Good morning,

It seems like citizens sometimes feel the need to justify fighting for liberty. I end the week reflecting on why the fight matters. 

Here is the Texas Minute for Friday, January 5, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

PERSONAL NOTE: I have been made aware that someone on "Telegram" is impersonating me and offering some sort of financial scam. Please note that I am not on, or in any way use, the Telegram messaging service. Now, if you happen to be interested in financial scams, take a look at how your property taxes are being misspent...

Biden Sues Texas Over New Border Security Law

• As expected, the Biden administration has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a new border security effort in Texas from taking effect, calling the law “unconstitutional.” Brandon Waltens has the details.

        
• At issue is legislation passed in November during the fourth special session of the Legislature that creates a new state crime for entering the country illegally. The measure empowers local and state law enforcement officers to arrest illegal crossers.
      

• Gov. Greg Abbott has maintained that the effort will uphold scrutiny in the courts. “The authors of the United States Constitution foresaw a situation when the federal government would be inattentive to states that faced charges at their borders.”
      

• Attorney General Ken Paxton said he is ready for the fight. “Millions of unvetted foreign aliens have been released into Texas due to President Biden’s policies of dismantling border security at the US-Mexico border, collaborating with cartels, and inviting violent criminals and drug traffickers to enter the country.”
      

• Pending any court decisions, the law is set to go into effect on March 5.

Abbott: 'Mayorkas is Pathetic'

• U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to bus illegal aliens to Democrat cities as a “remarkable failure” in governance. Will Biagini reports on the men's war of words.
    
• Mayorkas’ attack stemmed from Abbott’s practice of busing illegal aliens to Democrat-led “sanctuary” cities around the country as President Joe Biden’s border crisis continues to worsen.
     
• “We have one governor, in the state of Texas, who is refusing to cooperate with other governors and other local officials,” said Mayorkas in an interview on MSNBC. He described the flood of illegal aliens streaming across the border as the result of climate change.
     
• Abbott blasted Mayorkas on social media. “Climate change? Mayorkas is pathetic. The REAL reason illegal immigration records are being set is because Biden refuses to enforce immigration laws.”

Harrison Pushes Phelan on Interim Charges

• Republican State Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian is calling on Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan to prepare for the next legislative session by issuing 13 interim charges addressing key policy priorities. Emily Medeiros has the story.

     
• Interim charges are directives given to committees for the purpose of studying different policy issues between sessions and making recommendations before the next legislative session begins. Occasionally, these studies will become the basis of future legislation.
      
• Many of Harrison’s recommendations are similar to the 13 propositions on the Republican primary ballot, including eliminating property taxes, securing the border, strengthening Texas elections, expanding medical freedom, and protecting Texas land from hostile foreign governments.

Grassroots Group Issues Primary Endorsements

• As the primary election draws near, conservative grassroots organization Grassroots America: We The People has announced a slew of endorsements. Sydnie Henry has the breakdown.

       
• “Grassroots America’s candidate vetting process is unapologetically rigorous,” said GAWTP Executive Director JoAnn Fleming. “We set high standards which are not elastic. Candidates are expected to be honest and to have the ability to go beyond basic rhetorical talking points on a range of issues.”
      

• Fleming explained that the initial interview for an endorsement is an hour long, and they run both financial and criminal background checks on the candidates.

Whitmire Makes Public Safety Focus of First Week as Houston Mayor

• Shortly after being sworn in as Houston's new mayor, John Whitmire did a late-night ride with police through the city's neighborhoods. As Charles Blain reports, Whitmire intends to make public safety a priority for his administration.
    
• The new mayor said this week he wants to convene a meeting of the various law enforcement agencies in Harris County to determine if and how they can more effectively collaborate.
      
• Whitmire also announced his intention to end to a nearly 8-year-long contract dispute between the city and the city’s primary firefighter union.

Friday Reflection
A Yoke of Slavery?

There is an unfortunate tendency to present liberty as a means to the end of economic prosperity. We too often hear about liberty as if it is good for what comes out of it rather than what it is.

By turning liberty into just another cog in the machinery of generating material wealth, we risk reducing it to a component that, with some tweaking, could be replaced in the quest for comfort and ease.

Liberty is intrinsically good. It is good because it is good, not because of what it might provide. Liberty is not an economic tool but a moral imperative.

Now, don’t get me wrong: The evidence of history is that as liberty expands, so too does general prosperity.

Does that mean that if someone isn’t prosperous, they should reject liberty? History is full of those who did just that. A horrific, nearly forgotten episode of 20th century life is detailed in “The Forsaken” by Tim Tzouliadis.

Lured by the promise of abundance in the Soviet Union during the Great Depression, thousands of Americans sold everything to move there and live as Joseph Stalin’s comrades. It was pleasant for them… at first. What they eventually found was abject misery. They were prisoners; nearly all of them simply vanished into the totalitarian abyss as slaves of the communist state.

Several thousand years ago, God instructed Moses to lead the captive Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. Through a series of miraculous events, not only were the Jews able to leave, but the plague-tormented Egyptians handed them gold and wealth as they left. God Himself protected them from harm and guided them to safety – yet the people immediately complained that, as slaves, they had been provided a variety of foods by their Egyptian masters and wished they had never been set free.

They felt it was easier to be a slave than their own master.

The most ensnaring shackle isn’t necessarily a physical one placed on wrists and ankles but the choice some make to perceive the world as a slave.

As St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

One who lives as a well-loved slave in a beautiful mansion with nice meals and comfortable work is still a slave. The condition might seem appealing in a singular moment, but they are always a slave. A slave never has the opportunity to grow beyond the master’s desires, to pursue their passions and interests without the permission of their owner, or to explore who God made them to be.

Yes, liberty can be messy, and it doesn’t guarantee individual success – but it does guarantee individual opportunity. Socialism is just another form of slavery; it can be well-ordered and offer the illusion of comfort – but it is still just a form of slavery. Your choices are reduced to those which your masters deem most appropriate.

Liberty doesn’t ensure people will make good choices, but it allows them to make choices. It is in the choosing, in that pursuit of happiness, where we find our fulfillment, and it is in liberty where we find the freedom to make those choices.

It is for the sake of liberty that we must pursue liberty.

Quote-Unquote

“Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.”

– Calvin Coolidge