Rick Perry used to be a Democrat!

Well at least he knows how to make good decisions......there have been by a huge margin more elected politicians leave the dems to become repubs then the other way around.

A little history on the conservative Perry.....a southern blue dog dem that you libs hate so much.

Perry had but two choices if he wished to pursue a career as an elected official in Texas: change his political beliefs or change his party. He opted for the latter.

Perry began his career at a time of partisan transformation in Texas, in which a one-party system was being increasingly supplanted by a competitive two-party system. Within this transformed party system, there was increasingly less room for conservative Democrats, squeezed by Republican competition at the state level and a national Democratic Party with which they and their voters had less and less in common. Being from rural West Texas, Perry's natural route to public office was via the Democratic Party, but once in Austin he found himself a clear outlier in the party, increasingly so as time progressed.

As recently as 1965, the Texas House was composed of 149 Democrats and one Republican. From that point the proportion of Democrats began to slowly decrease (93 percent in 1971, 87 percent in 1977, 75 percent in 1983), before dropping in 1985 (the year Perry arrived in Austin) to 63%. At the time of Perry's election, the Texas Legislature could perhaps best be described as a three-party system consisting of two Democratic Party factions (liberal and conservative) and the Republican Party. In rural West Texas locales such as Perry's Haskell County, the political system was dominated by Democrats, with Republicans often not even contesting general elections at the House district and county level. Perry, for instance, faced opponents in the 1984 and 1986 Democratic primaries (winning 59 percent against two opponents in 1984 and 76 percent against one opponent in 1986), but ran uncontested in all three of his general elections. In sum, in the early 1980s, the Democratic Party continued to dominate the Texas Legislature, and in Perry's House District 64, the Democratic Party was the only game in town.

During Perry's first term (1985-87) in the Texas House his voting record located him as the 12th most conservative Democrat, rising to 10th in the 1987-89 session and 7th in 1989. From the very beginning, Perry was clearly a conservative outlier within his party, with his roll call voting behavior placing him in the conservative wing of the conservative faction of the Democratic Party.

Any of you that voted for Obama have lost all the right to ask the question

"Is Rick Perry The Right Candidate?"

We just don't trust you anymore.

"there have been by a huge margin more elected politicians leave the dems to become repubs then the other way around."

I believe you... It seems that once a politician has become entrenched, once he has become a cog of the political system, and has made a few million along the way, that's when he says "Screw the people, I'm looking out for number 1 (and number One's buddies)." Then, and only then does he become a republican.

I guess turnabout is fair play.

Any of you that voted for Obama have lost all the right to ask the question


I remember in 2008, the entire nation was sick of Bush the lesser. Most of us on the left critized those that had allowed Bush a second term. And we had a similar idea; anyone that had cast their vote for Bush should be denied the right to vote, just for a while.
It's funny how even thought Bush received somewhere like 55 million votes in 2004, I'm having trouble finding anyone who will admit to having voted for him. Most of the Obama haters will claim to be "independent" (even though whatever they spew is straight out of the Fox News/GOP playbook), and if anyone mentions Bush, these people will deny ever voting for/or having anything to do with Bush.
Strange.

Thank you for the information, John. And I agree with you. I didn't vote for Obama. I classically vote for the underdog. I referred to Obama in 2008 as the "Oprah President," but that's another story. Thank you again for the extra info.

lol, all sound and not action.....

Waws he a Dem in wolf's clothing? Now he looks like Bush2 redux.

I don't think we need another Texas cowboy in the White House.

His claims sound pretty good till you start to examine them closer. Access (NPR > Morning Editon > Texas Job Growth )

He's denying all the scientific evidence he says is just theory?
Is that what he says about Evolution also?

Frank, even a San Francisco cowboy would do a better job than the current president, cowboy or otherwise. You talk about “scientific evidence” and “Evolution” as though you believe that kinda stuff. Well using your idea’s of science, you must believe in ice ages, which happen about every 5000 years. In order to prove that humanity is having an effect on the average temperature as the earth travels through its normal ice age heating and cooling cycle, you would need at least 3 cycles of accurate measurements using devices that have only existed in the hands of humans for about 100 or 200 years. Start to talk to me about evidence in about 15000 years.

Jamaica, you do realize too, that Ron Regan also fancied himself as a recovering democrat. Thanks for your perspective.

I'm a huge Reagan fan! I had no idea. Thank you for sharing.

Good for Perry for switching. Now he knows better. Smart, thinking, analyzing, observant people usually end up changing. Liberalism feels good but doesn't work.

Great point about liberalism, Joyce. :)

Hi,

Great piece! Thank you for sharing!