Rick Perry essentially promotes himself as a combination of Jesus Christ and Ronald Reagan, hoping that conservatives will think he’s their greatest hope. He acts like a prophet by telling rednecks that the economic recession was a punishment from God to return us to biblical principles and by calling for a statewide 3 days of prayer for rain, when the forecast predicts 3 days of rain in the future. Rick Perry’s possible presidential run is very similar to Reagan’s runs for president, as he’s been trying to get conservatives to beg him into running. Here, I will prove that Rick Perry is one of the WORST possible presidential candidates due to his dishonesty and hypocrisy. Oh, and just so Y’ALL know, I’m from Texas and have personal experience with Perry’s policies and beliefs.
ON THE ENVIRONMENT
“The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we inhabit are not only critical elements in the quality of life we enjoy – they are a reflection of the majesty of our Creator.”
Governor Perry, your intelligence is equivalent to a meth addicted dog. Or more likely, you were just lying. Rick Perry hates the EPA so much that he practically challenges the EPA on all of its findings. Most recently, he challenged an EPA finding (axiom) that greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health and welfare. He’s also currently trying to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases and to prevent the EPA from abolishing Texas’s flexible permitting system for refineries and other large plants. Texas’s permit system basically allows any plant to open no matter how much it pollutes. Perry clearly does not care about the “water we drink” as he is currently endorsing turning groundwater rights over to private owners and is expanding natural gas drilling in certain areas that will make the water radioactive. Perry also doesn’t care about the “air we breathe” because Texas’s air permitting system is so loose and fails to meet national laws that the EPA actually had to order a national takeover of Texas’s air permitting system. Rick Perry hates the EPA so much, that he in fact considers it to be one of his greatest villains. Perry’s hatred for the EPA can’t be explained by a commitment to states’ rights or dislike for the EPA’s methods. He flat out doesn’t care about the environment. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the main regulatory body for the environment in Texas, is one of the weakest state regulatory bodies in the nation and is facing horrendous budget cuts. The same goes for Texas Parks and Wildfire Agency.
ON BIPARTISANSHIP
“Reforming public education, cutting property taxes, fixing adult and child protective services and funding our budget can all occur when Democrats and Republicans engage in consensus and cooperation – not cynicism and combat.”
Rick Perry refutes this statement by saying, “Our party cannot be all things to all people. It can’t be. Our loudest opponents on the left are never going to like us so let’s stop trying to curry favor with them.” He continues to refute this statement by saying “Let’s stand up. Let’s speak with pride about our morals and our values and redouble our effort to elect more conservative Republicans.” Just so you know, conservatives control a supermajority in the Texas House and a substantial majority in the Texas Senate, so if Perry had any bipartisan skills then this wouldn’t be necessary. Perry also gives Democrats a hard time to act in bipartisan manners. Perry stated, “We’ve got the wind at our back right now. Americans are waking up to the realities of their previous choices. We must keep America moving back to preeminence because our values and conservative ideas are the world’s greatest hope.” By stating that conservativism is the world’s greatest hope, he is insinuating that liberalism is a villainous ideology meant to damage the world. Now that’s a great atmosphere for bipartisanship!
ON EDUCATION
“The foundation for future prosperity is built on the bedrock of good jobs and great schools. We are building a strong foundation one job at a time and one educated Texan at a time.”
I, along with the rest of civilization, do not consider $9.8 billion in public education cuts to be a strong foundation for education. But then again, Rick Perry believes that public education cuts are the fault of local school districts and not the state government. Perry stated, “The lieutenant governor, the speaker, and their colleagues aren’t going to hire or fire one teacher, as best I can tell. That is a local decision that will be made at local districts.” Disgusting.
ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
“The people who illegally cross into the country are from countries that have very close ties to al Qaeda, whether it’s Yemen or Afghanistan, Pakistan, China. It is an absolute national disgrace.”
Are u trying to become Texas’s greatest demagogue, Rick Perry? Last time I checked, Mexico does not harbor terrorists. Technically, Rick Perry’s statement generalizes all illegal immigrants as terrorists. Rationality at its greatest!
ON BORDER SECURITY
“My border security efforts have led to a 60 percent decrease in border crime.”
Politifact hilariously states that this statement excludes “El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville, and other burgs where most people live”.
ON ABORTION
“Under Obama, our federal tax dollars can now be used to fund abortion all over the world. With the stroke of a pen, abortion essentially became a U.S. foreign export.”
