FIRST-PERSON: Rick Perry is no George W. Bush

Baptist Press ^ | 9-14-2011 | Richard Land

[smoothsailing]

FIRST-PERSON: Rick Perry is no George W. Bush
By Richard Land
Sep 14, 2011

Richard Land

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Many people assume Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a carbon copy of George W. Bush. Well, he isn't. Those who either love or despise former President Bush need to understand that Perry should be neither accepted nor rejected based on their opinion of Bush. Indeed, as the nation heads with full force into the 2012 election cycle, many of Perry's opponents in and out of the news media will try to tear down the Texas governor as "Bush, continued." To do so would be neither honest nor fair to either man.

As a sixth-generation Texan of similar age and life experiences, perhaps I can explain some differences between the two. Of course, it will be up to voters to decide whether these differences make a difference.

THE SAME, ONLY DIFFERENT

Bush moved to Texas as a toddler and eagerly embraced the Texas ethos. Texans love people who move to the state and embrace its "Don't Mess With Texas" creed. They smile when they see bumper stickers proclaiming, "I wasn't born here, but I got here as fast as I could."

Perry, however, is the son of tenant farmers from the West Texas hamlet of Paint Creek, outside Abilene. Texas is his DNA. Perry has often said that while they did not have much financially, his family was rich in the things that mattered. He attended Texas A&M when it was permeated by an all-male, all-military culture, which Perry embraced, becoming a "yell leader" (A&M's version of a cheerleader on steroids).

Bush, by contrast, was raised by wealthy New Englanders, summered in Maine and attended Yale and Harvard. In this case, parentage made more than just a stark economic difference.

In many ways, I have lived between George W.'s and Rick Perry's worlds. Like Perry, I was raised in modest circumstances. Like Bush, I went to an Ivy League school (Princeton). Like Perry, I had a Texan father, and like Bush, a New England mother. My father imparted to me the sheer sense of "anything is possible" that is the Texas heritage, but my Bostonian mother reminded me that biggest is not always best and loudest is not always wisest -- Texas with perspective, a rare gift. All three of us had fathers who were World War II combat veterans. Their dads were pilots, my dad a Navy chief. We are all proud of our fathers' patriotic service.

In 2010, Newsweek featured Perry with a revelatory cover photo. Perry's boots were adorned with what Texans call "the first Texas flag." What that flag says about Texans of the Bush-Perry era is instructive. In 1835, Mexico demanded that rebellious Texas settlers return a cannon it had lent them to ward off hostile Indians. The Texans responded by drawing a replica of the cannon on a bed sheet and writing under it, "COME AND TAKE IT." Mexico did not get the cannon back. That Texas folklore was a significant part of every young Texan's upbringing. That Perry would put that flag on his boots tells us more about him than anything in Newsweek. This "Don't Mess with Texas" mindset is embraced by both men, but Perry, the Aggie, had neither Bush's parents nor Yale or Harvard to tone it down.

It is clear to those who know former President George W. Bush that he has great respect and affection for the average man and tremendous appreciation for those who have risen through the meritocracy from humble beginnings. However, as one of those "up from the ranks" individuals, I don't believe George W. Bush or any such son of privilege can as fully identify with the average family that lives from paycheck to paycheck as Perry can. Bush loves and appreciates them, Perry is them.

Their different backgrounds make them different men. Perry is less subtle. While both are men of genuine faith, Perry (life-long evangelical) is going to be more overtly Christian in his faith statements than the former president, who became a Methodist but was raised by New England Episcopalians. Perry is more conservative than Bush. He would be the most conservative president since Calvin Coolidge both fiscally and in foreign policy. He would be less interventionist in the latter and far more frugal than "compassionate" in the former. Perry also has a well-deserved reputation in Texas as being a less-forgiving political opponent than Bush. If you cross Perry, he will get even.

NATIONAL APPEAL?

It would be a mistake to underestimate the appeal of this candidate's conservative populism. Perry has never lost an election and while he would be offended if you called him an intellectual, Perry is far more shrewd than people assume. His brain trust in his past election, where he defeated the George H.W. Bush-backed establishment candidate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, included a group of Ivy League brainiacs on the cutting edge of campaign and election research.

The USA is not Texas, but large chunks are similar. Perry's appeal increases the farther you go from either the east or left coast. Large numbers of Americans are moving to Texas. Enough people moved in the past decade to give the state four new congressional seats. The question for Rick Perry and GOP primary voters: Does America want to be more like his pro-business, pro-growth Texas? If the answer is "yes," Perry is the "down to his bone marrow" Texan who is eager to lead them in that direction. However, George W. Bush he isn't.

If Perry is the Republican nominee, what presidential debates those will be. The contrast could not be more stark. In one corner the whippet-thin, fastidious, ultra-urbane, somehow detached Siamese cat that is President Obama. Across from him the muscular, Marlboro man, Rottweiler that is Gov. Perry. Wow! The debate moderators will need striped shirts, whistles and yellow flags to throw during those debates.
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Richard Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Commission. A version of this column first appeared in USA Today.

© Copyright 2011 Baptist Press

Original copy of this story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=36117

[bwc2221]

The Perry cheerleaders are slipping into their Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ outfits now, even the 50 year old guys with beer guts.

Cheer #1: Open Borders, Open Borders Rah! Rah! Rah!
Cheer #2: Pay to Play, Pay to Play, Pay to Play ....

