Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Announces Top 30 Priorities for the 2023 Legislative Session

Ok, so here you have it. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's Top 30 Priorities for the 88th (2023) Texas Legislative Session.  

Check out Senate Bill 16–Banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Higher Education; Senate Bill 17-Banning Discriminatory “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) Policies in Higher Education; and Senate Bill 18-Eliminating Tenure at General Academic Institutions.

So I've heard that they'll clear out of the Senate where we expect this and then head over to the House where the battle will occur. I hope that our House Members will remain strong in valuing our diversity alongside equity and fairness in our state.

Contrary to Gov. Abbott's recent statement, DEI is NOT at all illegal as expressed by BBDP Board Member and former Austin American-Statesman editorial writer, Alberta Phillips, in the press release that BBDP sent out yesterday, 

“[W]e urge the media to be careful about how it covers DEI policies. It should not be taken as fact that DEI policies are illegal or unconstitutional.

If any government official says that this is the case, then the media should require that the statement be backed by evidence and facts, not just someone’s statement.

As a check on government, the media has an obligation to sort fact from fiction. The facts are that DEI policies are ways for People of color to apply for state jobs and admission to state universities. And on the part of state agencies and universities, DEI policies are simply goals—without the force of law or consequences—that aim to move the needle forward so that state agencies, public colleges, and universities reflect the people who pay the tabs to sustain them.”

Well said, Alberta.

I'm encouraged by the passion and commitment that was expressed at yesterday's press conference that you can view here. 

I very much encourage you to read Texas NAACP Chair Gary Bledsoe's statement in response. Watch out sports fans and business leaders. 

Anti-DEI is terrible for business, too. Nuff said.

-Angela Valenzuela

@TeamBlackBrown #TeamBlackBrown #BlackBrownUnity #DontLetDEIdie #GenZ #BlackBrownSolidarity

February 13, 2023

AUSTIN – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued the following statement today:

“Each session, the 31 members of the Texas Senate file thousands of bills. Some are duplicates because members often have similar priorities voiced to them by their constituents. The tradition has been for bill numbers 1 through 20 to indicate the Lt. Governor’s and the Senate’s priorities. In 2017, I increased the low bill numbers to 30. Senators like to get a low bill number because it shows their bill is also a priority of the Lt. Governor and has a great chance of passing. I believe Texans support our priorities because they largely reflect the policies supported by the conservative majority of Texans. Most will pass with bipartisan support.

“This session I could have used 50 low bill numbers because there are so many issues that need to be addressed. Just because a bill does not make the priority list does not mean it is not a priority for me or the Senate. We will pass over 600 bills this session. As I like to say, every bill is a priority to someone, otherwise we would not pass it.

“This year, several of our policy initiatives are already addressed in the budget as opposed to specific bills. One example is Texas border security funding. Since President Biden took office and implemented his open border policies, Texas has stepped into the breach. Texas should not have to use our tax dollars to do the Federal Government’s job, but it is vitally important that we maintain our law enforcement and National Guard presence. If we do not, the border crisis will get much worse.”

Lt. Gov. Patrick’s Priority Bills:

Senate Bill 1 – State Budget

Senate Bill 2 – Restoring Voter Fraud to a Felony

Senate Bill 3 – Increasing the Homestead Exemption to $70,000

Senate Bill 4 – Adding Additional Property Tax Relief

Senate Bill 5 – Increasing the Business Personal Property Tax Exemption

Senate Bill 6 – Adding New Natural Gas Plants

Senate Bill 7 – Continuing to Improve the Texas Grid

Senate Bill 8 – Empowering Parental Rights – Including School Choice

Senate Bill 9 – Empowering Teacher Rights ­­– Teacher Pay Raise

Senate Bill 10 – Adding 13th Checks for Retired Teachers

Senate Bill 11 – Keeping Our Schools Safe and Secure

Senate Bill 12 – Banning Children’s Exposure to Drag Shows

Senate Bill 13 – Protecting Children from Obscene Books in Libraries

Senate Bill 14 – Ending Child Gender Modification

Senate Bill 15 – Protecting Women’s College Sports

Senate Bill 16 – Banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Higher Education

