Potty politics

Potty politics?

Way to go, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for again wasting taxpayer dollars on a frivolous lawsuit to support your personal political agenda.

The Texas Tribune says the state has sued the Obama administration 38 times, at a cost of $5.1 million, with limited success. And they’re at it again.

Patrick would forfeit $10.1 billion in federal funds, apparently because he objects to the prohibition of discrimination based on a student’s gender identity.

A review of the source documents from the Department of Education shows that all the Obama administration did was restate existing law concerning nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and provide examples of how to comply with existing law regarding transgender students.

Is that really something worth suing for, or would their time be better spent fixing the school funding problem in Texas?

Texas adds another lawsuit to the couple of dozen they’ve already filed against the federal government. But what do Texas taxpayers get from these? Nothing.

As soon as these kooks get into office, our tax money is frittered away on their army of lawyers.

In Hood County, we learned the hard way, having to settle with the gay couple refused a marriage license. That cost us about $45,000. Our tax dollars.

That could have gone for an additional sheriff’s deputy or patrol car. Instead we got national news coverage of our backwoods county official, a boost to her husband’s statehouse campaign (proved his Tea Party bona fides) and a hole in our budget.

If these radicals want to gut our civil government and install their ideology/theology in place of American values, let them use their own money — not mine.

This is another case of a solution looking for a problem. Put your thinking caps on, people, and let’s get the scare politics out of it!

A recent commentary suggested that we “give states a chance” to create public bathroom safety rules on their own.

Unfortunately, not all states follow the U.S. Constitution on matters of civil rights. The result: Almost a century of slavery in the South and then, after the Civil War, another century of Jim Crow.

Bathroom safety can’t be compared to gay marriage. No one is in imminent risk of harm from not being allowed to legalize a marriage. A transgender female could suffer assault if she were to use the restroom nature “intended” her to use, i.e. the “male” one.

There are some times when “slow and easy wins the race” does not apply.

The real question is, “Do you want a 13-year-old boy in the same restroom with your 9-year-old daughter?”

This story was originally published May 31, 2016 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Potty politics."