiritual needs and spiritual desires. What is more, these needs and desires reflect the superior side of man’s nature, and thus take precedence over his economic wants. Conservatism therefore looks upon the enhancement of man’s spiritual nature as the primary concern of political philosophy. Liberals, on the other hand—in the name of a concern for “human beings”—regard the satisfaction of economic wants as the dominant mission of society. They are, moreover, in a hurry. So that their characteristic approach is to harness the society’s political and economic forces into a collective effort to compel “progress.” In this approach, I believe they fight against Nature.

Surely the first obligation of a political thinker is to understand the nature of man.

An American Conservative knows that this land was settled, and this nation was founded, by people who tried their whole lives to understand the nature of man in this temporal world, to reconcile it with man’s relationship to his Creator, and to forge a real society based on that understanding. Because we appreciate this basis for our unique society, many people of faith naturally are drawn to American Conservatism, though, as a political movement its principles are broader and more encompassing than the tenets of any one religion or sect. Newt Gingrich, tried to discuss this unique “American Civilization” in a college course he taught in the mid-1990s, and he was ridiculed at the time by the left for his effort.

In fact, Reagan, in the famous 1964 speech that launched his political career, conveyed the political dilemma every American Conservative faces when they try to debate public policy:

…[A]ny time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They say we're always "against" things -- we're never "for" anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.

When I started to seriously consider how to fix the problems that confronted our local GOP and drafted a plan, I wanted to do more than just talk about the nuts-and-bolts of party building and management. I wanted to discuss this bigger challenge to re-orient the discussion among conservatives to how we re-engage in the debate about achieving society’s humanitarian goals by using and implementing our principles in creative and dynamic ways—of addressing urban issues and education; of addressing the need to revitalize our understanding of the responsibilities of being a neighbor and maintaining a neighborhood; of what Steve Parkhurst, Jill Fury and I called “Renewing the American Community”.

In “Renewing the American Community” we wanted to remind conservatives that the American Conservative movement is not just about life and liberty, but—to be true to itself—it must address the third inalienable right: the pursuit of happiness. Not the purely material happiness that so many of our fellow citizens dwell upon, and that the creed of the Democratic Party focuses upon, but the happiness of the whole man (of the economic and spiritual sides of man)—what the ancients called “a whole life well spent,” and the challenge that St. Paul describes in his letter to the Galatians:

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Above all else, we wanted to remind our conservative friends that we will not succeed politically in the long-run if all we say is “no” to the Democrat’s schemes and plans—we must show and pursue an alternative course for addressing the needs of our society based on rebuilding our bonds as free people, as neighbors, and as fellow citizens, and on pursuing policies that use those bonds that De Tocqueville found so unique—rather than government—to address pressing needs. Our unique society can not work, and we can not limit the size and role of government in our lives, without these bonds. Neither liberty, nor “the pursuit of happiness” can long survive where free men and women isolate themselves from each other. In fact, de Tocqueville’s observation crystallizes this dilemma:

When no firm and lasting ties any longer unite men, it is impossible to obtain the cooperation of any great number of them unless you can persuade every man whose help is required that he serves his private interests by voluntarily uniting his efforts to those of all the others.

Without the bonds of relationships and interdependence—of family, of neighbor—action for the common good must be bribed or coerced, and the only entity with power to do that will be a government with the power to do great harm (as our parents learned throughout the last century).

Well, back to my friend’s new project. His plan is write a book and develop a seminar with a simple premise: to re-teach our neighbors that conservatism isn’t just a political movement, it is a way of life; and that if we re-adopt this way of life, we can lay the groundwork for taking back our government and society based on the political principles of American Conservatism. At his request, I look forward to mentoring him with this worthy project. If he succeeds, than so much of what we all set out to do in late 2008 will be set in motion.

Thanks to my family, and to everyone who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over these last 18 months, for making this a memorable holiday weekend.

