2013, a year of big trouble: Bring in Rick Perry

By Bernie Quigley

For The Hill on 1/16/13

This is the year of Lincoln – so many books and movies, so little time. One has him chasing vampires and – guess what – they turn out to be white Southerners. But to understand Lincoln and his America it might be worth turning to the first words publicly put forth by his most effective public agent: William Lloyd Garrison: “Our country is the world. Our countrymen are mankind.” without question, this speaks for Hollywood today and Bill Clinton and Amy Polster and Tina Fey as well, who hosted the (world) awards which the Washington Post said "our culture" (the world) deserves. The awards this year come with a touch of lament – possibly why Daniel Day-Lewis’s Lincoln appears to look so plaintively to the past like that portrait of Whistler’s Mother. Because there is trouble here this year and this year, 2013, could be the year of big trouble.

It is not just because Hollywood has managed to lose China. Jackie Chan says we Americans are the worst people on earth. But Ang Lee has always cast America in troubled shadows. Hollywood is the dream which reflects our anxieties and aspirations and two issues could open this year that will not close down; not now,  not in 2016, not maybe for 30 years. This year we may see an executive order on guns and another on the debt ceiling.  President Obama will bring a challenge to America. America will accept the challenge.

And I am pretty sure I know where crisis will occur: Texas. And for the same reason it came to Boston in 1773, the year of the Boston Tea Party. Because in 1773, Boston was the most prosperous city in the colonies. Today Texas is the most prosperous place in America. It has worked hard for it and it will want to hold on to it. And that is why America needs Texas Governor Rick Perry.

We need a strong voice on the debt ceiling issue and one that commands respect of governors. May I suggest an ad hoc governor's council – a Super committee of Governors – made up of current and former governors, to address the debt ceiling and the other crises emerging? To address the gun laws? To watch over the President as the Senate did before 1913 but now needs someone to watch it as well? It is not entirely my idea; a similar Council of Elders was suggested by Ambassador George Kennan , the notorious Mr. X, late in his life.

 I first wrote about Perry as the Tea Party rose saying that he must get involved because this could take a wrong turn and must be led by someone honorable and one who speaks for the rising demographics of the South and Southwest. 

Irresponsible firebrands like Michael Savage who is said to have 8 million radio listeners today calls for a Nationalist party - we already have two but he means a fascist party. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Perry were the first to speak out responsibly on the debt issue, framing it correctly as a states sovereignty issue. I see only Perry now has the good nature and know how to challenge without bringing a dark cast to the issues. History at the turning always comes down to one person: Bismarck, Nelson, Jefferson, Victoria. This could be such a turning. Rick Perry’s Texas has been the strongest defender of the faith and the constitution. Draft Rick Perry.