Senate Bill 17 – Banning Discriminatory “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) Policies in Higher Education

Senate Bill 18 – Eliminating Tenure at General Academic Institutions

Senate Bill 19 – Creating A New Higher Education Endowment Fund

Senate Bill 20 – Removing District Attorneys Who Refuse to Follow Texas Law

Senate Bill 21 – Removing Judges Who Refuse to Follow Texas Law

Senate Bill 22 – Assisting Rural Law Enforcement Funding – Increasing Pay and Needed Equipment

Senate Bill 23 – Creating A Mandatory 10-Year Prison Sentence for Criminals Committing Gun Crime

Senate Bill 24 – Expanding Alternatives to Abortion

Senate Bill 25 – Creating New Scholarships for Registered Nurses

Senate Bill 26 – Expanding Mental Health Care Beds Across Texas – Focus on Rural Counties

Senate Bill 27 – Creating A New Business Specialty Court

Senate Bill 28 – Addressing Texas’ Future Water Needs

Senate Bill 29 – Banning Local COVID-19 Mandates

Senate Bill 30 – Supplemental Budget

We must respond to this vigorously, including insisting that our university leaders do so, as well. Let me share a rule-of-thumb in policy and politics: When things get political, we have to get more political.

As we address this, I urge us not to give any ground on post-tenure reviews as it could easily become a slippery slope, session after session, an ongoing rallying cry on the right.

Pay attention, as well to Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who proposed a bill during the last legislative session that would have required post-tenure reviews for all already tenured faculty every four years. These could easily can become three-, two- and then a one-year, regular annual reviews.

This scenario—or perhaps even the four-year proposed model—is not only tantamount to taking tenure down, but what a bureaucratic burden this will create, multiplying administrators' work, and in so doing, weakening all of our colleges and universities at a time when they need enormous help just to stay afloat.

Plus, hey, we're still in a pandemic and we have so many other needs right now, including addressing a growing need for mental health services, addressing student debt and financial aid, to name a few. Where is Patrick leading on this crisis that we're actually currently in?

AAUP President Irene Mulvey aptly characterizes herein the profound implications of this attack on higher education as follows:

“There’s always been attempts to interfere in higher education, but I have never seen anything as egregious as this attack,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the AAUP. “This is an attempt to have government control of scholarship and teaching. That is a complete disaster. I’ve never seen anything this bad.”

This move will indeed undermine the state’s future.

It's hard not to consider whether or not this is the actual intention. And if so, why such passion around demonizing public K-12 and higher education? Why such passion around burning down bridges instead of building them? Censoring books and curriculum is not only backwards but an untenable proposition in a context of today's knowledge explosion that is only a click away for us all.

It's also a disservice to our youth to deprive them of theoretical knowledge, such as that provided by CRT and numerous other frameworks. Unlike animals that operate out of instinct, as human beings we need theoretical frameworks or knowledge that help us understand ourselves in relationship to, as well as with, each other and the universe, as a whole. This is what a comprehensive, well-conceived educational system provides, that is, a sense of one's self in relation to all that exists where freedom and responsibility are two sides to the same coin.

Why are we at war with ourselves in this state and what are the many costs— especially the opportunity costs—of this war? Expressed differently, what are we not doing that we should be doing as a consequence of Dan Patrick's deployment of his and the governor's many weapons of mass distraction?

-Angela Valenzuela

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposes ending university tenure to combat critical race theory teachings

Patrick’s declarations come days after the UT-Austin Faculty Council approved a measure reaffirming instructors’ right to teach about racial justice and critical race theory in the classroom.

BY KATE MCGEE FEB. 18, 20226 HOURS AGo

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday that he will push to end professor tenure for all new hires at Texas public universities and colleges in an effort to combat faculty members who he says “indoctrinate” students with teachings about critical race theory.

“Go to a private school, let them raise their own funds to teach, but we’re not going to fund them,” said Patrick, who is running for reelection. “I’m not going to pay for that nonsense.”

