Greg Abbott

One of life’s unsolved mysteries to me is why reasonably intelligent people would choose to select a candidate for office in government who hates government. A prime example of the root cause for such contentiousness presently existing between various factions of party loyalists in government--as well as the disregard for what I call “Americanism” in Texas--is our current Attorney General Greg Abbott.

In addition to being one of the world’s great hypocrites, Greg Abbott continues to fan the flames of dissension between Republicans and Democrats with his rhetoric designed only to mislead and to stigmatize anyone in disagreement with him as an enemy of the state, or worse.

In a Monday April 15^th speech to a Republican meeting in Waco, our illustrious Attorney General allowed as how Democrats attempting to turn “Texas Blue” were a greater danger to America than the leaders of North Korea. Being a former member of the Legislature of 32 years, plus having received an honorable discharge from the United States Naval Reserve, and being in possession of two top-secret clearances by the U.S. government, I was somewhat taken aback by General Abbott’s characterization of those of us with Democratic Party leanings. Apparently, since Attorney General Abbott did not serve in the military, he is unaware of the requirement that you take an oath of loyalty to the United States Government--an oath which I gladly took and have not recanted. 

I say that our Attorney General is a hypocrite for many reasons, the main one of which is that he reaped huge economic benefits from a personal injury lawsuit after which, both as a judge and as Attorney General, he has done all he could to prevent other folks from having access to the courts for the same purpose.

It seems to me there is plenty of work for a conscientious Attorney General to do, particularly protecting the people from unscrupulous lenders, fraudulent contractors, and sorry, non-paying parents who refuse to support their children. I would dare say our Attorney General, however, has spent more time suing the federal government than attending to other more pressing matters of the State.

Instead of zealously attacking polluters in our state, our Attorney General has spent more time trying to do away with environmental regulations mandated by our federal government. And instead of being an advocate for adequate funding for public education as required by our own state constitution, he has chosen to appeal the recent decision of the state district court that declared our current level of funding as not meeting constitutional requirements. Moreover, instead of protecting voters’ rights in Texas, he has supported voter ID and now is proceeding with an action to rob minorities of protections under the Federal Voting Rights Act. Finally, no rational attorney could look at recent Republican efforts to reapportion the state’s districts for state representatives and senators and declare them compact, constitutional and reflecting communities of interest.

It is obvious Attorney General Abbott is more dedicated to republicanism than fairness.  One only has to look at what General Abbott defended as a fair and reasonable reapportionment of senatorial districts in Texas. Port Arthur was given a senatorial district beginning North of Interstate 10, on the West side of Houston, snaking down through Galveston County and across Chambers County where not one soul lived, and then reaching up and plucking Port Arthur thereby separating it from the rest of Jefferson County. I do not recall one word of protest from General Abbott about such shenanigans taking place in the reapportionment of our state. Greg Abbott, according to our state’s constitution, is supposed to be the lawyer for the people. I dare say any lawyer in private practice who allowed the misuse of his clients in such a manner would soon be found guilty of malpractice.

I’ve often heard it said voters are too often faced with the choice of the lesser of two evils at election time. Given a choice between Rick Perry, our current Governor, and Greg Abbott, our current Attorney General, it would seem that old saying is certainly holding true.