Will Colonel Allen West Become the Next Governor of Texas?

Will Colonel Allen West Become the Next Governor of Texas?

By Paul Dowling

“Galveston is proof that it is not about where you were born; it is not about where you came from.  That does not decide your future and what you are going to be.  And that’s what we have to fight for and protect here in the great State of Texas.”  – Colonel Allen West, on February 11, 2022, in Galveston, Texas

Colonel West Speaks in Galveston

Texas gubernatorial candidate Colonel Allen West, who is ahead of Governor Greg Abbott, according to recent polling in the race for Texas governor, made remarks to a Republican group on Friday evening, February 11, 2022, at the Fisherman’s Wharf Seafood Grill in Galveston, Texas.  Colonel West spoke ahead of the commencement of early voting for the Texas Republican primary, which occurs from Monday, February 14, 2022, to Friday, February 25, 2022.  (Election Day is March 1, 2022.)

The Republican primary in Texas is important, because the winner of the Republican primary is heavily favored to win the general election in November.  And with Newsweek reporting West to have come from way behind to take the lead in the polls just prior to early voting – 38.36% to 32.52% – Colonel West’s positions on issues have become quite newsworthy.

A sampling of Colonel West’s thinking on issues affecting the Lone Star State follows:

Incredible Galveston, Incredible Texas

“When I think about being down here in Galveston, I think about the incredible history of Galveston, especially since we are in Black History Month, because George Santayana said, ‘Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’

“So, let’s talk about the history of Galveston with the Black Community and with the Republican Party.  It was right here, Juneteenth of 1865, when General Gordon Granger came up with that General Order No. 3 to let blacks know here in the great State of Texas that they were free.  That’s the day that belongs to us in Texas, the day that we celebrate.

“And what’s so amazing about that is that 150 of those black men met right up the road in Houston, Texas, and, on Independence Day of 1867, they created our Republican Party of Texas.  One of the early chairmen of the Republican Party of Texas – 1884-1898 – was a Galveston businessman, a black man, by the name of Norris Wright Cuny.

“We just recently celebrated State Senator Matthew Gaines with a statue at Texas A&M University, because this man was so critical and important to the founding of Texas A&M and also Prairie View A&M universities.

“Why do I say that?  Because Galveston is proof that it is not about where you were born; it is not about where you came from.  That does not decide your future and what you are going to be.  And that’s what we have to fight for and protect here in the great State of Texas.”

Bringing a Plastic Spoon to a Gunfight

“I was the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, and the reason why I decided to step down and run for governor is because someone has to stand up and fight for real legislative priorities.  I’m sick and tired of seeing Republicans bring a plastic spoon to a gunfight – to try to compromise, acquiesce, appease, and negotiate with progressive Socialists.

“Texas is the beacon of liberty and freedom in the United States of America.  So goes Texas, so goes America; and so goes America, so goes the entire free world.  That’s what we have to stand up and fight for in this moment and in this time.  And, as it says in the Book of Esther [4:13-14], ‘We are all here for a time such as this.’”

The Border

“Right now, we’ve got to understand that we’re not fighting against a business organization.  We’re fighting an insurgency against a transnational narco-criminal terrorist organization.  Article IV, Section 4, of the Constitution is called the Guarantee Clause.  There are two things the government is supposed to guarantee to every state in the Union.  Number one: a republican form of government.  Number two: to protect every state in the Union from invasion.

“This is un-Constitutional, it is purposeful, it is an intentional thing that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the entire Biden Administration is doing.  Article I, Section 10, Clause Number Three, of the US Constitution, says exactly what states can do, if actually invaded, when there is imminent danger, without any admitted delay.  We are the number one state in the United States of America for human sex trafficking.  Houston and Dallas are the top two cities for sex trafficking.

“The Texas Constitution, Article IV, Section 7, says the governor is commander-in-chief of the Texas Military Department.  One of his preëminent responsibilities is to repel invasions.  We’re going to establish a border control zone, and from Highway 90 down to the Rio Grande, we’re going to deploy our troops, our Texas National Guard.  And we’re going to give them the right task, and purpose, and mission.