Patrick, whose position overseeing the Senate allows him to drive the state’s legislative agenda, also proposed a change to state law that could make teaching critical race theory grounds for revoking tenure for professors who already have it. His announcement tees up the next major fight at the Texas Capitol over how college students learn about the history of race and racism in the United States.

Conservatives over the past year have used “critical race theory” as a broad label to attack progressive teachings and books in college and K-12 schools that address race and gender.

Tenure is an indefinite appointment for university faculty that can only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances. Academics said Friday that tenure is intended to protect faculty and academic freedom from exactly the kind of politicization being waged by Patrick.

“This kind of attack is precisely why we have faculty tenure,” said Michael Harris, a professor at Southern Methodist University studying higher education, who likened tenure to lifetime appointments given to federal judges. “The political winds are going to blow at different times, and we want faculty to follow the best data and theory to try to understand what’s happening in our world.”

Patrick on Friday also proposed making tenure review an annual occurrence instead of something that takes place every six years. At the press conference, he said his proposals already have the support of state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Last legislative session, Creighton filed a bill that would have reduced tenure review periods to every four years and expanded the reasons universities could revoke tenure to include sexual harassment, fiscal malfeasance, plagiarism, conduct involving moral turpitude and “other good causes.” That bill never got out of committee. Nor did another bill that proposed revoking tenure for faculty members who file civil lawsuits against their students. Creighton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Patrick’s plan drew swift condemnation from the American Association of University Professors, the body that helped develop the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure that has been adopted by universities and colleges nationwide.

“There’s always been attempts to interfere in higher education, but I have never seen anything as egregious as this attack,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the AAUP. “This is an attempt to have government control of scholarship and teaching. That is a complete disaster. I’ve never seen anything this bad.”

Mulvey said Patrick had a “fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of tenure” and his definition of academic freedom was “misguided.”

The Texas Faculty Association also criticized the idea and argued it will undermine the state’s future.

“The lieutenant governor’s job is to give our public institutions of education the support they need for student success, and that means encouraging professors and students to discuss theories and issues that some people may find uncomfortable,” said TFA spokesperson Pat Heintzelman. “Patrick, instead, seems intent on ignoring the First Amendment rights of faculty members and their students.”

According to federal data, about 53% of full-time faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin are tenured. Around 40% of all full-time instructional staffers at all public universities and health-related institutions were tenured in 2020.

Patrick said his latest priority is in response to the UT-Austin Faculty Council after it passed a nonbinding resolution Monday to reaffirm instructors’ academic freedom to teach on issues of racial justice and critical race theory.

“Legislative proposals and enactments seek to prohibit academic discussions of racism and related issues if the discussion would be ‘divisive’ or suggest ‘blame’ or cause ‘psychological distress,’” the resolution stated. “But fail to recognize that these criteria … chill the capacity of educators to exercise their academic freedom and use their expertise to make determinations regarding content and discussions that will serve educational purposes.”

One day after the resolution passed, Patrick signaled on Twitter that he would continue the fight against teaching the discipline in the next legislative session.

“I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory,” Patrick wrote on Twitter. “We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.”

Patrick’s mention of publicly funded Liberty Institute, a new center that is still in the planning stages at UT-Austin, also drew criticism from UT-Austin professors. They said his comments suggesting lawmakers are behind the new center contradict previous statements by university officials. On Friday, Patrick said he meant that the resolution passed by the faculty council is an example of why the university needed such an institute.

The proposal to end tenure would fundamentally change the way Texas universities operate in terms of hiring, teaching and research. Faculty members warn it’s likely to impose major challenges for Texas universities to recruit and retain researchers and scholars from across the country.

“Your top-tier talent has lots of options,” Harris said. “And if you hurt your ability to hire the best, you’re not going to do that. … I guarantee you there are university leaders across the country that are making a shopping list of who they’re going to try to steal from the University of Texas if this goes through.”

Harris said even the headlines to propose ending tenure could hurt Texas universities that are hiring faculty members for next year who might think twice about whether to take a job at a public university.

