Conservatives Lash Out for Change

Texas Republicans have a new goal this year. Their new goal is to all act like Rick Perry in his disregard for federal environmental standards so they can prove to Texas conservative voters that they, by God, are against the Yankees coming into the state and stirring things up.

 

They want to “Out Perry” Rick Perry.

Rick Perry is all over this issue. He is so much against the Feds that he has kissed off millions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid in Texas, denying healthcare coverage to Texans from the Red River to the Rio Grande.

And he hates the EPA, claiming the the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have got all the environmental issues covered.

And now, according to this article, Greg Abbott, who wants to be Governor Abbott, is all in a hissy fit about how the Endangered Species Act is interfering with Texas’ right to regulate and use its own water supply. You see, Texas has allocated zero gallons of water to flow to the San Antonio Bay, where whooping cranes maintain a foothold on existence. No fresh water input will doom the whooping crane to extinction.

But Abbott is not alone. This is apparently a new thing with Texas Republicans: fighting Richard Nixon’s Endangered Species Act whenever it pops up in Texas:

“Last year, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who might run for lieutenant governor, attached himself to an endangered species issue in West Texas; state Comptroller Susan Combs, who might also run for lieutenant governor, described endangered species proposals as ‘incoming Scud missiles’ at a conservative legislative confab in January; and Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples, another potential lieutenant governor candidate, testified before a congressional committee in 2012 that the Endangered Species Act has ‘been used to accomplish the goals of radicals and those seeking to expand the reach of government.’”

Apparently the more the merrier.

But I take issue with Todd Staples’ premise that this is just a machination of “radicals and those seeking to expand the reach of government.” Radical liberals, you see, are the true conservatives who want to maintain what we already have in the ecosphere. That’s right, with these matters we liberals find ourselves the conservatives on environmental issues, and conservatives are the flaming liberals who are lashing out for change.

How ironic.