Rick Perry: Is His Real Problem Insincerity?

It’s been just more than 24 hours since I defended Rick Perry against the smear by Jonathan Martin about his intelligence, but today, a bit of information arrives to more strongly suggest that Mr. Perry has other problems. In addition to the other instances in which his conservative credentials have come into question, now arises the question of his tacit support for Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan of 1993. In a letter to Mrs. Clinton, then Agriculture Commissioner expressed support for the ill-fated overhaul plan. Many are inclined to ignore this because in addition to being an eighteen year old letter, everybody knows Rick Perry had been a Democrat before becoming a Republican, so the thinking is that this should present no problem. Unfortunately, Rick Perry had already changed parties in order to run for the post as Agriculture Commissioner, the post in which he served at the time of the letter. Rather than questioning Rick Perry’s intelligence as does the leftist media, I believe we conservatives must ask a much more serious question about the sincerity of his most deeply held philosophical underpinnings. Does he mean it? Is it just an act? Is he really a conservative?

Changing political parties is not unusual. Politicians do it frequently, and in several watershed election years, waves of elected officials have done so. Still, for the electorate, a change of parties generally also signifies a change in underlying philosophy. I was raised in a household and extended family consisting entirely of liberal Democrats, such that virtually nothing I said about politics prior to 1983 would be in agreement with my positions some three decades later. My conversion was different from Rick Perry’s, in that before I changed parties, I had changed my outlook. Philosophy drove my political affiliations, but not the reverse. This is how most people come to make a change: Their knowledge, experience, and ultimately, their philosophy changes, and this leads to a change of parties.

This is not necessarily the case among professional politicians. All too frequently, their change in political party is instantaneous and without apparent philosophical reflection or study. Instead, they are frequently motivated solely by the desire to win. The letter from Rick Perry to Hillary Clinton is indicative of this same trend. Perry had been a Republican for four years before writing this letter, leading one to wonder if his party conversion hadn’t been a matter of political convenience rather than a deeply held philosophical awakening.

Once you realize this, the rest of his record begins to make sense. Over the period defined by his electoral career, the general political atmosphere in Texas has been steadily creeping from left to right, with only a few aberrations. Rick Perry’s apparent political position has closely mirrored this shift, from Democrat to Republican moderate to GOP establishment to conservative, and finally to Tea Party. This is an odd sort of conversion, particularly measured against the sort of conversion most ordinary Americans may at some point undergo. Instead, it looks like a conversion of political convenience, born not of deeply stirring study and thorough argumentation, but of calculations in the back rooms of Texas political expediency.

This sort of conversion of convenience speaks to the character and leadership of the politician in question. What it implies is a calculated attempt to position himself in accordance with his election prospects rather than with his philosophy. This isn’t leadership, and what it illustrates is just another politician scrambling to the head of the parade, pretending to have led it. At this point, you’d be right to wonder if his espoused beliefs are simply a different skin uploaded on the Rick Perry App. Considering his progression, it actually demands an answer to the question: “When did you become a conservative?”

What was the moment of conversion? What was that issue that cinched it for Mr. Perry? The elections of 1994 caused similar spontaneous conversions for elected officials all across Texas, but Mr. Perry’s party conversion five years earlier simply suggests he was out ahead of the curve. Writing a letter such as this, we know he was not a conservative in 1993. Did the elections eighteen months later convince him?

With this in mind, the other issues that arise with respect to Perry’s more recent acts that seem in opposition to conservative principles begin to make more sense. A reflexive action to mandate Gardasil? His remarks on his belief in an open border? His chameleon-like sliding in and out of La Raza and ACORN events? The TransTexas Corridor? Now, knowing this, and having seen this letter begins to put in context what a few seeming aberrations couldn’t quite nail down. Perry may be a conservative today, a Tea Party member tomorrow, or a member of the John Birch Society yesterday. Next week, he’s likely to be a globalist, a corporatist, or frankly, anything under the sun. He’s shifting, but his reflexes indicate he still suffers from a fundamental misunderstanding of what is conservatism, because he doesn’t really mean it. His re-election campaign of 2010 along with his election campaign this year seem to bleed the standard stereotypes of a southern, Christian conservative. In truth, he’s becoming a caricature that hardly resembles most Texas conservatives due in part to its gross overstatement. One almost expects him to show up at a rally with a six-shooter, wearing spurs and a Stetson. Actually, he’s already done that.

