Texans, we deserve better from our elected officials

by Benjamin Flores — commentary on leadership falling short

I have a few things I’d like to put on record regarding the firing or forced resignation of the former Alamo Trust President and CEO Kate Rodgers. I speak as a Texan, a taxpayer, and a candidate to be the state’s next Land Commissioner.

Without rehashing the details, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham are adults who should be above acting like bullies in a schoolyard, pushing Ms. Rogers out of her position over a few words in her doctoral dissertation that didn’t meet the Lt. Governor’s conservative political standards. And Commissioner Buckingham piled on Ms. Rogers because of the Alamo Trust’s audacity to recognize October 13th as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a social media post.

Whether you come down on the side of Christopher Columbus or the Indigenous people who preceded him in America isn’t the issue. The debate certainly doesn’t merit destroying a person’s career. Texans have the right to expect common sense in the actions their leaders either take or don’t take — not to have them create a political firestorm and disrupt good work being done just to score points with their tribe.

I believe in freedom of speech, academic freedom, and focusing my energy on doing the best job I can. I won’t be micromanaging people as Land Commissioner and reading their writings to find things I can start a political fight over. Texans deserve better from the people they elect.

But this is only the latest example of why many Texans feel our state is moving in the wrong direction today. Too many politicians in Austin are so busy bickering and picking fights that it seems they’ve forgotten that we elected them to solve problems, not create them.

This is not the Texas that attracted me and millions of others to move here over the years. That Texas was busy fueling its growth with opportunity, innovation, and personal liberty. That Texas saw a Ph.D. as a plus for both the employee and the organization they work for — not as an opportunity to look for a political or philosophical disagreement that can be turned into a manufactured grievance serving political opportunism.

If I am elected Land Commissioner next November, I will have more important things to do. Like doing a better job funding our public schools from the state’s Permanent School Fund. And working with the Veterans Land Board to find more and better ways to reach out to our military veterans and get them what they need, when they need it, and where they need it.

I won’t promise I’ll fix every shortcoming in the Land Office, or make every public school the modern educational facility our students deserve, or eliminate all the roadblocks and delays in our veterans assistance system. But I do promise I’ll work harder and smarter every day to make things better with innovation and the vigor to tackle tough challenges and make every dollar count.