To the Republican voters of Harris County:

Thank you for participating in the year-long debate over the state of our party organization and plans for its future. Although I sincerely congratulate Jared Woodfill for his victory in our primary race for the Chair of the Harris County Republican Party, this race was always about more than that office—it was about you and the future of our party. So, I hope you will be the ultimate winners from this race.

But, before I address that point further, let me congratulate a few others who deserve mention:

* My supporters, including leaders from many of the clubs and organizations from around the state and this county, leaders of the Tea Party movement, current and former elected officials and precinct chairs, and activists from every faction and demographic group that comprise our Grand Old Party—I was the just the vessel for your hopes and dreams for a revitalized, united and growing party; it is your spirit that really drove this campaign and will continue to work for a stronger party in the years to come;

* Bob Perry, who graciously helped finance both campaigns and allowed our respective messages to be heard by the voters during the last week of the run-off campaign; and

* Dan Patrick, Dr. Stephen Hotze, and their associates—your highly visible and active embrace of Jared’s campaign and record, and your spirited criticism of me and my supporters, now place the responsibility squarely on your shoulders for making sure Jared’s team actually follows through on its stated commitment to improve the operational and financial management of the party, and to be more inclusive, over the next two years; so, I challenge both of you to make it work.

To make it work, the current team must learn the right lesson from this election: our neighbors, who look to the Republican Party to represent their principles and convictions, want to be included in the operation of this party and its future. Simply put,

* they want their phone calls and emails returned;

* they want the party to produce a transparent strategic plan, budget and fundraising plan, and then implement it;

* they want their money managed properly and with transparency;

* they want to be welcomed to volunteer for the party;

* they want to be welcomed to participate as precinct chairs, or in other capacities, without having to submit to tests or inquisitions;

* they want the party to live by its timeless principles by taking its message into every precinct and neighborhood of this county, and then growing permanently into those communities; and,

* above all else, they want to help win elections and get Republicans in office at every level of government who will promote the principles and convictions we share.

Although I have promised my family and my colleagues that this would be my last campaign for an elective office, I also promise to continue to fight to revitalize this party. As I committed to Jared and the voters during the campaign, I and my supporters are ready to roll-up our sleeves and help unite this party and make the organization work by addressing the concerns that I listed above. In fact, I reiterated this promise to Jared privately yesterday before the polls had even opened. We now publicly extend our hand to Chairman Woodfill, Senator Patrick, Dr. Hotze, and their team of associates, to help address these concerns and elect Republicans. If our hand is accepted, we can re-build a strong party at precisely the time it is needed here and nationally.

If it is not accepted, we will pursue these goals parallel to the party organization, just as Senator Patrick is now doing by creating a parallel organization to the Republican Party itself. However, the proliferation of these hyphenated Republican groups is not healthy for the future of conservatism or the GOP, so I hope and pray that our hand of family, friendship, and alliance will be accepted so we can stand united in our fight for liberty.

If our hand is accepted, then you, the Republicans of Harris County, will be the ultimate winners of this primary season—and that was my goal all along.

Campaign Video - The Time Is Now

Reflections on the last full week of this Campaign

What a week! As early voting has ended, I look back on this week with amazement.

Financially, we started the week at a draw with the incumbent with money raised since the last TEC report filing, and we ended the week with a draw when counting money received and pledged. That second draw was due to the infusion of cash from Bob Perry into both campaigns. Mr. Perry is a great benefactor of our party, whose money has and will allow both sides to take their message to Republican voters through Election Day—allowing the best message and messenger to prevail. My thanks and admiration go to Mr. Perry for his underwriting of the final stage of this race for our party’s future.

Turnout-wise, the turnout so far is surpassing most pundit's expectations. As I stood out at the early-voting poll in Kingwood on Friday, I was impressed by the steady stream of voters and of the education they had gone through to prepare for their votes. We will probably exceed 30,000 voters when the votes are counted on Tuesday night, and that is a great statement about the interest in our party and its future.