Mr. Perry isn’t a conservative. He’s playing a role. He’s doing what he believes it will take to get elected. His record is thick with instances in which he did not behave as a conservative, or even a Republican, and all well after his conversion to the GOP. This is the real problem with Rick Perry. He’s not “dumb,” he’s insincere. He’s a political opportunist who has great instincts for getting out ahead of his electorate in form, but in function, he remains what he has always been: A political actor. If he goes on to win the nomination, he’ll have deserved an Oscar.

Of course he’s a windmill guy! Why wouldn’t he be? Obviously you’ve never been to West Texas, have you? Or even north Texas. We have wind blowing 24/7/365 idiot! NOR do we have 9 months of snow every year! Why wouldln’t we aggregate our energy sources?

Every, EVERY freaking conservative on the slate has SAID, WE NEED TO AGGREGATE ALL, GET THAT? ALL! OF OUR ENERGY SOURCES!

NOW, buzz OFF!

You know very well windmill power requires foreign manufacturing of the windmills, and steady wind. You haven't had steady wind for several months as the drought continues. There are other FREEPER THREADS about that problem.

Wake up. Open your eyes. You re defending the indefensible.

Try http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/2770677/posts for some new ideas.

The business about putting Vets at the end of the line after welfare people has never been particularly popular. That a veteran like Perry would "commend" such an effort raises some serious questions about all sorts of things.

Very troubling news to this veteran. But it seems to fit the pattern. I do not trust any politician who tries to renege on the promise made to us veterans those long many years ago that if we fought for our nation and suffered for it would in turn take care of our medical needs resulting from our service connected war-time duties. I pledge that I will work extra hard to defeat any politician even thinking about harming our veterans in this way!

Oh get LOST muawiya, your RINO krap is pathetic and just most lies!

I've read about enough of your petty crap here sport. FWIW I happen to like what this poster writes, I find his/her information much more accurate and helpful than yours by a long shot. I'd suggest you try to grow up and act like a mature adult. You sound as if you are about 16 or 17 years old. Oh, and your about page gave me more insight about you than maybe some here would realize. Yellow dog democrat indeed, I can easily believe it.

Remember, the "secret" to Hillarykkkare was that ALL the resources now expended by the federal government on medicine or medical affairs would be consolidated, and then parceled out such that all the uninsured would get their medical coverage from those funds.

That would take all the VA, active duty military, Indian reservation, Medicare, Medicaid, FEHB and cancer research funding and consolidate it, and parcel it out on criteria determined by bureaucrats instead of Congress.

The Clintonistas and other Democrats imagined that it was the radio talk show folks who stirred up opposition to their plan ~ yet, it was pretty obvious to everyone else that trashing the Veterans was something that just wasn't going to happen.

Most Democrats still don't understand that part ~ and there's the problem.

This was from National Review Online ~ hardly a Democrat gossip rag:

"As I wrote in these pages earlier this month, Texas has 10,135 megawatts of installed wind-generation capacity, which is nearly three times as much as any other state. And yet, on Wednesday, all of the state’s wind turbines mustered just 880 megawatts of power when electricity was needed the most. Put another way, even though wind turbines account for about 10 percent of Texas’s 103,000 megawatts of summer electricity-generation capacity, wind energy was able to provide just 1.3 percent of the juice the state needed on Wednesday afternoon to keep the lights on and the air conditioners humming.""

(Cited above ~)

So, argue that RowdyFFC ~ tell us how 889 megawatts is the same as 10,135 megawatts.

Bet you just love lying there in the dirt looking up at the windmills.

You can do that in Illinois if you want.

Did you know ERCLOT (sp?) didn't want to connect to the windmills? Wasn't worth it.

I put it out there ~ the story about the Texas windmills in National Review On Line. The pretty boys from Tex-as are telling us these windmills are good but they won't debate details. Now let's see if they can tell us why they are "on" when they are actually "off".

Like you I think they'd argue on behalf of the most outrageous Leftwingtard atrocity if their boy and his hair were in the background.