Joseph McCarthy would be proud of Perry’s fear mongering abilities. This statement has almost no basis in fact. On the third day of Obama’s presidency, he overturned the Mexico City Policy which states that international family planning aid cannot be used to fund foreign abortions. To Perry, this means that Obama is using tax dollars to fund foreign abortions. But Perry never opened a law book during college (details to follow), and doesn’t know that there are other laws preventing this laughable conclusion. The 1973 Helms amendment explicitly prohibits the United States from funding foreign abortions.
ON DEFICIT SPENDING
“We can’t have deficit spending in Texas. You have to balance your budget every two years.”
First off, I have to point out what a terrible circular reasoning fallacy this statement is. Just because Texas is lazy and only balances its budget every two years doesn’t magically balance the budget. If we don’t deficit spend in Texas, then I’m quite confused as to how my state has a $27 billion deficit.
ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
“The Obama administration is an affront to every freedom-loving American, and a threat to every private sector job in this country.”
Rick Perry refutes his own statement by saying, “Dark economic clouds are dissipating into an emerging blue sky of opportunity.” I know that Perry is quite narcissistic and arrogant, so he probably believes that job creation in Texas is 100% because of him. But whether he likes it or not, we can not have an emerging blue sky of opportunity in any U.S. state if the Obama administration is a threat to every private sector job in the country.
ON JOB CREATION
“70 percent of jobs created in the United States in November 2007-2008 were in Texas.”
I wonder how many states Rick Perry can name, because he left out quite a few when calculating this percentage. This number is only true if you exclude the 36 states that had more job losses than gains in this time period. The number is true when you compare Texas to Oklahoma, Maryland, Louisiana, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Iowa, Virginia, Alaska, and Nebraska.
ON INSURANCE
“Texas has been waiting for two years for the federal government to act on a proposal to allow the state to create insurance opportunities for those that are uninsured today.” (paraphrased)
Rick Perry believes that he doesn’t care about poor, uninsured people because the federal government won’t allow him to care about the poor. But as Mitt Romney can tell you, states are allowed to help the poor find insurance if they desire. Rick Perry just has no interest in helping the poor.
ON HEALTH CARE
“Everyone in this country has access to health care.”
I’m sure you’re still laughing from this, so I won’t even bother explaining how ridiculous it is.
ON MUDSLINGING
“Bill White profiteered in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.”
Along with Joseph McCarthy, Rick Perry also makes John Quincy Adams proud. In the Election of 1824, Adams accused Andrew Jackson of being a lunatic and murderer. Jackson was both of these things, so Adams is still okay for these assertions. But Adams also stated that Rachel Jackson was a tramp and prostitute, which was a completely false assertion and caused a horrible stain on her reputation. Perry states an equally immoral false statement here about Bill White, the 2010 Democratic challenger for Texas governor. Bill White was a stock investor in a company that helped Houston citizens rebuild their lives after Hurricane Rita. This doesn’t even come close to the corruption of profiteering!
ON TAX INCREASES
“We don’t raise taxes”
During the interview that this claim was uttered, Perry would later go on to claim that he had never raised taxes as governor. He in fact has raised taxes three times; on fireworks, cigarettes, and diesel equipment. I won’t criticize him for the two latter, but a patriotic, American-loving conservative raising taxes on fireworks! I always thought fireworks were a symbol of American patriotism, since we always blow them up on July 4th. This begs a new question. Why do YOU hate America, Rick Perry?
ON SOCIAL SECURITY
“Social Security is indeed a Ponzi scheme.”
Most of us have heard this statement before from our colleagues and friends. However, it just simply isn’t true. This was a very irresponsible statement from Perry, as he’s indirectly accusing the Social Security Administration of being fraudulent and a get-rich-quick scheme.
ON HISTORY
“The first word spoken from the moon was Houston.”
Although Perry still knows more about history than Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann, this is just another example of conservatives not knowing history. The first words spoken from the moon were “contact light” by Neil Armstrong, describing the quality of Apollo 11’s landing on the moon.
ON MANDATORY VACCINATIONS
“That piece of legislation (mandatory HPV vaccines for girls) was not mandatory, in the sense of when you can say no, something’s not mandatory”
PolitiFact again hilariously states that, “There’s no mandate without the word mandatory”. This is one issue I actually agree with Rick Perry on, so I won’t criticize him anymore for this comment.
