Government Doesn't Have Feelings...It's Okay to Criticize

This week has been heart-wrenching as we have all watched fellow Texans suffer loss and heartbreak from the flooding in Kerrville and in other parts of the state. In these challenging times, we are reminded just how tough, resilient, and full of love Texans are, and it's that Texas Spirit that will carry our state through this tragedy. 
Ealier this week, I wrote an article highlighting the failures of our legislature in passing a bill that would have established a council to improve emergency communications and provide grants for local governments to purchase things such as emergency sirens. That story drove the narrative this week around emergency warning sirens, and eventually, all the talk led to the governor adding this issue to the Special Session, which starts July 24th. 

And boy, did I get some hate from people online for pointing this out. They called me "ghoul," and another fellow said it was "sick stuff" for "trashing" the Kerrville legislator for voting no on the bill. 

Here's what I have to say about this. It's okay to criticize your government -- it doesn't have feelings. 

I'm a conservative, and I believe there is a slim and proper role of government, and providing for the public's safety is one of the government's main jobs. Government should do things private business can't do -- for the old timers who read this, I subscribe to the Yellow Pages test promoted by Comptroller Caroe Keeton (Rylander) Strayhorn -- so if you can't find it in the yellow pages, government can be doing it and should be doing it well. I think we could mostly agree that overall emergency planning and communications would fall under the responsibility of the government. 

It is concerning, but somewhere along the way, we have conflated the personalities of our elected officials with their job performance. If it's a political foe, we applaud, and if a political enemy, we criticize. I see a growing movement among the people on my side of the aisle who spend their energy apologizing for, rather than holding our team accountable for, their actions, even when it's obvious we must do better.

Yes, there was a 100 year flood in Kerr County, and Mother Nature's wrath is unavoidable. As a farmer's daughter, I know this -- we've lost many a perfect crop in a 10-minute hailstorm. But if you subscribe to the idea that the government's job is to protect its citizens, you must also acknowledge that the massive loss of life was the result of a massive failure of government. 

I've watched a few performative press conferences from the governor and other leaders this week.  In these press events, the state elected class gives us a little taste of the news covering the search and rescue mission, which I applaud, but then they boast about what a great job they're doing and the great job the federal government is doing. 

I've heard the excuse that "there was nothing we could do," and then, of course, the passive-aggressive assigning of blame. What I'm still waiting for is someone in our government to say, boldly, "We failed the mission. We could have done more. And we will do better". If I've missed that, let me know. 

In a few weeks, the special session will convene in Austin, and it's already been promised that we will have an investigative process to review what happened during the flooding. It's an election year in 2026, they know the voters are watching, and they plan to put on a show for us. 

We have a saying out West, and I fear that we will witness a process which we'd say is "all hat and no cattle." The bill I mentioned earlier, HB 13, was introduced by Panhandle Rep. Ken King and resulted from the legislative investigative committee's follow-up to the Panhandle wildfires. It was a solution to problems identified during the after-action review of that disaster. For political reasons, it got a no vote from Wes Virdell, the legislator whose community was hit hardest by the flooding, and it died in the Texas Senate. Why didn't we already fix what we already knew was broken? This was a no-brainer. 

And I also fear the blame game will continue. What you may not know is that there is an ongoing attack from Austin aimed at local governments over property taxes and local control -- and indeed, there are already undertones of that playing out here with this disaster, if you listen closely. It's the narrative Austin knows best vs locally elected government. The state has failed to reform our tax system, opting instead for short-term relief, which helps temporarily and also helps them win elections, but then blames local communities for raising taxes. Your Local property and sales tax pay for things like schools, roads, fire departments, police, and parks. And you have a say in how those rates are set and how those funds are spent. 
A ban on "taxpayer-funded lobbying" is even on the Special session list. When you take away the ability for local governments to advocate for their citizens and against Austin's insatiable need for control, the result will be even larger gaps in the system than what we are now experiencing. And the most frightening thing is that if we can't generate taxes locally at the city and county level, we will be looking to Austin to send us our money. Ask the public schools how that's working out for them. 

So when the cameras are on Austin in the coming weeks, remember this. The heroes to emerge from this tragedy are the men and women from across the country who have come together for their neighbors. The heroes are the organizations that have deployed their people and their resources to find and support the families who have been impacted. The heroes are the families who have suffered tragedy or worse, survived but lost loved ones, and will live with the pain of that day forever. 

Our government leaders are not the heroes. Our government has failed us. They failed those babies. And they will do it again if we don't speak up and demand accountability. And they will do it again if we forget. Don't forget.