[tanuki]

Where is that article? I missed it.

[gaijin]

You know what they said about W? Time and again they intoned, “W is NOTHING like his father..!! He’s a REAL conservative..!”

They said it a million times.

Here? They say, “Perry would be NOTHING like Dubya..!”

Yeah, sure.

Sorry, I just can’t risk it. It all sounds like a repeat.

NOPE.

[NeoCaveman]

The Texas one is diffrent than the federal one.

With that said, he is a squish on that issue.

But why am I defending him; I prefer Thad McCotter or Sarah Palin.

[woofie]

It is clear to those who know former President George W. Bush that he has great respect and affection for the average man and tremendous appreciation for those who have risen through the meritocracy from humble beginnings. However, as one of those "up from the ranks" individuals, I don't believe George W. Bush or any such son of privilege can as fully identify with the average family that lives from paycheck to paycheck as Perry can. Bush loves and appreciates them, Perry is them.

Pure Class Warfare BS....this kind of tripe makes you happy?

[McGruff]

A majority of voters are ignorant. And if the lamestream media tells them Perry is just another George Bush they will believe it.

I know this because I'm married to one of those ignorant voters (although I keep working on her).

[shield]

You’ll get neither...the race is Mittens OR Perry...

[smoothsailing]

This is an interesting article...

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/perry-starts-an-honest-immigration-conversation-1867791.html

I don’t know who the writer is, but he touches on some good points, including the genuine concern vs. the knee-jerk reaction that those of us on the right are familiar with.

[shield]

Prove that statement.

[NeoCaveman]

Well the Perrydactyls will probably make me give Mittens another look....

[Jedidah]

Excellent, excellent article.

Yes, Perry will get even if crossed, as the column says.

Another character trait: if he’s wrong (and he often is), he will not back down.

[shield]

Sounds like you are for Obamacare...Mitten’s will NEVER repeal it...in fact, Mittens think it’s just fine for the government to tell us we have to buy health insurance. He also did an EO legalizing Gay Marriage in Mass...

[CodeToad]

” Perry is more conservative than Bush. He would be the most conservative president since Calvin Coolidge both fiscally and in foreign policy.”

That’s a load of crap. The author is fooling nobody.

[Paperdoll]

oh oh, another one hit the dust! :o)

[savagesusie]

The first Bush did extreme damage to our country by getting us into Agenda 21 and giving more power to federal (international) corruption of US education. W’s No Child Left Behind was an extremely unconstitutional and dangerous funding of more federal control over the minds and worldview of our children.

We need to get government out of education and burn all the text books and get rid of the BF Skinner behaviorism inserted into all curricula (BK Eakman). Seriously—I am not kidding.

The generations we are raising are not ACORN thugs by accident...it is by design. Education and immigration are the most serious threats to our freedoms—besides the intentional destruction of morality in our military which reduces our military to the Russian/atheist one or the homosexual/Brownshirt occult worshipping one. We have to teach that our Natural Rights come from God, not Barney Frank.

We need to get back to the fundamental meaning and philosophy of America and quit adopting absurd Marxists and Frank ideologies that destroy every thing that is good and healthy in civil societies.

History proves their ideologies are not only lies which deny Natural Law Theory (foundation of our government), it proves that civil society and morality ends with their adoption.

[GourmetDan]

Guys, guys. You don’t get to that level unless you follow the agenda.

You forget or change you mind, you pushing up daisies.

You follow the script, you can survive any scandal.

It ain’t hard to see.

[ZULU]

Is Perry more conservative than Romney?

I think so.

Is he more salable as a candidate?

I think so.

Is he far ahead of the other cosnervatives like Bachmann and Cain?

I think so.

So what’s the problem??

[CA Conservative]

Please provide documented evidence (not scurrilous and libelous opinions) to support your charge about Perry. Perry has been through 3 general elections as governor - if he had done what you say, don't you think the press and the Dems (I know, one and the same) would have trumpeted that to the heavens? Regardless off the innuendo you and the other Perry bashers like to inject into the conversation, no one has ever posted any credible evidence of any "pay to play" schemes. So either put up or shut up.

[EnglishCon]

The Perry cheerleaders are slipping into their Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ outfits now, even the 50 year old guys with beer guts. Cheer #1: Open Borders, Open Borders Rah! Rah! Rah!

---

Dude. Get it right. Perry has frequently said securing the borders is a federal issue, not a state issue. I know your total terror of brown people makes you think that he is open borders - he is not. He refuses to waste too much of his state's money doing a job they simply should not have to. Isn't that a governors job? Give him control of the Federal government and watch the border slam shut.

The crony capitalism thing - yeah, that makes me uncomfortable and I want more information.

[SaxxonWoods]

Let’s cut to the chase. The nominee will either be Perry, Romney or Palin (if she gets in).

On straight conservative policy issues, I rate Palin first, Perry a close second, Romney well back in third.

Please answer this question:

IF Palin gets in the race, will she split the conservatives and give the nomination to Romney? (I think so.)

I’m going with Perry despite my large disagreement with him over illegal immigration. In my sane moments I understand that the illegal immigration argument was lost years ago. Sarah can only play spoiler at this point.

Romney is not what we need. Perry is much closer to what we need. Sarah is slighter preferable to Perry on policy, but lacks his executive experience and has problematic unfavorable ratings, even within the Republican party.

Logic says Perry for the win.