Salus Populi Suprema Lex est

About Us

Also known as the Texian Party, the Texas Heritage Party is a conservative and traditionalist political organization. We support democracy and capitalism, and we promote Christian ethics to resolve inherent flaws in those institutions.

Sumus et Credimus

We are Christian - We believe in the inherent and inviolable dignity of all human beings. We believe in the sanctity of human life, of marriage, and the family. We believe that good democracy requires a wise and moral populous, and the political education of a free people is best provided by the family and the church. The family is the only institution capable of raising the next generation of citizens, therefore it is the building block of society, and a strong society needs strong families. Whereas religion is the only force capable of countering the socially destructive attitudes generated by democracy (see "We are Democratic" below), we believe in strengthening freedom of religion at home and abroad, and the disestablishment of secular humanism, which, due to efforts to impose a forced evacuation of all other religions from the public square in the name of religious liberty, has become the de facto state religion. We believe in the correlative responsibility between the community and the individual. While we support the free market system, we also recognize that it is fallible. We believe that laissez faire capitalism results in concentrations of wealth that are not only immoral, but just as harmful to economic prosperity as socialism. Therefore, we believe it is appropriate to use the power of the government to encourage business and commerce in the promotion of justice, the alleviation of poverty, and the prevention of concentrations of wealth (see Jefferson on Wealth Inequality).

We are Liberal - We believe that all people are created with certain inalienable rights and that government is created by the people to protect these rights. The protection of the dignity and rights of the individual is the beginning and end of government. It is the reason for government’s creation as well as its goal.

We are Democratic - We believe in the equality of all citizens and we believe that the power of government lies with the people. The people have created their government and the people retain the power to alter or abolish it, with the only limitation being that they maintain a republican form of government which respects the natural rights of the citizen. We also recognize, however, that democracy does not work on its own; it must be made to work. Democracy has inherent flaws that promote socially destructive attitudes in democratic people. These attitudes include extreme individualism and the atomization of the citizenry, consumerism, a disregard for the past and the future, conformity, and an insatiable and debased lust for equality. Since religion checks these attitudes, it should not be discouraged from participating in public life.

We are Federalist - We believe in the Federal system constructed by the Constitution of the United States. We strongly support the sovereignty of the States, we oppose any encroachment by the national government upon their sovereignty, and we believe that the power of the federal government should extend only to those issues which are national in nature. We recognize the strict limitation placed upon the federal government by Article I, section 8 of the Constitution of the United States. As stated in the Constitution of the State of Texas, “the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States.”

Top

Our Mission

The Texian Party seeks to:

ensure the election of candidates to public office that uphold Conservative principles such as: Liberty, Justice, and federal-republicanism.

promote a greater awareness and understanding of the unique history and heritage of Texas.

Top

Endorsements

The Texian Party endorses the following candidates for the 2008 election:

For President of the United States: Mike Huckabee

Other endorsements coming soon.

Top

Theory of Government

Natural Rights

All men are created equal with inherent dignity and inalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property.

Natural Law

No man ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty, or Property.

The Rights of all citizens should be protected, and all citizens should be held responsible for their actions.

Violations of the Natural Law shall be punished by depriving the violator of one or more of his Natural Rights. However, the Right to Life is an absolute Right and cannot be taken away by the government except in extreme circumstances where the Life of another citizen is in immediate danger. Punishment should be just to both the violator and the victim, should fit the crime, and should be administered fairly and equally.

Good Government

A good government is one that defends the Natural Rights of the citizens and upholds Natural Law. Good law is founded upon and in keeping with Natural Rights and Natural Law.

The people have a right to demand good behavior of their government and the most effective way of ensuring this is the election of constitutionally minded candidates.

Regulation of Business

Government has a responsibility to demand good behavior of business. The Natural Law applies to business just as it applies to the individual. Government should have the power to regulate business in order to maintain a fair and open market and protect the Rights of the people. However, government must not needlessly obstruct Free Enterprise and when government must regulate business it should take advantage of the systems, institutions, and mechanisms available in the Free Market. In other words, government regulation of business should be market-friendly.

Foreign Policy

Our relations with foreign powers should be guided by this principle: that the security of our Liberty is directly related to the strength of Liberty in other regions. Our government should work with our allies to promote and strengthen liberal republics in every region of the world. This is essential to the strength and security of our own Republic.

