You can’t leave action to others.  If you want results, you need to get off your rear end and get in the fight.  Today, I did that.  I called my new Republican Texas State Representative, Barbara Nash, to urge her not to vote for Joe Straus as Speaker.  I never expected to actually talk to her so I wasn’t surprised when I got voice mail.  I left a respectful message urging her to vote for Ken Paxton and not Joe Straus.  What I didn’t expect was that she would call me back!  I got 15 minutes of her time and told her things she didn’t know about Joe Straus.  You can read more details in my earlier post .

Several things became clear to me during our discussion:

1. Joe Straus was organized.  He had a plan to approach every new Representative early and often.  To flatter them and to impress them with the attention they were to receive while he courted their support.
2. My Representative seems like a very good person.  She has the right values and could be a very good Representative.  She just needs to hear the other side.  She is not hearing it!  She is only hearing from Joe Straus and his friends.
3. Rep. Nash, I believe, is probably like most new Reps coming in.  They are probably unaware of all the shenanigans that have gone on under Speaker Straus.  Joe Straus had a plan to co-opt them.  Conservatives did not have a comparable plan to recruit support for a Conservative Speaker.  We are way behind in this effort.
4. To win this battle, we’re going to need a lot more of the grass roots to get off their behinds and start calling.  Barbara Nash is hearing the objections to Straus — I am not the only one to raise this issue with her.  We need to educate, not threaten these new Reps so they don’t make a decision they will later regret.

I don’t know if my call will ultimately convince Rep. Nash to vote for a more conservative Speaker.  But without my call and the calls of others there is no hope.  So get in the game.  It feels good and can make a difference if enough of us heed the call to action.