“No more are we going to allow non-profit 501c3 organizations – these NGOs – to be the travel agencies for illegal immigrants.  We’re going to revoke their licenses to operate here in the State of Texas.  We’re going to take the fight to the cartels, because they are a terrorist organization, and we will not allow a terrorist organization to fire across the Rio Grande River into Texas.  Therefore, we’re going to change the rules of engagement.”

Executive Overreach

“No elected official has the Enumerated Power to decide who or what is essential.  Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Those who would surrender essential liberty for temporary security in the end will deserve neither liberty nor security.’

“No emergency suspends your Constitutional rights, but obviously Governor Abbott believes in edicts, orders, mandates, and decrees, which are the tools of a tyrant, the tools of a person that believes that they are the repository of power.

“I believe that we have to, once again, reëstablish individual rights, freedoms, liberty, and sovereignty, because your sovereignty does not come from a man, it comes from the Creator God.  Your life, your liberty, your property, your pursuit of happiness.  And I will uphold and defend your rights and freedoms.”

Property Taxes

“The property tax system we have here in the state of Texas, the sixth highest in the United States of America, is based on the philosophies of Karl Marx.  If you have ever read The Communist Manifesto, looked at the planks of the Communist belief, number one is a progressive tax system that continues to go up.  The other thing is that Karl Marx believed in the elimination of private property rights.  Here in the State of Texas, you can pay off your land, pay off your mortgage, and never own your home.  We’ve got to change that.

“What we have to do is look at the excessive spending that is going on down there in Austin.  I call government a ‘self-licking ice cream cone.’  They continue to increase their spending and increase the taxation to fulfill their own luscious desires for money and for what they want to dole out.

“In 2015 to today, we’ve seen a 19% increase in spending down there in Austin, that equates to $47 billion, yet we have had only a 5.4% increase in population.  We’re going to go back to 2015; that’s some initial savings we can put down for property tax relief.  In 2016, I sat on the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, and we were tasked to look at agencies, programs, and bureaucracies in the Texas state government and sunset them – make them go away for inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.  But if you go back and look, very few of those recommendations are ever taken up by the legislature.  We’re going to go back ten or fifteen years and look at those recommendations.

“We’re also going to get this state government off what is called a baseline budget system.  They never are cutting spending.  They are only cutting the increase in spending, because every budget cycle they start from their previous baseline, and they go up from there.  We are going to put the Texas state government on exactly what you have to do, a zero-based budget system.  We are going to start looking at how we transition from a property tax system to a consumption-based tax system.  That’s how we did taxation in the United States of America prior to 1917, when the personal income tax was created.  It was supposed to only be 2%, and it was supposed to be temporary.”

Taking Another Oath

“You know there’re some soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coastguardsmen who are here tonight.  The thing that bonds us all together is that, on one day in our lives, we stood and we raised our right hand, and we took an oath, an oath that said we would support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  And we were willing to make, as Abraham Lincoln said, ‘the last full measure of devotion’ to safeguard this American republic.  And when I look at what is happening in Texas, Texas is that beacon.

“Just up the road is the San Jacinto battlefield.  And when you think about those men who charged the San Jacinto battlefield, how they won the independence of this state – the only state in the United States of America that has its own Declaration of Independence [and] its own Independence Day – that’s what we have to fight for.

“Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution says there’s only 18 things the federal government is responsible for, and everything else comes to us.  So, we need to have men and women who are willing to stand in the gap of this great State of Texas.  That’s what I’m willing to do.  I’m answering that call.  And I would be so honored if, next year, in January of 2023, you would allow me to take another oath, an oath to the constitution of the great State of Texas.  Thank you.”  (Colonel Allen West is author of Hold Texas, Hold the Nation: Victory or Death.)

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Paul Dowling

Paul Dowling has written about the Constitution, as well as articles for Independent Sentinel, American Thinker, and Free Thought Matters.

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