Top

Our Platform

Strengthen America

The Texian Party believes that the following proposals, founded upon the American ideals of Liberty, Justice, republicanism, and federalism, will ensure good government and a high quality of life for Texans now and in the future.

Strengthen Education

A highly educated citizenry should be the first priority of the Texas State Legislature as it is the only sure defense of republican government. A highly educated citizenry is also a highly paid workforce. While low skill, low wage jobs are being exported overseas, the Texas economy will remain strong. More important than economic concerns, however, is the need to ensure that the citizens of the next generation are capable of governing themselves and our nation and that they will not succumb to the socially destructive temptations inherent in democratic societies. Therefore, we propose:

·Implement a school voucher program to give parents more control over the education of their children. The state should recognize that it does not, and it should not, have a monopoly on education. Indeed, the responsibility to educate the next generation falls primarily to the family and the church. Parents who wish their children to have a better education than the state can provide often find that they are competing against their own tax dollars. School vouchers will eliminate that difficulty. ·Establish high statewide standards for public schools.
·Collect tax revenue statewide and distribute evenly throughout the State to ensure that every school district has the resources necessary to meet the high State standards.
·End tuition deregulation. Increase State spending on colleges and universities to bring down tuition costs and make a college education more affordable for all Texans.
·Improve art education in schools and universities so we can graduate a highly intelligent and creative workforce.

Strengthen the States

The American Republic is founded upon the States, not as political subdivisions, but as independent Republics with Rights and Powers that should not be ceded to, or usurped by, the federal government. When the States are harmed, so too are Liberty and Democracy. The powers of government should be kept close to the People to encourage civic involvement. Therefore, we propose:

·Enforce constitutional limits on federal power.
·The States should ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing the States, upon the concurrence of three fourths of them, to declare unconstitutional and void an act of any branch of the Federal Government.
·The States should ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the Right of States to secede and clarifying that secession must be by treaty.
·Give States more control over domestic issues.
·Place social programs under the control of the States, with federal standards.

Strengthen the Republic

Our democratic Republic has fallen into the hands of the elite and powerful. If we wish for America to remain a beacon of Liberty for the world, then we must take back our government from the oligarchy that has unjustly usurped the Power of the People. Therefore, we propose:

·The States should ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing Congress, by a two-thirds vote in both houses, to overrule a decision of the Supreme Court. Only the ultimate check of Democracy can prevent the Supreme Court from becoming a tyrannical council bent on the destruction of the Rights, Morality, and Welfare of the People of the United States.
·Impose term limits on Congress and the Legislature.
·Ban former congressmen and legislators from employment with lobbying firms for life.
·Ban high level government officials, including retired military officers, from lobbying firms for up to 5 years.
·Enact the four part plan to free elections.
·Ban campaign contributions from corporations, unions, governments, issue advocacy groups, PACs, lobbyists, and other groups. Campaign contributions should only come from individual U.S. citizens.
·Ban Congressmen, legislators, and government officials in all levels of government from accepting free gifts from lobbyists, corporations, unions, groups, and private citizens.
·Expand the faith-based initiative to get religious organizations more involved in social services.

Strengthen the Right to Life

The Right to Life is the first of the Natural Rights, and the most important. Without it, the other Rights are meaningless. Government is created to defend this Right. We believe that the Right to Life is absolute and cannot be taken by the government or society. Therefore, we propose:

·The States should ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning abortion, and declaring that protection of Human Life is the paramount concern of the government of the United States.
·The death penalty should be abolished. Violations of the Natural Law should be punished by depriving the violator of one or more of his Natural Rights. However, the Right to Life is an absolute Right that cannot be taken away.

