Last Friday, Texas Governor Rick Perry released a statement on his veto of Texas House Bill 242, which would have penalized adults who are caught texting while driving:
Texting while driving is reckless and irresponsible. I support measures that make our roads safer for everyone, but House Bill 242 is a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults. Current law already prohibits drivers under the age of 18 from texting or using a cell phone while driving. I believe there is a distinction between the overreach of House Bill 242 and the government’s legitimate role in establishing laws for teenage drivers who are more easily distracted and laws providing further protection to children in school zones.
The keys to dissuading drivers of all ages from texting while driving are information and education. I recommend additional education on this issue in driving safety and driver’s education courses, public service ads, and announcements, and I encourage individuals and organizations that testified in favor of the anti-texting language included in this bill to work with state and local leaders to educate the public of these dangers.
I don’t necessarily disagree with Perry’s conclusion about the micromanagement of adult behavior. Contrary to socially conservative convention of thought, liberalism does not advocate the dreaded Nanny State. Fifty years of progressive actions and movements in American history should be enough proof of that.
While I should try to savor this moment, the moment that Rick Perry and I finally agree on something, context goes and ruins it.
Perry’s just the latest conservative governor to expand the powers of the government by signing into law legislation that forces a doctor of any pregnant woman seeking an abortion to conduct a sonogram—while describing the fetus in detail to the woman—at least 24 hours prior to the procedure.
Looking at this strictly in terms of ethics and policy (i.e., not politics) forcing grown women to undergo and pay for a non-medically necessary intrusive procedure is a Grade-A invasion of privacy, not to mention a case of the government impeding a patient’s right to a legal medical procedure (which usually is signal enough for conservatives to gather their poster board and Uncle Sam hats.) The fact that the legal medical procedure is one that traditional social conservatives are principled against doesn’t legitimize Perry’s double standard, but it does heighten the hypocrisy, which is not to say that it could be mitigated some.
In his release, Perry—like any reasonable fan of a free marketplace of ideas—readily affirms that the best way to prevent government intrusion is to “educate the public.” Bravo. Education is key for individuals to make an informed decision. Enter, and promptly exit: effective sex education.
Perry and the GOP-led state legislature have clearly made efforts to strangle support to half-educate young Texans, not to mention fully eradicate federal funds for a valuable source of information and help for adult Texans.
Last winter, Perry declined $4.4 million from the Department of State Health Services targeted for the state’s already abstinence-only sex education programs. State GOP leadership is attempting to exclude Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid Women’s Health Program despite the fact that not a dime of the program funds allocated to Planned Parenthood goes to abortion.
So, maybe not so much a fan of an informed public.
Rick Perry is clearly invested in the micromanagment the behavior of adults, at worst for the sake of a conservative electorate and at best in congruency with his personal beliefs. To say otherwise is demonstrably false.