A Speech To The State Democratic Executive Committee

A Speech To The State Democratic Executive Committee

Austin, TX
July 09, 2005

Thank you for coming today. I'd like to start a real discussion with the people in this room about where I would like to lead the Texas Democratic Party.

Today I want to talk about—and please forgive me if this sounds crazy—but my vision for the Democratic Party here in Texas, a Democratic Party that doesn't take anyone for granted, a Democratic Party that has a coherent message, and a Democratic Party that wins elections for a change, not just in blue states and college towns, but right here in the heart of Texas.

As I travel Texas, Democrats are telling me something that just a few years ago would have sounded like heresy to some in our party. Everywhere I go, Texas Democrats say they are looking for new leaders who aren't afraid to act like Democrats.

The young people who are joining the Democratic fold in such impressive numbers are not doing so because they are looking toward the past. They are looking toward the future because they are the future and they are looking for leaders who understand the Texas of today and who are willing to work for a brighter tomorrow.
As I travel Texas, Democrats are telling me something that just a few years ago would have sounded like heresy to some in our party. Everywhere I go, Texas Democrats say they are looking for new leaders who aren't afraid to act like Democrats.

As I travel the state, I talk about what I call the New Mainstream. And some people are asking me what I mean by that.

When Republicans say they're representing the mainstream they really mean a narrow section of special interest groups in Texas, leaving a huge majority of people on the outside. Remarkably, these new outsiders are solution-oriented people of all stripes--the moderate Republicans who Rick Perry is trying to kick out of his party, the Independents who are getting quite scared about what's going on, and the Democrats who knew from the start that Rick Perry couldn't lead a silent prayer. People who want our state to work, in short.

And all those folks who don't take frequent dips in Tom Delay's hot tub and whom Rick Perry says aren't real Texans, well, they are part of the New Mainstream. Todos estamos en esto juntos. We are all in this together.

And if we are all in this together, it's time that we in the Democratic Party start acting like it.

First, we can't afford another two years in which the people in this room are treated like props while Austin insiders pick our nominees like they're casting yet another sequel to Cannonball Run. The SDEC is the grassroots leadership of this party, but for too long you all have been stuck at the kids table when you all should be at the grown-up table where the decisions are made.

The people in this room don't need a pollster to tell them that the Democratic Party needs to do a better job, a much better job, of articulating what I think should be the core Democratic message: that education is the best investment in individual achievement ever made, and that a truly moral government is one that demands excellence not only from our kids but from our Governor as well. It's one that tells parents that if they do their part, then we'll make sure that teachers have the freedom and the resources that they need to teach our kids something more than how to take yet another standardized test. And if we are going to make teaching our kids the highest purpose of government, then we need to give greater rewards for doing the teaching.

Succeeding generations teach us over and over again that to achieve the American Dream, you have to go through the front door of the schoolhouse and work hard for yourself.

Sadly, as everyone in this room knows, far too many kids in this day and age, when going through the schoolhouse door, are heading in the wrong direction. They're going out, not in, and the dropout rate is around 40 percent in this state - the worst in the country.

It is time for the Democratic Party in Texas to stand up and say these are our children. Estos son nuestros ninos. We cannot stand idly by and watch almost half of each generation drop out of school and forgo the opportunities that Texas provides.

The Republicans want you to believe that we are on the right track to solving our education problems. Don't be fooled. The so-called "Texas Miracle" is nothing more than a politically expedient mirage. Enron-style "accountability" has corrupted the curriculum and increased the dropout rate, and it's left our kids needing more remedial help when they get to college.

That is what is really happening, my friends, and it is time for us to say enough is enough. We can no longer simply accept test-driven curriculums that are driving away our children in droves. We know how to improve our schools. We need to put principals and teachers back in control of schools and classrooms, give them textbooks that aren't censored by special interest word police, the materials they need to teach, the technology needed for kids to learn - and then we might really witness a miracle.

Testing isn't the answer, it's just one way to ask the question. The folks running schools from Austin think they can use tests to make our kids smarter. Tests don't make our kids any smarter than a ruler will make you taller, but Rick Perry and the lobbyists for the testing companies either don't get it or hope you haven't yet figured it out.

