Perhaps no state claims as much pride as Texas. Author Mark Davis talks about this shared feeling in his recent book, “Lone Star America.” This week he spoke with Town hall how Texas is leading the way on almost every issue, from jobs to energy to the Second Amendment. He shared insight into the policies that allow Texas to thrive economically, as well as his thoughts on which Texans could serve in the White House in 2016.
Why write this book now?
In more than 30 years of radio talk shows, conservatives have always asked the same questions: “What is the best kind of leadership?” How can we reach smaller government? How to convince people that low taxes are a good idea? Or maybe reasonable regulations? Government closer to citizens? All these good, conservative questions. For the last 20 years, I have had the joy of living in the state where I was born, where all of this actually happens and actually works. So a whole slate of 2014 candidates and a slate of 2016 presidential candidates will run under the Republican banner and make different arguments about why conservatism is good and why it will work. The evidence of this has been here in Texas for the last 20 years. We are a shining example of how conservative policies can lead to economic growth, prosperity and success.
What types of policies allow Texas to have such a prospering economy?
It’s straightforward to jump first to the concepts of low taxes and reasonable regulation, and these are large reasons why our country is doing well and why we’re growing while America stumbles. But this is a deeper answer. It’s about the spirit in the way our country is governed. We hold high the concept of individual rights and self-reliance and do not ask the government to bind us from cradle to grave. Texans, generally speaking, view the role of citizen as doing what we can do with our talents. To work difficult and have a government that exists only to prevent chaos, only to provide for our basic needs, only to provide a system of laws to maintain order. Besides, we want the government to stay out of our lives so that we can rise as far as possible. Or, if we stumble, we stumble, we learn from it and move on. This is the opposite of almost every lesson liberalism teaches.
I talked to Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX) and he said Texas is not the place to go if you want to get welfare. Why is this so?
Texas has the same humanitarian concept – the concern for those truly in need that any society should demonstrate. However, we are guided by the ethical principle that you do not want to be on public benefits for the rest of your life. This is one of the things that made our country great – the story of the birth of our country. People come here, work difficult and create this wonderful land from very arduous terrain. It required a forceful work ethic. That’s what made America great – a forceful work ethic. We will do everything in our power to create a great country. We will do everything in our power to create a great country. The last thing you want to do is create a framework of government dependence – a culture of dependence that saps people’s willingness to work and undermines their self-esteem. A better way to achieve this is to create an environment where people can succeed, work difficult, and see the fruits of their labor. So there are places in America and around the world where you can absolutely go and the government will take care of you for the rest of your life. You don’t have to do much to deserve this kind of care. That’s not how Texas is run.
When many people think of Texas, they can’t support but associate it with guns. What are some misconceptions about Texans and their guns?
The misconception is that somehow our embrace of gun culture makes us a less secure country. It’s quite the opposite. We have concealed carry – we have open carry. The lesson here is that criminals probably think a little more deeply about committing crimes in our culture than in any part of the state that has multiple gun-free zones. Guns don’t kill people, gun free zones kill people. The image of Texas as a gun-friendly state is exact. We have more guns here than most other states. Many of our residents have more than one. One of the best answers in a recent survey was a question about how many copies you own. Some said “none”, some said “one”, some said “two to five”, some said “more than five”. A vast percentage of respondents to this survey basically said, “It’s none of your business.” What a perfect response from Texas. Because not only do we believe in the right to own guns, but we believe in the right to own guns without the government interfering with us – even knowing when we get them or how many we have, because we don’t take that into account, that’s the government’s business. We are a safer and saner society because we are the Second Amendment. And we spend our days cherishing this amendment, knowing that without the Second Amendment, the rest of the Bill of Rights is not worth a penny.
You said Texas is challenging environmental “alarmists.” Could you explain this?
We love our land, we love our air, we love our water. We want to live in a immaculate state and a immaculate country. But we’ll be damned if we let the extremists and tyrants in Washington tell us how to get there. I trust Texas ecology, which I call a high respect for the land and the right balance between keeping the land intact and enabling human productivity. The environmental extremism of the current federal government and other administrations sometimes leads to job-killing initiatives that benefit the environment at the expense of human productivity. There is no one in Texas who wants industry to go crazy over the cleanliness of our air and water. We want to be able to live in a immaculate state, have immaculate water and immaculate air, and we do that very well by fighting the EPA on a regular basis. We strongly believe that, going back to a very strict notion of states’ rights, each state should be able to shape its own environmental policy, but that there should not be much federal oversight at all, and that if Texans are left to our own devices, we will have a completely immaculate, a wonderful, pleasant and livable state, and we will actually create jobs.
What is the probability that our next president will be from Texas?
One of the most talked about names in the Republican Party is Ted Cruz, and one of the people doing the most to make people think he’s running is Rick Perry. All told, Perry and Cruz probably take up 25 percent of the presidential buzz right now, while Chris Christie’s star is fading and other people are simply operating in the background. You can’t read minds, and neither of you will be telegraphing in the summer of 2014 what you will be doing in the presidential campaign, but I will tell you that as soon as the midterm elections are over, anyone who is thinking about running for president, it better be president he had a campaign started. The compelling thing about Governor Perry is that some believe he may have come to office behind schedule and didn’t have enough experience at the presidential level. He’s certainly experienced now, he’s certainly prepared now. He just wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post condemning Rand Paul on isolationism, foreign policy and the war on terror. It clearly marks the territory. This goes far beyond Texas issues and even state laws, where he is arguably our chief advocate. This is not a guarantee that he will run. Maybe he’s just getting ready to write more good books after he ends his term as governor in January 2015. But if he were to run, I can guarantee he would do better than he did in 2012. I guarantee you that, and he’ll be right. Will he be a candidate? I have no idea. Perhaps his fiercest competition will come from another Texan, and that’s Ted Cruz, who is the right recipient of so much love, admiration, and even hero worship among conservatives because he’s coming out with a courage that few others have. Does this translate into your desire to be president? I don’t know. Talking to Senator Cruz, I get the impression that he loves legislating, he loves being in the Senate, he loves being one of the most significant politicians in America today without having to endure the grind of a presidential campaign. He may want to stay where he is, but if he decides to run for president, I know plenty of people who would be enthusiastic about it – and I would be one of them.
Did the RNC miss out by choosing Cleveland over Dallas?
I actually called it that. I won’t say, “I told you so.” But the arguments were as follows: “The Dallas-Fort Worth area is simply a better place to hold the convention in Cleveland – and that’s true. That Texas is just our area and our state is friendlier to Republicans than Ohio – and that’s true. And third, how great it would be if the nomination of Rick Perry or Ted Cruz took place on Texas soil – and it is true. However, none of these things were decisive. The RNC is going to Cleveland – you have to remember where Cleveland is – it’s Ohio, an extremely significant state. I have no idea whether it’s worth one, two, or five percentage points to hold a convention in a state in November of an election year – it’s probably worth nothing. It allows a lot of Republicans to come to Ohio, be heard in Ohio, and say nice things about Ohio. It was probably a PR move. And I don’t agree with that. Texas will be fine. We have a lot of convention business.
