It's already 2020 and the Texas primary is coming up fast on March 3, 2020. A review of choices in the major counties show the following:

One thing is clear, we have a lot more single person races compared to the Democrats. Of concern is the failure to run individual candidates in the vast majority of cases in the major counties. It seems they are not even trying to field candidates. For example, in Harris County, eleven Democrats in judicial races are without opposition. In some instances, the sitting Democratic judge was well regarded, but that did not apply to all of them, some of which are radical leftists who are extremely soft on criminals. This is a pattern in the big counties and is a sign the GOP is in retreat with an emerging lack of local leadership.

With so little on the GOP ballots in some areas of Texas or in some districts, some more conservative voters are fearful of the most radical leftist Democrats getting elected. One solution is to migrate into the Democratic primary to help nominate the more middle of the road choice.

Since all politics is local and you are impacted more by local politics than national, it's an idea many think is worthy of consideration in 2020.

*Includes President, U.S. Senate, Railroad Commission, & Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

The decline in readership of mayor newspapers in America can be blamed on many factors. One is lack of trust in reporting facts that are in fact opinions not labeling them as such. Another is the papers' political policies being sold to the public as facts, and finally, a lack of diversity of opinions.

The public, in reaction, cancels the paper and circulation further declines. The Houston Chronicle is one such example. Why bother reading a paper that can't get its facts straight and turns a blind eye to reality?

The most recent example of this was on January 11, 2020 in the editorial "Thumbs Up, Down" the paper describes the appointment of Dave Martin as Mayor pro-tem as a bipartisan effort by their favorite Mayor, Sylvester Turner, and implying Martin was a Buzbee supporter.

Last time we checked Martin has a history of supporting Turner on City Council and was never a public supporter of Tony Buzbee for Mayor. TCR will watch the future here, but if he is anything like the last Mayor pro-tem, it's the last we will hear any disagreement between the Mayor and Martin.

It used to be said that partisanship stops at the border, implying unity in foreign affairs. No more, as for Democrats it doesn't matter what President Trump does, it's wrong, it's stupid, he is out of control and is a danger to the U.S. and its interests.

Last week, the U.S. took out one of the leading organizers and sponsors of terrorism - Soleimani of Iran. The Democrat's talking points concede he was a bad guy, responsible for hundreds of American deaths, but then attacked President Trump while cowering in fear of Iran military power. They claimed the Middle East is now more dangerous and it's the President's fault. What's worse, the talking points could've been from Democrats here or written in Iran!

Speaker Pelosi incredibly called the killing of the terrorist Soleimani as a "provocative and disproportionate military air strike." This same so-called leader, when Obama invaded Libya and toppled that government, said that President Obama didn't need permission as "he has the authority he needs to go ahead."

And what about those so-called moderate Democrats running for re-election in lean Republican Texas districts? We heard only crickets. TCR wonders what happened to the promises made by moderate Democrats when campaigning to work across the aisle from Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7) and Colin Allred (TX-32)? From them we get the Speaker Pelosi talking points on Iran and a vote for the impeachment joke. That's something to keep in mind next November when you vote.

Let's break down those comments and review the facts. Iran's response was to bomb dirt and empty barracks after the U.S. was warned in advance. The only fear is the one Iran has of a more assertive U.S. finally standing up to the Iranian bullies. The ballyhooed Obama-Iran deal has been exposed as the joke it always was with 5 years left to expiration and massive cheating by Iran. While we are on the deal, remember we were promised anytime anyplace inspections, which never happened. Obama with the $150 billion payoff to Iran, part of which was used to fund terrorists. The U.S. Senate never ratified the deal.

As for the War Powers resolution, the only real purpose was to undermine President Trump's ability to protect Americans. This action sends mixed signals to our adversaries and demonstrates American weakness.

All important considerations while watching as events unfold.

Years ago, when our daughters were in a Jewish Day School, they would on occasion have friends over to visit our home. A common question we would get from parents was, "do you have guns in the house?" We would answer truthfully and usually parents who asked the question would first display bulging eyes and then inform us that their child could not stay and play in our house. Parents who knew us well, never seemed to ask that question.

We see this attitude in other formats. For example, the use of the term "gun violence." The problem is not one of gun violence but of violent people who use guns, hammers, knives, picks, hatchets, trucks, and other mechanical objects to harm others.

Motor vehicles have frequently been used in terrorist attacks, yet one does not hear the term "truck violence." Even though hammers kill more people annually than AR-15s, one does not hear the term "hammer violence" either.

Guns are passive pieces of machinery. They do not act on their own and the laws of physics and biology prohibit them from acting on their own. People may use guns in violent and illegal acts, but they may also use guns for self-protection and recreation. How guns are used is entirely up to the human operator, who does have moral agency, i.e. can think, act, and weigh consequences. Even in the case of accident, it requires a human to use the machinery in an irresponsible way.

This assignment of "moral agency", to an inanimate object has now gone so far that some grade schools have disciplined children for leaving sandwich remains, that appear to look somewhat like a gun.

Simply the presence of a gun is believed dangerous, or even a finger gesture or bread slice that looks vaguely like a gun, is felt to be threatening. This is idiocy on parade. The presence of guns, or things that look like guns, do not overwhelm the moral sense of a human, unless they are seriously mentally ill. The fault lies solely with the human, not objects.

Ironically, on the other side of the scale, many of the same people that blame inanimate objects do not believe that human beings possess moral agency. They believe that humans lack the capacity to know what is right or wrong, or control themselves. What is overwhelming the human is their bad environment. This could range from poor parenting, the lack of parents, poverty, racism, television, or computer games. Everything is to blame but the human that decided to do harm to another. A human is apparently a being without moral sense, that is shaped by random environmental factors.

So, in a nutshell, mechanical objects possess moral agency and people do not.

If you really believe that, I don't want my kid anywhere near your kid, anyway.

Red, White, and Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on Houston Public Media TV 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Red, White, and Blue returns with new shows:
01-17-20 - A Look at Iran and the Middle East with Edward Djerejian, Director of the Baker Institute and former Ambassador to Israel and Syria.
01-24-20 - Spring 2020 Primary Political Preview

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-second year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last eighteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 16 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 18th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.