Strengthen the Middle Class

The middle class, that hallmark of a strong and stable economy, is shrinking. A concentration of wealth in an oligarchic upper class is just as economically harmful as Socialism. While the American economy has seen tremendous growth, the median income has remained flat, barely keeping up with inflation. The financial welfare of working class people is under attack by a government that is beholden to special interests, abuses its power of eminent domain, enacts lopsided, unconstitutional free trade agreements, allows wages to be depressed by illegal immigration, allows high paying jobs to be sent overseas, all the while increasing the tax burden on middle class families. To improve the welfare of the American People, our government should cut taxes for the middle class first, and insist on fair trade, not free trade. Therefore, we propose:

Fiscal Policy:
·Reform the state and federal tax system to create a more progressive structure.
·Eliminate the Social Security tax cap (currently at $94,600).
·Lower state property taxes on middle class families.
·Eliminate loopholes that allow corporations to get around paying their fair share in taxes (i.e. prevent U.S. corporations from incorporating overseas in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes).
·Lower taxes on small business.
·Make everyday a tax free holiday. Exempt necessities such as clothing from the sales tax.
·Enact an amendment requiring the federal government to keep a balanced budget except when Congress declares war or in a state of national emergency.

Trade:
·Protect U.S. jobs by demanding reciprocal tariffs which prevent the U.S. market from becoming overrun with cheap goods from countries that impose exorbitant tariffs on U.S. goods.
·Free trade agreements should be based on the economic benefit for Americans, not free trade at all costs.
·Return trade regulation to Congress (as intended by the Constitution) by eliminating the fast track power of the president.

Labor & Wages:
·Change state and federal labor law to make it easier for workers to unionize.
·End the National Labor Relations Board’s bias in favor of employers. The NLRB should be a neutral third party enforcing labor law.

Private Property & Small Farms:
·Protect home and small business owners by preventing government entities from using their eminent domain power for the sole purpose of promoting economic development. The Constitution requires that property taken through eminent domain be put to direct public use.
·Thomas Jefferson said, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds.”^* Recognizing that being able to feed ourselves is essential to our national security, that the small farmer is the soul of America, and the that the small farmer is the first line of defense of our natural resources and the safety and quality of our food, we support subsidies to help small farmers compete with foreign farmers and large corporate farms.

Immigration:
·Require employers to verify employee Social Security Numbers with the Social Security Administration.
·Impose heavy fines on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Strengthen Security

We Americans wish only to live our lives in peace, enjoying the blessings of Liberty. However, our Liberty is threatened by radical foreigners bent on the establishment of an Islamic state in America, and a government that refuses to secure our borders, abdicates its Power to international bodies that are not concerned with the Welfare of the American People, allows illegal immigrants to pour into our country to steal our livelihood, and depletes the homeland’s first line of defense by sending the National Guard to fight wars overseas. Therefore, we propose:

·The United States should withdraw from the U.N., an anti·American, antisemitic, and thoroughly corrupt institution. It has failed to live up to the righteous ideals upon which it was founded and therefore it should be disbanded. A new international organization should be formed which should only accept Liberal Republics as members and should serve only as a forum for nations to voice their concerns, not as a world super-government.
·Increase border security. We should build a fence along our southern border to control immigration and improve the security of the homeland.
·Require state residents to show proof of citizenship before receiving social services or registering to vote.
·Keep the National Guard at home to defend the homeland.
·Support republicanism abroad. The security of our Republic is directly related to the security of foreign republics.
·Reform the president's war powers to prevent the deployment of U.S. troops in one theater of combat for more than two years without a formal declaration of war from the Congress.
·Ensure that our roads, highways, bridges, dams, and ports are safe, secure, and reliable.

Strengthen the Environment

Though disagreement remains over the extent to which man has harmed the natural world, it should be clear to all reasonable people that a frugal and conscientious use of the resources in God’s creation is rightly expected of us. We are, by divine Law, required to be good stewards of the world created for our benefit. Therefore, we propose:

·Invest in research into cleaner, carbon-free energy technology.
·Convert to carbon-free sources of energy, such as ethanol, wind, solar, and nuclear.
·Expand and improve State parks.
·Increase fines on heavy polluters.
·Increase surprise inspections at industrial sites.
·Ease traffic congestion to reduce pollution from cars by improving roads.
·Build new powerplants and expand existing ones, with a focus on clean, carbon-free technology.

For Further Reading:

Cicero, Marcus, and Michael Grant. On Government. London: Penguin Classics, 1994.
Dobbs, Lou. War on the Middle Class. New York: Viking Adult, 2006.
Hart, Gary. Restoration of the Republic. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Jefferson, Thomas et.al. The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Modern Library, 1993.
Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.

^*letter to John Jay, Paris, August 23, 1785

Top