With the much-anticipated audio recording of the meeting between Dennis Bonnen, speaker of the Texas House, and Michael Quinn Sullivan, President of Empower Texans, finally in the public arena, we see yet another instance of Republican officeholders betraying the values of the party they represent. With Bonnen’s mafia-like backroom meetings, quid pro quos, and venomous slander against Texas Right to Life, conservative activists, and other legislators, there is no wonder the Texas House of Representatives is in crisis and the grassroots across Texas have turned their focus to re-electing President Trump.
Bonnen intentionally and strategically killed life-saving legislation during the Regular Session of the 86th Texas Legislature, failing to pass a single bill that banned any abortions. In the audio recording, Bonnen is heard trying to shift the blame for his legislative failures onto any shoulders but his own, categorically lying about Texas Right to Life, which represents hundreds of thousands of Pro-Life Texans. This came weeks after he publicly stated he is “sure as hell not going to waste [his] time” with Texas Right to Life.
As if the lackluster, purple session were not disappointing enough, Republican officials and leaders are continuing to distance themselves from the voters who put them in office. Some top Republican leaders in the state are speaking at forums and dinners, blathering on about unity and the mythological conservative successes from the session, while we the people listen to their self-adulation and are left completely mystified.
How are the Republican leaders and officials so out of touch? Republican leadership in the Texas House is in the midst of a tumultuous corruption scandal of their own making. The voters are infuriated that conservative reforms to protect Life, liberty, and property were not aggressively pursued and enacted by our leadership. While conservatives and the principles they hold dear are under fierce attack, they are being told instead that dissent is not allowed, that they must focus on how bad the liberal, pro-abortion Democrats are.
How can we be mad at the Democrats when they are at least honest to our faces? The Democrats tell us that they are pro-abortion; they never promise to vote Pro-Life and then intentionally kill Pro-Life bills – and then, worse, come back seeking an endorsement at re-election time.
How can we be mad at the Democrats when establishment Republican officials and leaders are the ones failing the cause of Life?
Just last week, the Supreme Court of Texas declined to review a case that challenges a portion of the Texas Advance Directives Act, the 10-Day Rule, under which physicians and hospitals can remove treatment from a patient against the wishes of the patient or family. Evelyn Kelly, mother of Chris Dunn, has filed a case against Methodist Hospital in Houston after her son Chris fell victim to the 10-Day Rule in 2015. Yet a decision on the merits of Kelly v. Methodist has never been reached; the court simply denied consideration of this case — a case with the potential to render the statute unconstitutional.
Five of the nine justices on the Supreme Court of Texas sought and earned the endorsement of Texas Right to Life PAC; three others sought and failed to earn our endorsement. During the vetting process for any office, all candidates must demonstrate a proper understanding of applying Pro-Life principles to each stage of human Life, in addition to adequate due process principles that should be afforded every human being, born and preborn. Yet not even two of the justices were willing to consider whether Evelyn had legal standing to continue the lawsuit after Chris’s death. The court would not even hear the case, even though Pro-Life Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an official brief arguing that the law is unconstitutional.
Why are we shocked and disappointed in these justices? We shouldn’t be. The evidence is clear that Republican failure is rampant — even in the so-called Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW).
TFRW presented the “Kay Bailey Hutchison Leadership Award” to the openly pro-abortion Republican Sarah Davis (R-West University Place) in the Texas House of Representatives, praising her as a “trailblazer” at their October biennial conference.
Sarah Davis is certainly blazing a trail, but a trail of death and destruction. In fact, if Sarah Davis is the model of leadership honored and emulated by the Texas Federation of Republican Women, TFRW should remove the “R” from their name.
Davis is known for her brazen support for unrestricted abortion and is the first Republican woman in Texas heralded and endorsed by Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion business. Davis consistently opposes Pro-Life protections for the preborn, including restrictions on late-term abortions. Sarah Davis pretends her abortion support is part of her advocacy for women’s health policy, but she rejects funding alternatives to abortion while pushing abortion on demand, even for young girls who are minors.
TFRW’s website boasts: “TFRW holds fast to the underlying principles of the Republican Party.” The sanctity of Life, from conception to natural death, is not just one of the many planks in the Republican Party of Texas platform, but the second guiding principle of the party! What is the purpose of an organization like TFRW, if not to advance both women who champion Texas values and the principles of the Republican Party?
With Republican leaders like these who turn their backs on Life, who needs Democrats?