In a statement, the first vice chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus slammed the plan.

“Our public universities are the keystone of Texas’ economic prowess,” said state Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas. “As Republicans like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick make it their mission to undermine public trust in our education system, they will chase away the best and brightest students and educators our state needs to remain great.”

UT-Austin pharmacy professor Andrea Gore, chair of UT’s Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, brought the initial resolution forward to the UT Faculty Council. She told the Tribune she was shocked that a nonbinding resolution passed by the council would elicit such a reaction.

“Those resolutions are important because they allow us to assert our opinions and rights as faculty members, but they normally do not elicit any responses. In fact, they typically gather dust in the faculty council archives,” Gore wrote in an email to the Tribune. “What the [lieutenant governor’s] actions and words tell me is that not only has he been waiting for an opportunity to ban ideas that are counter to his own, he has been preparing to attack tenure as well.”

UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell has remained quiet on the issue. University spokesperson J.B. Bird did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Tribune after Patrick’s press conference Friday.

Domino Perez, president of the Faculty Council, said the council had no official comment but she awaits a response from Hartzell on the plan.

Patrick crusaded last summer against critical race theory in K-12 schools. He said it teaches that “one race is better than another and that someone, by virtue of their race or sex, is innately racist, oppressive or sexist.” Academic experts have said that interpretation is a misrepresentation of critical race theory.

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed two laws that dictate how teachers can discuss race in the classroom. While neither used the phrase “critical race theory,” lawmakers who supported the measures characterized the legislation as anti-critical race theory.

Senate Bill 3 states a “teacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” The law doesn’t define what a controversial issue is. If teachers discuss these topics, they must “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.”

The law also also has provisions for teaching about the history of slavery in America, including that slavery cannot be taught as contributing to the “true founding of the United States” and that “with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.”

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

It's time to stand up to the Great Inquisitors of the Inquisition with their book bannings, burnings, their secret police, and their cooptation of vulnerable minds with little knowledge of U.S. history, exploiting a vacuum into which a socially constructed and harmful "fear of the other," gets drumbeat into them.

These ultra-conservative, extremists should stop manipulating people for their own narrow, political ends, ends that are not even about leading and founding a hopeful vision for the future, but going in a diametrically opposite direction with their power hoarding and hostility toward these so-called "others," meaning people that look like me or who are of color.

MY BEST ADVICE REGARDLESS OF WHO YOU ARE—a student, teacher, policymaker, professor, community advocate, well-intended citizen or human being is TO NOT TAKE THE BAIT. That is what they're provoking.

Instead, we act smart, ethically and thoughtfully. We develop a positive policy agenda. I'm not saying we don't take them on at the legislature, but that we control the resources we can for our communities at the local level and we promote positive interethnic/interracial/intergroup relations at all levels. Again, we also promote a just and positive policy agenda. These politics are, among other things, intensely diversionary. And that all, always, also the point—to deflect attention from what really can and should be a substantive, deliberative discourse on the future of our state and nation.

Again, THEY WANT A RACE WAR. DO NOT TAKE THE BAIT. Do consider that many of our young people are military-ready. They, too, could be vulnerable to a provocation. Cool heads must prevail.

There is really good material here in an earlier, pertinent blogpost that similarly involves forces of censorship and our pushback as UT faculty: UT-Austin professors criticize university for halting antiracism study with preschoolers.

Times like these remind me of philosopher Hannah Arendt's famous quote:

“the greatest evil perpetrated is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons”

― Hannah Arendt

If these guys aren't going to lead our state into this century and millennium, I wish they would stop not just fighting us, but provoking us into fights. But then, such are clearly the politics and preferences of those that refuse to be part of the human race, to finally embrace that we all bleed red.

John F. Kennedy got it right when he said "Let us never negotiate our of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well, when he said, "We have nothing to fear except fear itself.

Please see my other post today on the pamphleting of Nazi flyers with swastikas on them this past Monday in East Austin. 

Texas state leaders. Please stand up now to these provocations.