We need a governor who wants to take advantage of the knowledge that exists to make schools better and who is committed to making our public schools the best in the country. Not just better. Not as good as Arkansas. The best. No wiggle words. The best schools in the country. That's a vision as big and exciting as Texas.

Education needs to be the main course, but there's so much more on the table for us to chew over.

With the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country, Texas Democrats need the moral courage to stand up and protect birth control and give our kids the medically accurate information they need to know so they don't get pregnant in the first place.

With college tuition rising faster than anywhere else in the country, Texas Democrats must show people that Rick Perry's "deregulation" scheme has failed, and we must put and end to runaway tuition increases—what amounts to a tax on education for the middle class.

And with corporate cash infecting our elections, and 10 lobbyists for every state lawmaker in Austin, Texas Democrats need to demand political reforms that make our campaigns and our government more transparent and accountable.

And with more than 500 kids dead of child abuse and 150,000 kicked off health insurance, Texas Democrats need to get up every day and tell Republicans that budgets are moral documents that should reflect our priorities, and not a wish list for wealthy campaign contributors.

For too long, we have assumed that all we really need to do is wait for people to realize just how bad Republicans are before they started voting for Democrats again.

It is not enough to be right about them being wrong. We have to start defining a future not just for the Texas Democratic Party but for Texas as a whole.

We can no longer charge into battle and assume that our armies are right behind us. We need to give Democrats something to fight for.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for finding common ground, but when you have to choose between your conscience and compromise, you've got what I think is an easy choice. After all, Jesus didn't need a dial-tested focus group to convince him to kick the moneychangers out of the temple. And David didn't use third-party surrogates to attack Goliath. He picked up the five smooth stones and did the slinging himself.

With a Republican in his second term in the White House, Republican majorities in the House and Senate both in Washington and in Austin, and a Texas Republican Governor who wants to parlay six years of incompetence into yet another term in the Governor's Mansion, maybe, just maybe it's time to try something new. Maybe—borrowing here from the accidental wisdom of Rick Perry as he sought to avoid a traffic ticket—it is time to "get on down the road."

We've tried to out-Republican the Republicans, and all we've gotten for it is a demoralized base, demoralized donors, demoralized activists, and demoralized leaders. Our unwillingness to challenge the other side has given us the most corrupt and incompetent Texas government in a generation. It is our duty to restore Texas pride.

Our struggle for relevancy in the 21st Century in Texas is no longer about Ralph Yarborough versus Lloyd Bentsen, the liberals versus the conservatives. It's not about narrowing the definition of a Democrat down to its purest essence. Our charge is to reach out to the true silent majority—the New Mainstream. Our duty is to articulate a positive vision of the future that unites all Texans. And we do this by talking about Democratic values, which I believe are the true shared values of Texans, and not by abandoning them at the first report of gunfire.

This is what I am talking about when I talk about the New Mainstream. Rick Perry can put a fence around his folks and tell the rest of us "Adios, MoFo," but Texans want a leader who has the moral courage to apply something as radical as common sense to our problems and who has the vision to lead us into a tomorrow worth fighting for.

There is a disaffected majority of Texans in the state who are waiting, just waiting to find the basic moral courage to talk about the world the way it is and not the way it polls. They are waiting for us to stop pandering to the issue of the day and to start offering visionary solutions to create a tomorrow that they can get excited about.

The New Mainstream is waiting for the Democratic Party to start getting serious about solutions.

In short, how can we call ourselves "progressive" if we fail to offer progress?

This is where I want to lead the Texas Democratic Party if I decide to run for Governor. My exploratory campaign is coming to a point this month when I'm going to have to make a decision. And I'll tell you with all honesty that I'm not running unless the Democratic Party is ready to hear how a Democrat wants to tackle our challenges, and not how we'd do it just a little bit differently than the Republicans.

The time for that is long past.

Welcome to the New Mainstream, my friends. If we choose to stand together, no one can defeat us. If we work together, there's not an election we can't win. We restore Texas pride and we can build a better Texas together.

Thank you.

http://www.chrisbell.com/speeches/070905_SDEC