Good morning,

Rather than let politicians tickle our ears with empty promises, we must demand they produce tangible results. I'll expound on that thought below.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, August 25, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Quick Clarification

• In yesterday's Texas Minute, we reported on the viral video of a man being removed from the Fort Worth ISD trustee meeting. He had been attempting to read an excerpt from a sexually explicit book that had been on the district's library shelves for students. Our writing did not make it clear that the book in question had, previous to the meeting, already been removed from the district's shelves.

TLR to Senate: Don't Dismiss Paxton Impeachment Charges

• Texans for Lawsuit Reform is telling senators to oppose motions to dismiss impeachment charges against Attorney General Ken Paxton. As Brandon Waltens reports, the Houston-based political group has spent millions of dollars unsuccessfully seeking to defeat Paxton politically.
    
• TLR has also spent millions in support of the 18 Republican senators who will be considering the impeachment charges along with their Democrat colleagues. The biggest recipients of TLR's political largesse in the Senate have been Pete Flores ($1.2 million), Joan Huffman ($420,538), and Drew Springer ($400,137).
      
• The organization issued a statement yesterday in which they denied having any direct involvement in the House’s secret investigation of Paxton earlier this year that led to the rushed impeachment vote in late May.

State Troopers Rescue Abandoned Children Along Texas-Mexico Border

• Over the last several days, troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety have rescued four abandoned children along the Texas-Mexico Border. As Sydnie Henry reports, the children were immediately turned over to U.S. Border Patrol since Texas cannot process illegal alien children.
       
• Meanwhile, the Biden administration has reportedly lost track of 85,000 illegal alien children inside the country.
       
• Reports from Axios and Reuters indicate that the Biden administration has lost track of nearly 40 percent of unaccompanied minors released to sponsors, including dozens in Houston.

📺 WATCH: Democrats in Charge of Border Security?

• On this week's edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens, Cary Cheshire of Texans for Strong Borders explains how 50 Texas Republicans voted to place Democrats on a border security council, and what’s next. Plus, Erin Anderson breaks down three election law cases that could have big implications across the state. 
       
• 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.

University of Houston To Close DEI and LGBT Offices

• In accordance with new state law, the University of Houston will eliminate its "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" office as well as its LGBT Resource Center. But as Emily Medeiros reports, a university official says that most of those related activities and services will remain in operation. 

Amarillo City Council Fires City Manager

• In a unanimous vote, the Amarillo City Council voted to cut ties with the city manager, Jared Miller. He has held the position since 2017, as Thomas Warren reports.
      
• Miller will receive more than $730,000 in severance payments, which includes $633,726.16 to be paid on January 4, 2024.

Friday Reflection:
Demanding Results

George Washington rarely made speeches. Abraham Lincoln’s most famous address ran just 271 words. Teddy Roosevelt famously said you should talk softly but carry a big stick. Whatever else one thinks of them, they were men who let their actions speak louder than their words.

Unfortunately, too many politicians in the modern era rank talk ahead of action. They want applause for their words, without having to suffer the indignity of working to make them real. Too many in elected office want to be judged by what they have said, rather than what they have substantively accomplished.

Modern politicians seem to have an almost pathological compulsion to resist delivering on campaign promises.

Our republic could do with a little less talking and a lot more doing. Citizens and taxpayers have been demanding important reforms for years. Politicians pay lip service to the ideas when campaigning, but don’t seem to find the time to actually get them done.

As an aside, that might be why Donald Trump was so hated by so many in the political establishment. Yes, he talked a lot. Yes, his words were sometimes poorly considered or ill-timed. And yet, he got a lot done.

A lot of Republicans are talking tough now that a Democrat is in the White House, which is all fine and good, but what does it actually mean for the citizens in our republic? Will the politicians' work product live up to their rhetoric?

The Apostle James wrote, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”

James, of course, was writing about a faith that isn’t backed up by matching actions. I once had a pastor, in discussing James’ words, tell our congregation that he could hear what someone says they believe, or he could look at their calendar and checkbook to know for certain what they believed.

His point, of course, was that talk is cheap, but how we spend our time and money – our actions – tend to show our real heart.

The same is true in politics. What good are politicians’ promises to do good, when they don’t actually do it?

Citizens in our self-governing republic should be less interested in what our public servants say and more focused on what they do... or fail to do. A politician can tickle our ears all day long with promises to do our bidding, but the proof of their commitment to liberty is found in what actually gets done.

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.