I'm seeing all these stories about Solyndra solar posted at FR but I'm not seeing the stories about HelioVolt.

Gov. Perry Announces TEF Investment in Solar Power Company

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today announced the state will invest $1 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) in HelioVolt Corp. of Austin for the construction of a 125,000 square foot manufacturing facility and development space to test and produce the company’s thin-film solar power cells, which convert sunlight into electricity. The deal will create nearly 160 jobs and $62 million in capital investment.

HelioVolt Corp. puts off growth. Plant is ready but demand not there yet

After months of stealthy operations, solar cell maker HelioVolt Corp. has delayed by two years its job creation projections.

Wow ~ Heliovolt ~ and there are people on FR who think LENR technology is a scam. Here's a proven technology and yet the money just flows through the hands eh.

One minor caveat here is that the big push for solar cells has been isolated power requirements ~ e.g. safety lights, highway signs, rural emergency phones, etc. There's really only so much demand for that stuff and once it's up that's the end of the market.

A flashing McDonald's sign on top of Mt. Everest is a possible candidate for solar cells but it's not likely, nor are many other "feel good" ideas like that.

Another serious impact into the solar cell business has come from dramatically improved fuel cells, AND, surprise of surprises, dramatic reductions in the power requirements needed to operate TV, radio, computers, etc.

While doing some "cleaning" the other day I came across a really handy-dandy device I always carried in my brief case. It was a ruler with metric and American standard measurements ~ about a foot long. It has a touchpad keyboard with all the numbers and signs, a small LCD bar and a small solar cell bar.

There are formulas for converting all sorts of things into all sorts of other things.

I paid $1.00 for it a long time ago.

Solar hasn't really taken off!

First, you are wrong if you think that Federal subsidizing is not coming from tax payer dollars.

I do not think that. All federal dollars are tax payer dollars. I mean that windmills are not the problem, subsidies are the problem, regardless if they are for windmills, ethanol, or any other.

Why did Perry exclude solar from his alternative energy position?

My point was, this was not an energy source selected by Texas or Gov Perry. We (Texas) are not subsidizing the wind with a state level program. We are adding Transmission lines to strengthen the grid and bring power from West Texas towards the East where most of our load is located. It will carry electrons made from wind, solar or natural gas generators in the Permian Basin, depending on what gets built.

I agree that Solar, if economical, would be useful for us. The high solar output days match our high air condition load times.

muawiyah...what do you not understand about diversifying and aggregating energy sources that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES HAVE TALKED ABOUT. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with wind turbines in Texas, I don’t care which one of your rags you get off of.

Nobody EVER said it was the be all and end all of energy sources.

Do you have a freaking clue how much energy is being sucked out of Texas right now and has been since June 10th when the three digit temperatures rose and continued now for going on four months??? Get a freaking clue!

I'm far more familiar with the windmill collection outside Bloomington Illinois. Stood there under them and watched them for hours. They turn on. They turn off. They adjust themselves. They sometimes go slack during exceptionally high winds just because they're not built for the sort of winds you get in that part of the country.

MOST of the equipment is imported from abroad.

The reports are that aggregate average windspeed drops as the temperature increases. And, as the National Review article noted that's exactly what's happening in Texas this Summer.

BTW, I've lived all over this country at different times in different places so I have some idea of what happens when it comes to climate. Even did Advanced Infantry Training at Fort McClellan when it was being used for training during the Nam. We built a "Tiger Land" there in fact ~ about 120 degrees in the shade as I recall. You know what a Moon Pie and a Big RC are?

Do ya?

Betcha ya' don't. Hop off that Duece and a Half at the country store and go in and slide an ice cold RC up through the machine to the gate, put in a dime, pull it out, and WOW ~ nothing like it after a sweaty job.

The Moon Pie perks you up a bit but first the RC.

Benning wasn't as much fun ~ little opportunity to drive around the country and do stuff.

Hey, best bet, you go up in the Taledega National Forest some time and find a big ol' pine grove, and some tall trees, and you look down there and there's about 10 foot thick layers of pine needles. Lay out your poncho and take a snooze with the wind huffing through the branches over head.

I don't think any of you guys know about the South.

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