Politically, I have seen the breathless support and criticism from friend and “foe” (though we are all family) alike in this race as the week has proceeded, and with continuing questions raised about my history, my beliefs, my judgment, and my commitment to the Republican Party. One of the bright spots was when an old friend of high school not only found me on Facebook, but came to my defense and posted about my conservative activism even as a high school student--thanks, Jim, and good to hear from you after all these years.

In response to the criticism, let’s just say that I have never claimed to be perfect (nor my judgment to be infallible), but my commitment to this party, and to its unity and growth, is total. As I have reiterated often during this campaign, I will support the party if this race ends with the incumbent’s victory, and I have already started that process by committing to the RNC that I would help—win or lose—with the creation and implementation of a pilot program here in Harris County to grow the party into Latino, Asian-American and African-American neighborhoods and precincts, and to recruit Republicans to run for city and school board races.

I also hear and see the last-minute rallying around the incumbent, and the statements that I, and my supporters, are dividing the party at the wrong time, and are distorting the record of the incumbent. With that final criticism in mind, here is the question I pose to you as we enter this last weekend of the race: if everything that the current team at Richmond Avenue has done is so great, why am I essentially running even in fundraising with the incumbent since the last reporting period, and why do I have the support of so many party leaders, civic leaders, and conservative organizations in this race against a 4-term incumbent? This level of support for a challenger in a Republican primary is unprecedented—and it is unprecedented for a reason: the current team has been organizationally and financially floundering for years, and all the insiders know it, and all the activists can see it. The Obama Wave simply unearthed this truth for all to see.

Therefore, let me leave you with a paraphrase of Reagan’s immortal question: Are you Harris County Republicans better off now than you were in 2002?

If your answer is “No”, my candidacy has, at long last, given you a choice on April 13th for a different future.

Coffee with the Candidate

On Friday morning, from 9am-10am, I'd like to invite you to stop by for "Coffee with the Candidate". We will be meeting at Blue Planet Cafe at 1330 Wirt Rd at Westview (a little north of I-10), in the Bell Tower Center. Stop by before work for a cup of coffee, a latte, a juice or a breakfast treat, and we can talk a little politics while we're at it. After our visit, you can proceed one block up Wirt Road to the Trini Mendenhall Sosa Community Center where you can cast your ballot in the Republican runoff election.

Blue Planet Cafe is a real source of pride in our community. They are an independent cafe, on April 15th they will be celebrating their first year in business. Once a month, Blue Planet Cafe features a local organization doing good work in the community. A portion of the tips they collect for that month goes to the organization. But beyond just a monetary contribution, Blue Planet Cafe allows the featured organization to leave their literature for the cafe customers to peruse and possibly get involved. We are glad to have found a cafe, which by the way has very good food and drinks, that is putting principles we believe in to work by supporting a community and seeking people who help people, rather than government doing this work.

You can learn more about Blue Planet Cafe at www.BluePlanetCafe.biz.

A Greeting for Easter and Passover

Let me take a break from preparing for early voting next week to wish happiness to all this weekend who are celebrating either Easter or Passover. There is one word that has come to mind as I’ve thought about both holidays this year: Liberty.

For Passover is, at its core, the celebration of the liberation of the Hebrews from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land; while the Resurrection gives us the promise of liberation from sin and from the law of the Pharisees. As Paul tells us in Galatians:

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled with one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I know that those of us who cherish Liberty, and who support the Promised Land of Israel, feel like we have not had a lot to celebrate recently. We’ve witnessed our government usurp powers it was never intended to have, and recently it needlessly strained relations with our closest ally in the Holy Lands—Israel. But with all this, we must recognize that we are entering a new season of Liberty, and we must fight for it, and pray for it. Therefore, this weekend let’s together recite and remember the concluding words of the traditional Passover prayer: Next year in Jerusalem.