Just when you thought the race for the Republican Party nomination for US president could not become more bizarre, Texas governor Rick Perry, 61, throws his hat in the ring.
As they say in Texas, Perry is “all hat and no cattle”. Politically he represents the frontier-style brand of bare-knuckle American conservatism that often surprises and puzzles overseas observers.
One respected Texas political analyst described Perry as “yet another small-minded, right wing, Texas governor” who on August 13 portrayed himself as THE Christian presidential candidate at a ‘Prayer-A-Palooza’ campaign launch at a Houston football stadium.
Square-jawed and photogenic, Perry became the governor of Texas (equivalent to an Australian state premier) when George W. Bush resigned from the position in 2000 prior to his inauguration as US president.
Even more than Bush, Governor Perry is the quintessential representative of Texas conservatism. He is pro-gun and pro-death penalty. During Perry’s term as governor, Texas has carried out 234 executions, far more than any other American state.
Perry is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-government. He has questioned the constitutional right of the US government to impose an income tax on its citizens. There is an obvious irony here - one that long ago reduced American conservatism to a tangled web of contradictions.
Like Ronald Reagan before him, Perry campaigns for top government office by decrying the role of government in American life. In what other profession could you aspire to gain the top job by promising to wreck the organisation you hope to lead?
That’s pretty much Perry’s platform. If elected US president, he has promised to “reduce Washington D.C. (the US federal government) to insignificance”. This, of course, is no more likely to happen under Rick Perry’s leadership than it did under Ronald Reagan’s.
Governor Perry, who has a license to carry a concealed weapon, clearly revels in his reputation as a shoot-from-the hip Texas cowboy. He has threatened to secede Texas from the United States and recently accused US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of promoting “treasonous” economic policies.
Perry is solidly supported by wealthy and influential businessmen who love the low-tax, low-wage, deregulatory policies he has promoted in Texas. In 2006, Perry cut Texas property taxes by $15 billion.
He proposed to make up the financial shortfall partly by taxing strip clubs, a proposal that led to the statewide ‘pole tax’ debate. Traditionally, property taxes in Texas have been used to fund local public schools. Today Texas ranks near the bottom among America’s 50 states in most education indicators.
An old friend of mine who has taught in Texas schools for years emailed recently, “Perry has set education in Texas back a minimum of 15 years with all the teacher firings and funding cuts. Texas is 48th in the nation for teacher pay.”
Jim Hightower, a respected Texas political analyst, has observed that Perry is known as “Governor Supercuts”, partly for his “spiffy hairdo”, but mostly for “cutting the budgets of schools and poverty programs and holding down wages”. Perry has created “more minimum wage jobs than all other states combined”, but his wealthy state now has more families in poverty than any other.
Perry has become the longest serving governor in modern Texas history due partly to the well-funded political machine that backs him, partly because of the extraordinary conservatism of the Texas electorate, and partly because the poor and dispossessed don’t go to the polls.
The prospect of Rick Perry as a presidential nominee makes the pathetic crowd of other Republican hopefuls look almost appealing.
Dennis Phillips grew up in Texas. He moved to Australia in 1972 and taught US politics at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney.
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