The Fulford File | Rick Perry In Texas: Flunking The National Question
08/15/2011
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

In Rick Perry's Texas, it's “basically over” for Anglos. Or so I read in the papers—see Texas demographer: ‘It’s basically over for Anglos’ [by Gary Scharrer, Houston Chronicle blog, February 24, 2011]

Considering that Texas achieved Anglo-Saxon independence from Mexico in 1836, and has been an American state since 1845, you might wonder how that happened. Well, that’s a long story, but let’s talk about when it happened.

It started happening under George W. Bush as governor in the nineties. But, as you may remember, Bush was promoted to President at the end of 2000.

In the succeeding eleven years, Rick Perry has been Governor of the State of Texas. If it’s “basically over” for Anglos in Texas, it happened on Perry’s watch.

If Rick Perry becomes president, will it be “basically over” for Americans in America? Will “the National Question”, which VDARE.com defines as can the U.S. survive as a nation-state, the political expression of a particular people? be answered in the negative?

That’s what almost happened under George W. Bush.

Perry’s period in power almost exactly coincides with the time that VDARE.com has been publishing and we’ve been watching him—and Texas.

One of the earliest articles we published on this subject was

Quoting from the inscription on the Monument of San Jacinto, Parker wrote

“Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the present area of the American nation, nearly a million square miles of territory, changed sovereignty.

“When that inscription was written, one hundred years after the battle, it seemed that the results of San Jacinto and all that followed were permanent. The borders of the United States were fixed, the territories won from Mexico, largely empty of Hispanic inhabitants at their annexation, had been populated by Americans. No American doubted that they were fully American.

But in 2001, Census data is casting doubt on the ability of the United States to maintain the American character of Texas and the Southwest-and, ultimately, even to retain sovereignty over the border regions. Thanks to the persistence of the Mexican mestizo (and the connivance of his government), and the anti-American behavior of US bureaucrats, academics and ethnic pressure groups (and the unheeding diffidence of mainstream Americans), the legacy of San Jacinto is being undone.”

The succeeding years have seen it getting worse in Texas, both demographically and politically. An example of how the pro-illegal immigrant rhetoric has ratcheted up was the release in 2007 of an album called They Can’t Deport Us All, by “Chingo Bling” . In real life, Chingo is Pedro Herrera III, who should be as assimilated a Mexican-American as you can imagine, with a BA in business administration from a Texas university. In an earlier era, guys like that were on the American side.

Not any more. And it’s not just La Raza that’s done it, it’s accomodationists like Bush and Perry. See

For Texas’ Elite, Is Open Immigration The New Slave-Holding?, By Kevin Phillips, March 24, 2004

(Phillips is author of The Emerging Republican Majority, 1968 and American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, 2004).

See also

More Texas history for perspective on Perry:

You may think Texas history isn’t important in the modern scheme of things, but as far as Mexican immigrants are concerned, the idea that Texas was stolen from their ancestors is very important, and they’d be happy to steal it back. Their desire to recover it is not something we can do anything about. What we have to worry about is the American politicians who are willing to give it back.

That certainly included Governor/President George W. Bush. Does it include Rick Perry, the man would be President, and whose friends keep saying he’s not like George Bush? [Is Rick Perry at all like George W. Bush?, KRTK-Houston, August 11, 2011]

So far as I can tell, it does.

Our first column about Perry was almost 10 years ago.

“Nuestra Gente” And The National Question In Texas, by Allan Wall, November 22, 2002

In it, we mentioned that Perry pandered to Hispanics as hard as he could (his opponent was a Hispanic Democrat) and that he claimed, after the election, to have acquired 35 percent of the Hispanic vote. This was almost certainly wrong, and more credible sources put it as low as 10 percent.

Even if Perry’s claim were true, 35 percent, like Bush’s 44 percent claim, is still a landslide in the other direction

And if he really got only 10 percent, that’s not even a landslide in the other direction—it’s a crushing and brutal repudiation of everything Perry and the Republican Party stand for by Hispanics.

Which didn’t stop Perry pandering. See his speech to a border summit held August 22, 2001, including the governors of at least two Mexican border states, in which he proposed, among other things, bi-national health insurance because “the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border compose one region, and we must address health care problems throughout that region.”

On education, Perry also said, as Tom Tancredo reminded us recently

“As a compassionate state, we know that for our children to succeed, they must not only be healthy, but educated. The future leaders of our two nations are learning their fractions and their ABC’s in classrooms all along this border. Immigrants from around the world are being taught in Texas classrooms, and our history is rich with examples of new citizens who have made great contributions. We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom, “we don’t care where you come from, but where you are going, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get there.” And that vision must include the children of undocumented workers. That’s why Texas took the national lead in allowing such deserving young minds to attend a Texas college at a resident rate. Those young minds are a part of a new generation of leaders, the doors of higher education must be open to them. The message is simple: educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.”[Gov. Rick Perry’s Remarks to the Border Summit Wednesday, August 22, 2001]

And as the Manchester Union-Leader wrote recently:

“In 2001, Perry signed into law the first state “DREAM Act,” which allows children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities as long as they graduated from a Texas high school and are working toward attaining citizenship.

Although criticized for it by some conservatives and some elements of the Tea Party, Perry stands by it, while opposing such a law on the federal level.

“To punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about,” he said.”[Perry gives first NH interview, By John DiStaso, July 24, 2011]

Young Texans? Would that be “young Mexicans”?

And what’s the point of giving them a college education at taxpayer expense when it’s illegal for them to work anywhere in America?

So, as I say, there are a lot of people think that Perry could be the Second Coming of George W. Bush:

That would be bad for America, as it’s been bad for Texas.

However, it’s a mistake to assume that Texans, or Americans, are beaten. (A mistake made by, among others, General Antonio López de Santa Anna.)

Peter Brimelow responded to that claim by Rice University demographer Steve Murdock’s claim that it’s “basically over” by saying “It’s Basically Over For Anglos” In Texas. Or Have They Not Yet Begun To Fight?

The Republican nomination battle isn’t anywhere near “basically over”.

And neither is America.

Print Friendly and PDF