It was wrongheaded of him.
He left out a very important step in the thought process, which was how would the people of Texas perceive this, the way I’m trying to set it up here? Would they perceive it the same way as they do routine vaccinations for public school? OR would they resent and reject it for some very obvious reasons I haven’t considered?
Would they then contact their state reps and demand it be stopped? If so, why am I doing this, then?
I have never for a single second defended Perry’s thought process, or actually the lack thereof. I was agin the plan from the gitgo.
I could see why he thought it was a good idea, though, if you narrowed your thoughts down to how most effectively to prevent a cancer epidemic in a few years to a whole bunch of young Texas girls.
That it has been used ever since to paint him as a political monster, though, is to me just stupid.
He didn’t think it all the way though. That was my first thought when I heard about it then and it is my thought today.
And when the other branch of government, the people’s representatives weighed in, as they should, it was over.
Did he resist? Mightily. He didn’t want to think of all those girls growing up only to get cancer, that to his way of thinking could have so easily been prevented.
He fought it.
But at the end of the day, he understood.
He was told flat out that the people did not want it done that way and why they objected.
This was not some statement he made in a surge of emotion, an impulsive, knee-jerk; this was an edict he published - and instead of thinking “Why do the people resent this?”; he tried to force it down their throats.
If not for the Texas Legislature - this WOULD have been forced down the citizen’s throats. And that is my point.
Socrates wrote “Power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absoltely”. Perry had a taste of power; and what I saw frankly frightens me. Here is a man, who will cease power and force his (belevolent) will upon another. What will he do when given the powers of the POTUS?
A ‘reasonable’ man would have retracted the Executive Order long before the Legislature reached a super-majority vote to reject it. A ‘reasonable’ man would have made this vaccine available as an option; and been lauded a ‘hero’.
The buzzing bees of anti-Perry activists with their "Gardasil-TTC-Border" mantra will only continue to highlight and enhance a Gov. Rick Perry nomination as truth of his work here in Texas gains national exposure. Rick Perry as governor, used all resources at his disposal in an attempt to make a cancer vaccine available to Texas children. The governor is battling environmentalist activists in his push for more transportation infrastructure in a state exploding with commerce and population. And using state resources, Gov. Rick Perry (denied the necessary and requested federal help needed by a border state to deal with the consequences of current federal inaction, in addition to shouldering the continued fallout from past federal actions) works to hold the line on the 1250 mile section of the U.S. border between Texas and Mexico, our neighbor to the south.
There is two thoughts on this One held by Perry’s backers which is that he is sincerely sorry about his decision and then there are others like me who just a firmly believe he’s really sorry he got caught making the decision.
Just the fact that Perry thought he could force this on a free people is enough to show me his thought process. NO TRUE CONSERVATIVE would have ever considered trying to forces such a heinous policy. What if will President he makes another just as heinous decision and this time he doesn’t back down?