Good morning,

No one can serve two masters, and that includes your elected officials. More on that at the conclusion of today's Texas Minute. 

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
Friday, August 4, 2023

ACLU Sues to Block Law Protecting Children

• On behalf of multiple LGBTQ organizations, businesses, and a drag performer, the ACLU is suing Texas over a law that protects children from being exposed to sexually explicit performances. Emily Medeiros has the details.
    
• Senate Bill 12, authored by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola), restricts sexually explicit drag performances on public property and in the presence of children. Anyone who violates the law would be subject to up to $10,000 in fines per offense.
       

• The ACLU claims the measure violates the First and 14th Amendments and threatens drag performers’ livelihood and free expression. 
      

• “It is unsurprising but nevertheless sad that the ACLU has become the advocacy arm for groomers and pedophiles.” – Brady Gray, president of Texas Family Project

A&M Gives $1 Million Payout to DEI Proponent 

• Texas A&M announced that the university will pay $1 million to Kathleen McElroy after she rejected a job offer to head the journalism department. Sydnie Henry has the story.
         
• A lucrative job offer for McElroy was withdrawn after reporting by Texas Scorecard on the professor's statements and writings advocating for leftist causes raised concerns among students and donors. The university ultimately settled on offering a one-year deal as a professor without tenure and a three-year appointment as the director of the journalism program, with an emphasis that she could be terminated at any time. McElroy refused the offer.
       
• The TAMU Board of Regents authorized university officials to pursue a settlement with McElroy last weekend and directed the system’s general counsel to investigate the situation. The investigation revealed TAMU officials were aware of McElroy's radical stances and expressed concerns about them ahead of the initial job offer.
      
•  Along with the cash from Aggieland, McElroy will remain at her tenured position at UT Austin.

DPS Arrests Smuggler in Possession of Child Porn

• As the invasion along the southern border continues, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in conjunction with U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a human smuggler as he brought four illegal aliens into Texas. The Mexican national was also in possession of child porn.
       
• Christian Medrano-Alanis was caught bringing people across the river in the Rio Grande Valley. The pornographic images were allegedly found on his cell phone.
      
•  “As most know by now, women and even young girls who are smuggled across our border are commonly sexually assaulted by men like Medrano-Alanis,” said Chris Russo, president of Texans for Strong Borders.

Harris County Officials Push Affirmative Action Policies

• Since 2019, the Harris County Commissioners Court has allowed affirmative action policies to thrive in local government by pushing departments to award contracts based on minority status or gender.
       
• Micah Rice reports the county's Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity enforces affirmative action policies through a “Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise policy.”
    
• County departments are forced to consider vendors' "M/WBE" status when awarding contracts.

'See You at the Library'

• Actor and author Kirk Cameron will appear at one of Saturday’s conservative book-reading events in Texas. As Erin Anderson reports, the events are part of a national “See You at the Library” day initiated by BRAVE Books, a Texas-based company that focuses on publishing children’s books seeped in traditional American values.
         
• Cameron is slated to attend a story hour in Taylor, Texas, alongside former collegiate swimming champion Riley Gaines, who is an advocate for protecting women’s sports from males seeking to compete as “trans” women.
      
• The American Library Association has tried to stop the events. During an online library conference in June, the director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom advised librarians on how to block conservatives and Christians from hosting such events at their local libraries.

📺 WATCH: The Headline

• On this week's edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens, Soli Rice details her latest investigation into the Texas Department of Transportation's use of taxpayer dollars to push woke gender ideology. Plus, Debbie Georgatos talks about her campaign for Republican National Committeewoman.
       
• You can watch The Headline on the Apple TV or Roku apps, on an iOS or Android phone, or on the Texas Scorecard YouTube channel.

Friday Reflection:
Who Will The Politicians Serve?

It’s in the Gospel of Matthew where we find Jesus’ wise admonition that “no one can serve two masters.” Practical experience shows us that no matter how hard we try, it is always true—and it is especially true in politics.

Not a day goes by, it seems, in which I don’t hear a legislator tell me they must violate a pledge to their voters by doing one thing... Or, more often, by not doing another thing... All because they “have to work with these people.”

Those "people," of course, being their fellow lawmakers. They don’t want to upset the apple cart. They don’t want to disrupt the congeniality of the process or risk being unpopular in city hall, the state legislature, or the federal Congress.

This means they want to serve the status quo of the establishment, rather than fight for their voters. Or, to use Jesus’ language, they have chosen which master they will serve.

For example, Texas' regular legislative session runs for just 140 days out of every 730 days, and lawmakers are actively working with other lawmakers for even less time than that. Additionally, because of the geographic nature of district lines, none of the other members in their chamber can vote for their colleagues’ next re-election.

Yet for many in office, being loved and respected by their fellow politicians is more important than keeping the promises they made to their actual constituents – the people they (allegedly) serve.

By their actions, they admit to serving a different master.

Many politicians justify themselves by promising that inaction here, or a small compromise there, will gain them the ability to do good things in a future that never seems to arrive. They delude themselves with the idea by being admired in their chamber, they can eventually deliver on promises that keep being delayed.

Politicians cannot seek the approval of their voters and the approval of the crony establishment. The tension of even trying will always result in citizens seeing their precious liberties sacrificed at the altar of contrived congeniality in the religion of self-promotion.

For our system of government to work, and for liberty to be preserved, politicians must remember they are the citizens’ servants. We must expect them to serve the citizens first and only.

And we as citizens must remember it as well.

Now Available: 'Reflections on Life & Liberty'

• The book comes in three formats: hardcover, paperback, and digital download. For now, "Reflections on Life & Liberty" is only available at Amazon.