-Angela Valenzuela

UT faculty members demand answers after Dan Patrick says Liberty Institute intended to fight critical race theory

The lieutenant governor vowed to ban the teaching of critical race theory at Texas’ public colleges and universities.

BY KATE MCGEE FEB. 16, 20223 HOURS AGO

(Texas Tribune) — A tweet sent by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has reignited concern among some University of Texas at Austin faculty members that the purpose of a new conservative-backed think tank may be to restrict teaching about critical race theory.

“I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory,” Patrick wrote on the social media platform Twitter. “We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.”

Critical race theory, a university-level discipline that studies how race and racism have impacted social and local structures in the United States, has come into the crosshairs of conservative state lawmakers across the country over the past year, including in Texas. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that limits how race, slavery and history are taught in K-12 classrooms.

Now, some faculty members are demanding an explanation from university leadership, arguing that Patrick’s comments directly contradict what administrators told them last fall and raise serious questions about academic freedom and freedom of thought on campus.

“Either the lieutenant governor is just speaking out of school, or he’s reinforcing the very narrative that has provoked individual concerns last fall,” Texas law professor Steve Vladeck told The Texas Tribune. “It’s incumbent upon the university to provide a full-throated update and … explain to faculty members, to whom assurances were made in September, why the lieutenant governor is wrong. Or if he isn’t, why that attitude is acceptable?”

Domino Perez, the president of UT-Austin’s Faculty Council, also said the lieutenant governor’s tweet contradicted what faculty members have been told about the new center.

“We were told that the idea for the institute originated with faculty on campus,” she told The Texas Tribune.

Last August, the Tribune reported that UT-Austin leaders were working with private donors and Patrick to create the Liberty Institute, a center “dedicated to the study and teaching of individual liberty, limited government, private enterprise and free markets.” Public documents revealed that these leaders wanted the center as a way to bring “intellectual diversity” to campus. The two proposals provided by Patrick’s office suggested those involved in the project had political motivations to launch the institute at the flagship university.

Patrick’s tweet was in response to a nonbinding measure passed by the UT-Austin Faculty Council this week that reaffirms the group’s academic freedom to teach about race, gender and, specifically, critical race theory.

Bryan Jones, the ​​J. J. “Jake” Pickle regents chair in congressional studies in UT-Austin’s government department, said Patrick’s comments on Twitter make clear his intent to suppress free speech on campus. He said UT-Austin should reject the state money for this institute.

“[UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell’s] got a lot of explaining to do because he will not keep a great university having this kind of institution on campus,” Jones said. “We will have increased problems attracting senior people at least. They’re gonna ask about this. … I would.”

While UT-Austin officials have stated on the university website that it is too early to say what the center’s name will be, it received $6 million dollars in the state budget for the University of Texas at Austin Liberty Institute last spring. Last August, the University of Texas Board of Regents chipped in an additional $6 million toward the new endeavor.

Bob Rowling, a conservative billionaire businessperson and well-known UT-Austin donor, confirmed to the Tribune last year that he and oil company executive Bud Brigham were involved in the project. Rowling told the Tribune in August that Brigham was the “real leader on this.”

Last September, Provost Sharon Wood initially tried to calm faculty concerns over the institute at a Faculty Council meeting, stating that the institute’s intent was to “support and help attract faculty” with a specific investment in philosophy, politics and economics. The university has posted a page about the new institute on its website, stating that it is still in planning phases, and that the school hopes to hire three to five new faculty members within the normal university hiring protocols.

UT officials have not responded to multiple requests for interviews or written questions about the institute. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for clarification about Patrick’s tweet.

Vladeck said without clarity from the university, the original questions about the institute’s true intent have been resuscitated.

“Potentially creating new institutes and devoting submitted resources outside of the normal faculty process to appease the political whims of the state leadership would be a pretty ominous precedent,” he said.

This is not the first time Patrick has taken credit for helping to launch the Liberty Institute.

At a Texas Public Policy Foundation 2022 Policy Orientation keynote address earlier this year, Patrick told the crowd that Brigham and Bill Holmes, an oil executive from Midland, approached him to start the institute at UT-Austin and asked for the $6 million in state funding. Patrick said UT Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife and Hartzell both signed off on the idea, but professors “shot it down” because they wanted to have control of hiring.