ON TAX CUTS
“We cut property taxes by one-third.”
Perry was clearly pandering to the right when he made this statement, as he left out one crucial fact. These property tax cuts were cuts in the amount of revenue going to school districts, which were paid for by property taxes. Perry never actually cut property taxes for homeowners.
Shame on you, Governor Goodhair! Maybe us Texans should change that nickname from Goodhair to Badmouth. And these quotes only prove that Perry is apathetic towards honesty and facts. There are two more condemning facts about Perry that I believe should be shared.
Rick Perry has absolutely zero ethos when it comes to politics. In college, he only earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science. Maybe working as a male cheerleader (euphemized as yell leader) took away the time he would’ve used for studying something related to politics!
After the execution of Humberto Leal, Rick Perry is now an INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL FOR MURDER. If our corrupt Supreme Court weren’t protecting Rick Perry, then he could be behind bars right now.
All quotes and facts were obtained from:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rick_perry.html
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/rick-perry/
www.texastribune.org
I live in Texas and totally agree with this article. Having lived here through the Bush and Perry years, all I can think to myself is when will we see a reincarnation of Ann Richards. LOVED her, and though not everything she did was spot on, she was great for the state of Texas.
We sure don’t want a President that lies about everything before he gets in office. That would just be a repeat of the last 30 months with an R instead of a D after their name. I actually prefer a cowboy mentality over a Banana Republic mentality because at least it’s American.
Rick Perry contradicts himself quite frequently, so I still left out two IMPORTANT pieces of info.
For insurance, Rick Perry helped pass a law requiring all car drivers in Texas to carry auto insurance. So he definitely wouldn’t have trouble getting health insurance reform passed.
Rick Perry has made multiple comments on why states shouldn’t take federal stimulus money, even when he has been accepting it. Luckily Addicting Info has already covered this instance of hypocrisy quite well.
Kenneth…your article was sooooo right on. My sweetie is from Texas too and he talks about all these issues and is furious to see what these types have done to ruin it.
Jay…your inability to find words to express yourself without resorting to swear words just highlights your shortcomings.
Rick Perry…Another GOP religious fanatic!!!
“Governor Perry, you’re intelligence is equivalent to a meth addicted dog.” Jesus Christ!!! If YOU’RE going to make fun of someone else and their (notice, I didn’t write they’re)intellect you should make sure you know your fucking pronouns (i.e. you’re/your). Perry is a douchebag, but it does nothing for the progressive cause to write poorly about him.
Yeah sorry about that. The sentence was originally “You’re dumber than” but then I changed the sentence around for better syntax and forgot to change it to the correct grammar for the new sentence. I AM quite knowledgable on grammar rules but that one must’ve just slipped by me while editing. I will definitely make sure to check my your/you’re forms closer from now, although I still don’t think “fucking” was necessary for a grammar mistake.
*from now on
No qusetoin this is the place to get this info, thanks y’all.
Jay, if you’re going to correct someone on HIS grammar I suggest you proofread your own comments. When speaking about a single subject (if you’re going to make fun of someone else) you should not use a plural possessive (their). I’m guessing what you meant to say was “if you’re going to make fun of someone else for HIS /HER intellect you should make sure you know your f*ing pronouns”
Every word of this is true! I have lived in Texas most of my nearly 70 years, and Mr Goodhair is the WORST thing that has happened to Texas (not counting The Shrub) because he and Dewhurst have lost sight of what’s best for Texas, and have pursued their own personal power-hunt.
I’ll wager that Texas enacts term limits on the Gov’ns office within 2 years!
Yes! It is ridiculous that this man will end up being the Governor of Texas for 3.5 terms! If he wanted to, he could still go for a fourth term! Any political position that can only be occupied by one person(i.e excluding reps and senators) needs to have term limits.
I wholeheartedly disagree on one statement. Term limits should be mandatory on Representatives as well as Senators. The Congress has too much power and, despite the populaces continued ignorance- willful ignorance-, has very little to balance its greed and corruption. It’s a Good Ole Boy’s Club where you do what you want, when you want. And anti-bipartisanship? Honestly, I doubt so much evil could be perpetrated in Congress if it wasn’t for a very real, very effective “I scratch your back, you scratch mind” system of favors between the two parties. Republics always suffer from these downfalls.