In the race for the Governor’s seat in Texas, one of the more remarkable things about the campaign — among many — was the fact that both candidates proclaimed their support for open carry and the expansion of gun rights in Texas. While Texas might be perceived as the nation’s home of gun rights, the fact is that Texans don’t enjoy the level of firearms freedom seen in many other parts of the country. The announcement by Wendy Davis’s campaign that she, a Democrat, would support open carry was looked upon with skepticism by many, simply paying lip service to gun rights in order to look more moderate and gain votes in a tight race. Now that she lost, Davis is dropping the mask. She’s admitted it was all a ruse and she lied about her pro-gun bona fides . . .
From MySanAntonio.com:
Sen. Wendy Davis said in a Monday interview with the Express-News that she opposes allowing the open carry of handguns and that she wishes she had a do-over on the support she expressed for the idea in her ill-fated run for governor.
“I don’t live in the world of regret,” Davis said in the exclusive interview – her first sit-down interview since the election – when asked whether she had any regrets about her campaign.
But she added, “There is one thing that I would do differently in that campaign, and it relates to the position that I took on open carry. I made a quick decision on that with a very short conversation with my team and it wasn’t really in keeping with what I think is the correct position on that issue.”
As I sit here writing this article, I admit that I’m practically speechless.
The entire point of an election is to identify a candidate who supports your beliefs and will be an advocate for your opinions in government. In order to make that possible, candidates put themselves in the spotlight and make their positions known on everything from abortion to gun rights to whether they want to spend money fixing the pothole on your street. The system only works so long as the candidates truthfully describe their own beliefs, and detail what they will do once in office.
In this case, we have a confirmed instance of someone running for Governor of Texas lying to the electorate on a fundamental political position in an attempt to gain votes. Maybe that kind of cynicism is no longer surprising, but it’s rare that we get to see such a blatant disregard for the intelligence and opinions of the voters.
Back home, my house has always been a hotbed for local politics. I’ve seen more campaigns run from my kitchen table than I can count, and spent many a night trying to fall asleep as the politicians and campaign staffers met long into the night below me. So when it comes to politicians and how they run their campaigns, I have some experience in that field from behind the lines.
There’s a growing trend in modern politicians that I have always found repulsive, and that’s the idea that they are akin to modern royalty — that they are elected and given free reign to do whatever they want, and they aren’t responsible for carrying out the wishes of their electorate. That the voters who elected them are too stupid for their own good, and need someone to make the important decisions for them.
The Wendy Davis campaign is yet another case where a politician saw the election process as a means to deceive the population of an entire state in an attempt to gain power to pursue her own hidden agenda – not to carry out the will of their voters. Gun owners in Texas dodged a bullet.