“Well, that’s the whole point,” Patrick told the crowd with a chuckle. “We don’t want to hire you guys.”

Patrick said they continue to work to bring the institute to the university. The Tribune asked Patrick’s office to elaborate on his tweet but did not receive an immediate response.

Meanwhile, his tweet Tuesday signals that the debate over teaching about history, race and critical race theory is headed to Texas’ colleges and universities. Vladeck said while faculty members have been concerned about this issue, it was only a matter of time before the conversation shifted to higher education.

“I still have to hope that calmer minds will prevail and will realize it’s in everyone’s interest to preserve the principle of academic freedom at the university that bears the state’s name,” he said.

“Hopefully, even the lieutenant governor understands that a transparently partisan assault on academic freedom at the state’s flagship public university will only hurt the university — and, through it, the state itself.”

Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation and the University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Correction, Feb. 16, 2022: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the UT-Austin provost. She is Sharon Wood, not Susan Wood.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

White Supremacist Activity in East Austin: Whatever You Do, Do not take the Bait

Students, Friends, Colleagues and all Fellow Texans:

IMPORTANT NOTICE

A colleague of mine, former UT College of Education Professor Doug Foley found these flyers from the Aryan Freedom Network in his East Austin yard on Monday.  He lives in what is now called the East campus area, close to I-35. His best guess is that they are targeting his residential area to create a race war, coinciding with Dan Patrick's expressed goal of establishing the Liberty Institute at UT—funded in part by our hard-earned tax dollars—in order to clamp down on the teaching of Critical Race Theory.

Dr. Foley is asking us to share and circulate this garbage, this disgusting invective, anywhere you see fit. As mentioned in my other post today, please do not take the bait. We must go the way of peace. Please, no violence. We're better than that.

-Angela Valenzuela

This is who we have as our Lt. Governor. An unabashed white, tiki-torch ethnonationalist. Not only is this a reckless and flagrant rallying cry to provoke fear of "the other," but it is also a "dog whistle" or bull horn to fascist militias and organizing. This piece should be read closely in tandem with this one by Paul W. Kahn titled, "Texas bounty hunters, or a private army?" 

This is not at all the Wild West, but rather a tactic of failed states.

-Angela Valenzuela

#SayNoToFascism

Texas Lt. Guv Spews Racist ‘Great Replacement’ Theory on Fox: ‘A Revolution Has Begun’

DANGEROUS

“So this is trying to take over our country without firing a shot. That is what is happening,” Patrick dramatically warned Fox viewers on Thursday night.

Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick unabashedly hyped the white supremacist “Great Replacement” theory on Thursday night, ominously warning Fox News viewers that Democrats are using immigrants to “take over our country without firing a shot.”

Appearing on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Patrick discussed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency order shutting down six points of entry along the southern border amid a renewed surge in migrants. In the border community of Del Rio, U.S. Border Patrol says there are more than 9,000 migrants crowded into a temporary staging area, with thousands more expected to cross the border soon.

It didn’t take long for the lieutenant governor to liken the massive wave of migrants to an invasion of the country and the destruction of the GOP.

“Let me tell you something, Laura, and everyone watching: The revolution has begun,” Patrick told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “A silent revolution by the Democrat Party and [President] Joe Biden to take over the country.”

Calling on “every red state” to invoke Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution—which guarantees the nation “shall protect” each state from being invaded—Patrick said that an invasion is defined as “an unauthorized, uninvited, unwelcome incursion” into a territory.

“This is not authorized by the state of Texas, it is not welcomed by the state of Texas or any other Republican state I know, and they are not invited,” he fumed. “Every red state should invoke this clause because every red state is being impacted and the blue states reportedly don’t care.”

At that point, Patrick then went full “Great Replacement” theory, which has been described as a “white supremacist tenet that the white race is in danger by a rising tide of non-white” and a belief that liberals are replacing white voters with Black and brown immigrants.

