Good morning,

When politicians show us who they are, we have an obligation to believe them ... but too often, we do not. More on that thought below.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Abbott Directs DPS To Enforce English Fluency Requirements for Truckers

• Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Public Safety to comply with a presidential executive order requiring English proficiency for commercial truck drivers, following reports that Texas was not doing so. Addie Hovland has the story.
     
• In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that directed the Secretary of Transportation to strengthen English proficiency rules for commercial driver’s license holders. This reversed a 2016 policy implemented by former President Barack Obama, who had directed safety inspectors not to place commercial drivers "out-of-service" for violating English fluency requirements. 
      
• Last week, a truck drivers’ advocacy group reported that Texas currently employs the most non-English speaking commercial truck drivers of any state.
      
• Yesterday, the governor directed DPS to conduct English language proficiency reviews for all commercial truck drivers on Texas roads. He also ordered the agency to stop issuing intrastate commercial licenses to individuals who cannot communicate sufficiently in English.

Texas Appeals Injunction Against Ten Commandments in Classrooms

• Attorney General Ken Paxton is appealing a federal injunction against the display of the Ten Commandments. Sydnie Henry has the details.
    
• At issue is a federal judge’s decision to block in 11 school districts the enforcement of a new state law mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every Texas classroom. Paxton is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse that order.
      
• Paxton argues that the Ten Commandments are “a cornerstone of American law” and that efforts to block their display rely on misinterpretations of constitutional principles, particularly the separation of church and state.
      
• The attorney general's office contends that judicial efficiency and consistency require the Texas case to be considered alongside a parallel challenge to Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law. The two states' laws are nearly identical, and Paxton argues that the outcomes should be unified to prevent conflicting legal precedents in the Fifth Circuit.

Chinese Shipment of Meth Precursors Intercepted on Way to Cartel

• As part of an operation at the Port of Houston, Michael Wilson reports federal authorities seized 1,300 barrels of methamphetamine precursor chemicals—marking the largest bust of its kind in U.S. history. 
     
• Law enforcement officials allege the chemicals were intended for delivery to labs controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel—a Mexico-based drug cartel designated as a foreign terrorist organization by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 
       
• The chemicals, created and shipped from China, could have been used to produce 190,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth $569 million. By comparison, in the entirety of fiscal year 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 78,925 kilograms of methamphetamine along the entire southwest border.

UT-Austin Seeks To Hide Faculty Emails

• Adam Cahn reports that the University of Texas at Austin is attempting to conceal faculty communications related to governance reforms within the institution. At issue are changes to “core curricula” that are expected to result from a new law that took effect earlier this week.
    
• The “core curricula” is a set of requirements students must complete regardless of major. Typically, these classes comprise about a third of a student’s undergraduate coursework and are where critics contend leftist indoctrination has been concentrated.
      
• This summer, Karma Chavez, the chair of UT-Austin’s Mexican American and Latina/o Studies department, claimed lawmakers are "trying to make it so that no one takes our classes." Chavez is the author of “Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation.” Texas Scorecard sought records regarding her claims.
     
• Now, the University of Texas System is asking Attorney General Ken Paxton to let it withhold some of the information responsive to the information request.

Inmate Death: Drugs, Restraint, and Irregular Heartbeat

• The death of a Harris County jail inmate, Alexis Cardenas, has been ruled a homicide. Cardenas died in July during a struggle with officers trying to escort him out of the jail.
    
• The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has released its full report, citing contributing factors of drugs, cardiac dysrhythmia, and restraint.
      
• Meanwhile, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office is still awaiting the results of an independent investigation by the Texas Rangers. While the cause of death has been officially classified as a homicide—meaning it was caused by another person—no charges have yet been filed against any individual in connection with the case.

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Friday Reflection
When They Tell You Who They Are

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

It is fine to assume the best about people; in many ways, it is what allows civil society to function. But sometimes, individuals tell us who they really are. When they do, we really should believe them. 

There is an unfortunate trend in politics where voters often refuse to recognize the true nature of the incumbents. For better or worse, candidates are essentially products. Marketing blitzes with carefully scripted ads, right down to perfectly poised family Christmas cards, create the veneer of personal intimacy without actual substance.

In nearly every case, we don’t know the candidates as individuals. We vote for the product we’re presented.

But that product is a big-ticket item, like a house or a car. Yet more so, because my vote is a civic investment in the future for myself, my children, and neighbors. I want to get it right. And so do you.

With our votes, the candidate becomes the officeholder … and oftentimes one who doesn’t deliver. While they position themselves as "fighters" on social media, most end up somewhere on the spectrum of either ineffectual furniture or cogs in the wheels of the establishment cronies.

As you might imagine, no one ever campaigns as "cog for the cronies." Yet they show us by their actions and inactions.

Enter the cognitive dissonance, that disquieting realization that comes when confronted with two things that cannot be true at the same time. The officeholder cannot be both the "fighter" and the "lackey." 

We made the decision to purchase that big-ticket item. We made a promise to protect our kids. We told our neighbors to embrace this person. We sometimes even tie up our identity with the politician. So, instead, we clam up about our own incumbent even as we chastize others for not getting rid of theirs.

This is why incumbency has such a hold. It’s not because of the money or power, but because we shackle ourselves to our own bad decisions at the ballot box. We shackle ourselves to the servant we hired based on the promises of their campaign.

The unfortunate tendency is to become fawning cheerleaders and embarrassing apologists. We ignore facts that contradict our initial decision. We lash out at those who point to any inconvenient facts, and we even distort reality to match the outcome we wish had been achieved. 

As the hiring officers on the committee to save the republic, we must do better. Citizens should treat the selection of our servants with less personal emotion and more professional discernment. Rather than pridefully allow our losses to mount, we should be willing to move on.

When politicians show us who they really are, we should believe them, and—if necessary—replace them with someone who will actually deliver the outcomes we need. 

Our constitutional republic will thrive only to the extent we remember that, as citizens, we are supposed to be in charge.

Quote-Unquote

"The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."

– Daniel Webster

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