Tex. Gov. Perry: Help us, hated and evil federal government, you’re our only hope!
I won’t bore you with what you likely already know: Perry, evil federal government, secession, blah blah blah. That was then.
Yes, now that significant parts of Texas are, um, on fire, it seems that the hated and evil federal government once more has a true and faithful friend in the talking hairdo that is Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX). He wants the feds, yes those, to declare a state of emergency. Why? I’ll let the Governor explain, as quoted by CNN.
“I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments, and that supplementary federal assistance is necessary.”
Now, I’ve long subscribed to the theory that Tea Party-friendly public figures such as Perry don’t believe more than about 10% of the nonsense rhetoric that they spout, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hypocritical for doing stuff like this.
The point of this page is not to say, “Republican hypocrisy! Bad! Bad Republicans!” Although those are valid points. Rather, the point is how little the Tea Party is aware, and how little they care, that it is utterly impossible for any state to exist as independently of the federal government as they would like, even for a short period of time. This is why they never lose faith in sleazy politicians like Perry who pay only as much service to Tea Party policies as they have to, then go running to the feds the same way everyone else does when the need arises.
It’s a little game. Democrats in the federal government roll their eyes when Perry uses the EEEVIL!! federal government to gin up votes, but they know as well as he does that they’ll be there for his state when it needs, because… that’s what the federal government is supposed to do. Perry’s plea for assistance is absolutely correct. It was written by an adult, not a campaigner.