“When I say a revolution has begun, they are allowing this year probably 2 million—that is who we apprehended, maybe another million—into this country,” Patrick dramatically exclaimed. “At least in 18 years, even if they all don’t become citizens before then and can vote, in 18 years every one of them has two or three children, you’re talking about millions and millions and millions of new voters, and they will thank the Democrats and Biden for bringing them here.”

He added: “Who do you think they are going to vote for? So this is trying to take over our country without firing a shot. That is what is happening.”

Patrick concluded the interview by saying “this is denying us our government that’s run by our citizens with illegals who are here, who are gonna take our education, our healthcare.”

The conservative Texan is essentially echoing the same extreme rhetoric—which has been the inspiration behind several racist mass shootings—that’s become increasingly common on Fox News and within the Republican Party.

Fox News star Tucker Carlson, for one, has repeatedly advanced the replacement theory, prompting the Anti-Defamation League to call for his firing this past spring. The network, however, waved off the ADL’s complaint and stood fully behind its host.

Read this and learn about the not-so-hidden historical truth of the Alamo.

Specifically, in a newly-published book titled, “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth ,” co-authors Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford  paint a historically accurate picture of the Alamo story with plans to present their work last Thursday on the online platform of the Bullock Texas History Museum located here in Austin, Texas. 

Given that Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan are on the museum's board, they exercised their power and forced the director to cancel this event.  

The rub is that the less-than-flattering, albeit factual and credible, interpretation of Texas history that the battle of the Alamo was motivated in great part to preserve the institution of slavery. To understand this part of our history, one has to know that this land, that later became "Texas," once belonged to Mexico and that Mexico had abolished slavery back in 1829. For greater insight, read this post to my blog back in 2014: Vicente Guerrero, Mexico’s First Afro-Indian President.

The irony is that Texas republicans decry "de-platforming" which is something they just did with these book authors and scheduled presenters, Burrough and Tomlinson, while promoting legislation that they term, the “social media censorship bill” (Senate Bill 12). SB 12 is one of the governor's priorities that failed during the regular session, however, it will resurface in the special legislative session that begins this week. 

The truth of the matter is that they want to continue whitewashing history with a falsely patriotic and triumphalist view of history that preserves the myth of "Texas exceptionalism," that either erases or rationalizes the truths of our state and nation's atrocious history of slavery, conquest, and colonization of which the story of the Alamo is clearly emblematic.

-Angela Valenzuela

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick admits he told state museum to cancel 'Forget the Alamo' book event

Taylor Goldenstein, Jeremy Blackman, Austin Bureau

July 2, 2021Updated: July 3, 2021 9:48 a.m.

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, from front, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, and General Land 

Commissioner George P. Bush ascend the stairs to unveil the 18-Pound cannon as state and local 

officials gathered for the unveiling of a new outdoor "18-Pounder Losoya House Exhibit" in Alamo 

Plaza on Friday, April 16, 2021. Marvin Pfeiffer /Staff Photographer

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday acknowledged putting pressure on the state’s 

history museum to shut down a virtual discussion of “Forget the Alamo,” a 

book that critically re-examines the storied history of the Texas landmark.

“As a member of the Preservation Board, I told staff to cancel this event as 

soon as I found out about it,” the Republican and former conservative radio 

host wrote on Twitter.

Patrick said that “this fact-free rewriting of TX history has no place 

@BullockMuseum.”

On Thursday, with little explanation, the Bullock Texas State History Museum 

in Austin abruptly pulled out of an event scheduled for that night on “Forget 

the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth,” which was published 

last month.

The authors decried the move as state censorship.

The Bullock museum is operated by the State Preservation Board, which is 

chaired by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Patrick and House Speaker Dade 

Phelan, R-Beaumont, serve as co-chairs.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, from left, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and General Land 

Commissioner George P. Bush stand beside 18-pound cannon in a new outdoor "18-Pounder 

Losoya House Exhibit" in Alamo Plaza as state and local officials gathered for the unveiling on 

Friday, April 16, 2021. Marvin Pfeiffer /Staff Photographer

FOR BACKGROUND: Texas history museum pulls out of event on book 

re-examining Alamo ‘myth’

Patrick “thinks he has the right to force his myths on others and can’t handle 

the truth,” Chris Tomlinson, one of the book’s authors and a columnist for 

the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, said in a tweet. 

