Good morning,

I’m going to offend a significant number of people with what I’m about to type: there are only two political parties. Before anyone responds with the platforms of the Greens, Libertarians, Socialists, and so on, check out my reflection on the real political parties.

First, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, February 25, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

PROGRAMMING NOTE 1: Watch for Monday’s Texas Minute from Brandon Waltens; it will have a roundup of endorsements and recommendations for statewide offices made by many of Texas’ leading grassroots organizations.

PROGRAMMING NOTE 2: You can join both Brandon and me on The Headline at 5:30 p.m. today. The two of us will preview Tuesday’s primary, and Brandon will talk with Robert Montoya about the border.

Local Prosecutors Won’t Press Charges Of Child Abuse

• After years of inaction by Gov. Greg Abbott and the GOP-dominated Legislature on the issue, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a 13-page legal opinion earlier this week classifying “transgender” operations on minors—administering sterilizing cross-sex hormones and puberty blocker drugs, and cutting off their healthy body parts—as child abuse. On Tuesday, Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, asking them to investigate reports of such cases in the state.
     
• But as Jacob Asmussen reports, local district attorneys across Texas are saying they won’t prosecute those cases if TDFPS actually follows through on the A.G. opinion.
     
• “As the lawyers handling these cases, we owe a duty of candor to the courts about what the law really says,” said Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee. “We’ll continue to follow the laws on the books — not General Paxton’s politically motivated and legally incorrect ‘opinion.’”
     
• Five other district attorneys in some of the state’s most populous areas released a joint statement opposing the Paxton opinion, including Travis County DA Jose Garza, Dallas County DA John Creuzot, Bexar County DA Joe Gonzales, Nueces County DA Mark Gonzalez, and Fort Bend County DA Brian Middleton.

On Abolishing Abortion

• Drawn from their comments in a series of interviews with Texas Scorecard, Katy Drollinger reports on the attitudes of the Republican gubernatorial candidates on ending the practice of abortion. (The incumbent, Greg Abbott, declined to participate.)
     
• “I wouldn’t rest until I knew that there were no more abortions,” said former State Sen. Don Huffines, a businessman from Dallas. “I believe in life from conception to natural death, no exceptions.
      
• “For me, the Heartbeat Bill is a step in the right direction, but I believe in the abolition of abortion,” said media personality Chad Prather. “As controversial as that may sound, I don’t believe that calling it abortion cleans up the act of murder in any way, shape, or form.
      
• “When it comes to murdering unborn babies in the womb, that’s a real personal issue for me because this has the most detrimental effect on the black community,” said retired Lt. Col. Allen West. “The second largest facility for murdering unborn babies in the world is located in Texas; it’s in Houston. The Planned Parenthood clinic that’s on I-45 on the south side in a black neighborhood. … I want to see that Planned Parenthood clinic close down.”

Are the Unvaxxed Treated Differently?

• Mikel Smith entered Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine a month ago, but Sydnie Henry reports his family fears he will never leave.
     

• After contracting the coronavirus in mid-January, and already diagnosed with prostate cancer and stage 3 kidney disease, he was checked into the hospital with difficulty breathing. He was isolated on the “COVID” floor for the next 21 days.
      

• Worried about his kidney disease, Mr. Smith asked if there was another protocol, perhaps one involving ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, or monoclonal antibodies. According to his daughter, Ashley Thomas, the doctors laughed in his face and wrote him off as a conservative anti-vaxxer. They never inquired about his history with cancer or other medical issues, she added in an interview.
      
• “I know that would have given the doctor some insight, but they were too busy hounding and harassing, pushing their agenda on my dad,” said Thomas, who founded and leads Freedom’s Fund USA. “And then he gets labeled as a conservative, [and] doctors mock him.”
       
• Baylor Scott & White Health System denied the allegations in a statement to Texas Scorecard, saying they are “committed to providing the best care available, based on the current evidence, to all members of our community—regardless of their vaccination status.”
     
• Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) said the medical community feels untouchable, and that “hospitals are far more interested in profit than [the] patient’s well-being.”

McKinney Becomes Flashpoint In Book Debate

• Even though it wasn’t on the agenda, dozens of parents, students, and community members showed up at the McKinney Independent School District’s monthly board meeting to make their voices heard about the sexually explicit books being stocked in the libraries. Erin Anderson has the story.
      
• Paul and Rachel Elliott, whose daughter is an elementary-school student in McKinney ISD, challenged 282 books in their school libraries that they say are too sexually explicit for underage children.
      
• “The policies in place now appear to be broken,” Paul Elliott told school board members, asking them to modify district policies to compel the removal of books that meet the statutory definition of obscenity. “Leaving it to [administrators’] discretion clearly isn’t working.”
       
• Close to 30 people spoke during the board’s public comments time, taking positions both for and against removing library books containing graphic descriptions and images of minors engaged in sex acts.
      
• Some attendees said “LGBTQ” students need books that “make them feel represented” and the school library is a “safe space” to read them.

Unmasking the Nanny State

• Writing for Law & Liberty, Mark Pulliam explains the importance of a federal lawsuit recently filed in Texas about the airline mask mandates.

Friday Reflection:
Sorry, But There Are Only Two Political Parties

At the risk of offending a few folks, there are precisely two political parties in America. These two parties are in a fierce competition, with nothing less than the fate of the republic riding on the outcome.

No, I’m not talking about the Democrats and the Republicans.

Now, let’s be clear: There are very real differences in the platforms of the Republicans and the Democrats. Conservatives and liberals believe very different things. Those things matter, and deserve to be debated.

But those fights, those important fights, are secondary to the real war between the real political parties. Sadly, it is a war in which only one side is actively engaged.

None of this is new. Besides their theological differences, the Pharisees and Sadducees had competing political interests, yet they united in ancient Israel to work together to thwart those who might upset their cozy arrangement. Read about the arrest and trial of Jesus as an example.

To give a sense of who these modern parties are, let’s consider a long-standing public policy issue, in which there is rare agreement between Republican and Democrat activists. The official party platforms of the Democrats and the Republicans have called, in various ways and forms, for the elimination of corporate welfare. Polling and surveys consistently show voters across the board oppose corporate welfare programs.

Yet those programs persist and flourish at all levels of government. Money is constantly seized from the pockets of the citizens and transferred to the coffers of the corporate cronies – with the politicians gaining more power while fattening their own accounts.

The Texas Legislature, frankly through legislative mismanagement, accidentally allowed the state’s major corporate welfare program to die in 2021. Take the win, right? Wrong. The Republican House speaker has since pledged that the program will be back, with bigger handouts than ever. 

The real fight for the future of our republic isn’t the Fox News/CNN/MSNBC pro-wrestling match of Elephants and Donkeys blowing their respective dog whistles for the masses. 

The real fight for the future of the republic is between the self-appointed (and self-serving) ruling elite — and the rest of us. The fight is between the cronies and the citizens.

Right now, the citizens are losing that fight because they aren’t even participating in it. Most aren’t even aware it is happening.

Too many of us get distracted. We are enamored by the cults of political personalities. We are lured into humming along with the easy siren song of braying Donkeys and rumbling Elephants. It lets us feel like we’re doing important things, while accomplishing nothing at all.

This is how the ruling elite – those self-interested politicians and the cronies they enrich – all want it. They work to make sure we are arguing over table scraps as they preside over the destruction of our republic while padding their own pockets. 

As we are churned up to fight with each other, we lose sight of those who are working to control us.

So, what will we do? Will we continue to cheer as the Elephants and Donkeys in public office bash each other theatrically with folding chairs – without noticing that they are robbing us of our future? 

Or, will we fight back? Will the party of the citizenry stand up and fight for our nation? Will we shove aside those who publicly blow the dog whistle of partisan rhetoric while spending their time in service to their insider cronies? 

Each of us must decide, and decide quickly.

Nothing less than the future of our republic is at stake.