Good morning,

Sure, sometimes politicians just sell out. But, usually, it happens only after the grassroots have stopped paying attention to them. I end the week reflecting on the urgent need for citizens to remain engaged with their legislators and the issues.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, August 16, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Concerns Raised About Lottery's Online Sales to Children

• Millions of dollars in lottery tickets are being sold through websites and apps, raising concerns from lawmakers about the vulnerability of children to these sales. Brandon Waltens reports on a recent hearing held by members of the Sunset Advisory Commission to examine the Texas Lottery.
    
• Constitutionally, the Sunset Advisory Commission is responsible for evaluating state agencies and recommending efficiencies, changes, or even their abolishment. The lottery is among those agencies up for review during the 2025 legislative session.
       
• Lawmakers criticized Lottery officials for their seemingly lax approach toward the growing number of "courier" companies operating in Texas. These entities, which accounted for approximately $173 million in lottery sales in the last fiscal year, sell lottery tickets online from licensed retailers.
       
• As State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) noted in his questioning, the nature of the courier-lottery business model leaves it open to misuse by minors. Under state law, lottery tickets can only be purchased by individuals 18 and older.
       
• During testimony, it was revealed that the Lottery Commission had not sought opinions from the attorney general on the legality of the courier services, instead relying on its own interpretation of the law.

Houston Mayor Claims Anti-Israel Protestors Are 'Paid by Iran'

• After several months of anti-Israel protests outside of his home, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said this week that protestors are “paid by Iran.” Charles Blain and Debra McClure have the story.
     
• The mayor has proposed a city ordinance that would ban protests within 200 feet of private dwellings. 

Contract Reveals Qatar Directed Texas A&M Research

• A newly released final contract between Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and the Qatar Foundation reveals new information outlining the government-led Qatar Foundation’s role in research. Valerie Muñoz breaks down the significance of a document obtained by Campus Reform.
    
• This contract was agreed to several years before A&M decided to close the campus following questions posed by the Zachor Legal Institute about the Qatar Foundation’s ties to the Qatar government and, consequently, the government’s ties to terrorism. Qatar currently houses a Hamas political office.
        
• The Texas A&M-Qatar campus is set to close in 2028 after a 7-1 vote in February by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.

Ranchers Accuse Fertilizer Company of Providing Harmful Products

• Concerned ranchers in Johnson and Burleson counties are pursuing a lawsuit against a prominent waste recycling company for creating fertilizers that contain harmful, cancer-causing chemicals. Luca Cacciatore has the details.
    
• The problems began when Fort Worth switched its contractor for "biosolids"—or repurposed waste materials used in fertilizer—from Renda Environmental to Synagro in February 2020. Residents in rural areas began complaining of "horrendous odors" originating from Synagro's "sewage sludge." Synagro is based in Maryland.
       
• Two years later, Johnson County began investigating the biosolids as a potential cause of poisoning in humans and animals in the area. Testing found "forever chemicals" at unacceptably high concentrations.
       
• Helen Kerwin, who ousted incumbent State Rep. DeWayne Burns in the May 28 Republican primary runoffs, told Texas Scorecard that she is working with several legislators from the affected areas to determine what can be done to deal with the situation.

Pfluger Proposes Fund to Remove Chinese Equipment From U.S. Networks

• As wireless carriers work to remove Chinese equipment from communications systems across the country, U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) is proposing Congress add money into a program to pay for the work.
       
• At issue is the 2020 "Rip and Replace" program, which pulls from the communications infrastructure Chinese-made equipment due to national security concerns. According to Pfluger, the costs of the program could force service blackouts or see wireless and broadband providers forced to close down. He wants $3 billion added to the program's federal funding.
       
• "There are over 6,000 sites across the United States in need of this funding, 341 of which are in Texas alone," said Pfluger. "Rural and remote areas would be hit the hardest as networks could shut down and eliminate the only mobile broadband service provider for entire communities."

Paxton Sues General Motors for Exploiting Driver Data

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against General Motors for allegedly collecting and selling the private driving data of more than 1.5 million Texans without their knowledge. Will Biagini has the report.
        
• General Motors has been accused of installing technology in cars since 2015 that records specific information about each drive—but that technology was advertised as a safety and operability feature. Instead, according to Paxton's office, General Motors sold the collected data to purchasing companies that built a “telematics exchange” storing information then made available to insurance companies without vehicle owners’ knowledge.
        
• “Companies are using invasive technology to violate the rights of our citizens in unthinkable ways.” – Ken Paxton

Friday Reflection
Don’t Stop Engaging

This happens all the time. Conservative grassroots work to help a candidate overcome the odds and get elected, only to have that candidate stab them in the back. It feels inevitable, but I’m not sure it has to be.

Here is how we, as activists, tend to perceive the movement of political betrayal. The candidate wins office and soon starts getting cash from crony lobbyists. He stops showing up at conservative events. He makes excuses for bad guys, compromises with bad policies, and then takes on a voting record indistinguishable from the person he originally defeated.

We get mad and demand to know how the candidate we supported became the incumbent we disliked. We like to say he “sold out.”

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Very rarely do our politicians sell us out. Instead, we just leave them out on the political curb to be picked up by someone else.

We self-righteously say, “Well, they should remember who supported them in the first place!” In a fit of indignation, we demand they remember it was the conservative grassroots who brought them to the dance!

True, but it both misses human nature writ large and our own culpability in particular.

As activists, we have a tendency to chase shiny campaign objects. All too often, conservative activists will pat the newly elected politician on the head and tell him to do good things as we move on to supporting the next person.

Here’s the thing about taking someone to the dance. If we don’t keep dancing with them, they will start to focus on who is. If that’s not the grassroots activists in their own communities, it will be the crony lobbyists at the Capitol.

In our system of representative government, lawmakers will always end up representing those they hear from the most.

Each of us must encourage each other to engage more effectively with the servants we hire to fill positions of power and responsibility. Quite honestly, the individual politicians themselves will matter less and less as the citizenry becomes stronger and more active.

That’s how it should be.

Our job, as citizens, is not to try to be friends with the hired help (the politicians) but rather to judge their performance without regard to their motivations or intentions—or our own hopes. We cannot base our effectiveness as activists on how happy politicians and their sycophantic cheerleaders are with us. We must, instead, view it from the lens of policy advancement and the expansion of liberty.

We can clap like trained seals at the circus and be welcomed into the fold of career politicians, or we can speak honestly about their actions, movements, and records with our families and neighbors.

Typically, political consultants have suggested that grassroots activists “scale back” when the governing begins. That serves no one but the crony elite.

Both the sewer culture in the Texas Legislature and the D.C. swamp seek to corrupt everyone who touches it. When we send our servants alone into those environments, we cannot expect them to emerge unscathed.

As such, the citizenry must ramp up our engagement—on the issues, on the candidates, on the lawmakers… and, most of all, with each other.

Our self-governing republic demands an active and engaged citizenry at all times. Anyone who tells you differently is seeking to enslave you. Anyone who tells you that there was a time in which citizens didn’t have to be involved is asking you to harken back to the soft servitude of the 1750s.

To save the republic, we as citizens must be committed to a life of activism.

Quote-Unquote

"The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry."

– William F. Buckley, Jr.