“Historians have been teaching these facts for a decade.”

The controversy appears to have sparked greater interest in the book, as it 

rose to the 28th best-selling book on Amazon as of Saturday morning; 

Tomlinson said its previous high ranking was 168th.

“Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth” was written by Bryan Burrough, Chris

Tomlinson, Jason Stanford and published in June 2021. Penguin Press-handout.

Tomlinson and one of his two co-authors, Bryan Burrough, were to discuss 

their book in an online “Craft of Writing” event moderated by Becka Oliver, 

executive director of the Writers’ League of Texas.

Margaret Koch, director of the Bullock, said Friday that the authors could have 

gone ahead with the event but decided not to.

The museum’s role “was primarily that of co-host,” Koch said in a statement. “

Although the Bullock withdrew from the event and notified the 198 pre-registered 

participants, the Writers’ League of Texas was prepared to continue the event on 

their own platform and gave the book’s authors the opportunity to do so. The 

authors declined to continue, and because they did so, the Writers’ League of 

Texas canceled the event.”

Tomlinson said they had no choice but to cancel because the event was organized 

using the Bullock’s online platform. “We did not have time to readvertise the 

event to move to another platform,” Tomlinson wrote in a Facebook post.

“De-platforming is what conservatives cry about when white supremacist groups

are kicked off social media. They say it’s un-American. Well, that is precisely 

what they did to us,” he wrote.

Burrough said in a tweet Friday: “I’ve worked all over the world for 35-plus 

years and I had to return to Texas to get my first government censorship and 

actual death threats.”

In the book, Tomlinson, Burrough and Jason Stanford assert that the 

common narrative about the Battle of the Alamo — that 180 Texan rebels 

died defending the state in its war for independence from Mexico — overlooks 

the fact that it was waged in part to preserve slavery.

Patrick and other Texas Republicans disagree with that premise and have 

described it as an attempt to politicize the state’s history.

The book has also riled conservatives by questioning the authenticity of 

Alamo artifacts collected by rock star Phil Collins.

Collins donated the items to the state in 2014, providing an early impetus

for an ambitious plan to renovate Alamo Plaza to enhance its appeal as a 

tourist attraction. State officials agreed to build a museum at the site to 

showcase the Collins collection.

The new book says documentation is lacking to show that many of the items 

Collins acquired, including a knife supposedly owned by Alamo defender Jim 

Bowie, played any role in the 1836 battle or were ever at the site.

The public-private project to renovate Alamo Plaza also envisioned relocating 

the Cenotaph, a 1930s monument to the Alamo defenders. It would have 

been moved a few hundred feet south of its current location in the plaza.

When the proposal went before the Texas Historical Commission last year, 

Patrick spoke forcefully against it, and the commission denied a permit for 

the relocation.

Patrick also took issue with elements of the Alamo project that sought to 

call attention to earlier phases of the site’s history and the imprint left by 

indigenous peoples. He said the project would “erase history” and that the 

primary focus should be on the 1836 battle — “the most important 13 days 

in the history of Texas and Western civilization.”

More recently, Patrick has derided the proposed relocation of the Cenotaph 

as an instance of “cancel culture.”

The irony was not lost on Patrick’s critics, who noted that the lieutenant 

governor has supported a “social media censorship bill.”

Senate Bill 12, sponsored by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would 

have required tech companies to disclose their policies for removing content 

and to allow appeals of those decisions. The bill passed the Senate but died 

in the House.

Patrick had identified it as a priority bill last session, and Abbott has said 

he will again put it on the agenda for the special legislative session set to 

begin July 8.

About an hour before the scheduled start of the “Forget the Alamo” event, 

Patrick sent out an email in support of the bill with the subject line: 

“In Texas, we treasure our right to free speech.”

jeremy.blackman@chron.com

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com