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Reflections of Ken Towery
reflect21politicalchange.htm Reflections:
by Ken Towery So it with politics here in Texas, particularly in West Texas and even more particularly here in Floyd County. We were reminded of this peculiarity recently when this state‚Äös citizens swore in a new (the same) team of Republicans to exercise influence at the state level during the next few years. Rick Perry and David Dewhurst, were sworn in, again, as Governor and Lt. Governor. We were reminded of it again when reading our local newspaper, The Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon. There was mention of a new District Judge, a Republican, and a new County Judge, a Republican, several County Commissioners, most of whom were Republicans, a new State Comptroller, a new Agricultural Commissioner, a re-elected head of the Texas General Land office, all of whom were Republicans‚ not to mention a President and Vice President, whose party affiliation we will not note at the moment, simply because a lot of Republicans wont even admit they are part of the clan. All of which brought back certain memories. We had roamed West Texas looking for a newspaper to buy. One up in Dumas looked promising, but too much money was involved. In fact, several looked promising, but the community we liked above all others was the one here in Floyd County. The people were nice and welcoming. (And the price, by and large, was right. A mere $260,000 plus nine percent interest for 10 years. A lot of people in my family said it was too much, and they were probably right.) The only problem was: Floydada was spoken for, by a publisher in North Carolina. Everything was placed on hold while he tried to convince his wife that their future was in West Texas. It was a futile hope. His wife came here, saw no hills, no creeks and no trees, contemplated the situation for a few moments, and returned to North Carolina. The broker then told me, and I bought the paper. The lady in North Carolina never knew what she missed. Then I went about the business of introducing myself to the community we had chosen. (This would have been in the early 1980's) One of the first people I visited was the local county sheriff, who at that time was a man named Fred Cardinal. The sheriff's office was just across the street from the Hesperian, and I suppose it was natural that I went there first. Too, I had always thought of myself as a champion of ‚"law and order‚" and had a reputation along those lines. Anyhow, we dropped by the sheriff's office, where the sheriff, sitting in an easy chair with a pot-bellied, grinning, deputy sheriff nodding affirmatively at his side, observed that ‚"Well, Republicans have never done very well in this county." Needless to say, we were somewhat startled. We had made no mention of Republicans, one way or the other. In fact, we had made no mention of politics. The very idea that a newspaper would be partisan in its presentation of news was anathema to us. Evidently, we had a lot to learn about the presentation of news in Floyd County. As we heard, from numerous sources around town after we became the new owner of the Hesperian (and the Beacon), the paper had a history of favoritism, particularly as it related to church activities; Hopefully, those days are behind us. The sheriff continued. He was going to get in his licks against the local newspaper, and what better way to do it than put the new editor on the defensive. There was someone over at the paper, Cardinal said, who was dealing in drugs. By then, I had become a little riled, so I asked the sheriff, somewhat heatedly, why he had not arrested and charged the individual if he knew he was dealing in drugs. If he did so, he certainly would have our support. Well, he said, he was‚"fixing to do just that", but that the individual was not around any more. So I went back to the Hesperian and asked Rosemary Gonzales what the sheriff was talking about. Rosemary , our woman about town who knew everything about everybody, said, "Oh, that guy was in the back, He worked sometimes for Blanco Offset Printing. The sheriff was probably right, but that guy's gone now." I asked what happened to him. Rosemary replied that‚ "he got fired and went away." It would have been nice for someone to tell the sheriff. Then at least two people in the county would have known what happened, As far as voters in Floyd County were concerned, the individual "just went away". We repeat, gentle reader, this was in the early 1980's, when we were just taking over the Floyd County Hesperian, which was, in retrospect, a long time ago. It was before some of our readers were even alive and reading the Hesperian. One of the problems with living so long is that memories crop up just about everywhere. Once, shortly after Barry Goldwater's defeat by Lyndon Johnson, we went through Dallas and visited with an uncle (and devout Republican) of the friend who accompanied us. The man we visited was very old, and very low. He was an engineer, and had built railroads all over South Texas in the 1890's, often in bandit-infested territory. The way he had it figured out, this nation would never see another Republican president. This nation, he thought, was doomed to an eternity of left-wing politics on the national stage. He couldn't know, of course, that Lyndon would soon be driven from office, to be replaced by Richard Nixon, a semi-left wing Republican, or that, ultimately, Texas would present the nation with George W. Bush, of no known political philosophy. But the original seer would be long gone, a victim of time. One can't really fault the former sheriff for his lack of foresight in this instance. The changing political fortunes of Texas was a gradual thing, largely unnoticed by most Texans, though great cataclysmic political events helped it along. Former Governor Allan Shivers decision to throw his lot with Eisenhower over the tidelands issue helped immensely in Texas‚ march toward a two-party state. (And Shivers was never forgiven that transgression by‚"real" party stalwarts). The decision by Lyndon Johnson to take the number two spot on a ticket headed by John F. Kennedy was another vast mistake (from a Republican standpoint) that helped speed Texas along to a two party state, no matter that Lyndon went ahead and became president of the United States. In fact, it was Lyndon's decision to take the Vice-Presidency under Kennedy that had the most to do with the development of Texas as a two-party state, in my own opinion. No lesser true-blue Democratic Party figures than Speaker Sam Rayburn of Bonham and former Governor Price Daniels of Liberty, told me personally how they hated the thought that Lyndon might take the Vice Presidency. A visibly upset Sam Rayburn told me, when Lyndon was considering the matter, that "I have advised against it as strongly as I can", and then-Governor Price Daniels, who was head of the Texas delegation to the Los Angeles convention that nominated both men, told me emphatically that, "it will be a disaster for the Democratic Party" in Texas if Lyndon accepted the Vice-Presidency. Neither man could foresee that Lyndon would become President of the United States, but both men knew the electorate in Texas, and both men knew how shallow was the Democratic Party's hold on the people of this state. And both men would find out, if they didn't already know it, that Lyndon's first loyalty was to Lyndon. I suppose we must all get
used to change, much as some of us hate it. No body likes
for the rules to change in the middle of the game, but
that's what happens all along the way. Sometimes it takes a
while for the electorate to get things fixed, but they
usually do.
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