Why you shouldn't vote Perry in 2012

As a conservative, Rick Perry has a terrible record. But will that win him the election?

Primaries are fun, because Democrat or Republican, that's when the lunatics take over the asylum.

Rick Perry is a shill

Unlike the presidential election itself, when rational folk from both sides of the political spectrum get to cast their vote, the primaries are limited to registered party members; and candidates are forced to pander to the most vocal of them.

For the Republicans, that means the conservative right wing and the newly minted 'tea party.'

One candidate whose been incredibly successful in this regard is Texas governor Rick Perry, commonly known as Bush 2.0.

A charismatic Texan with a laconic drawl, he's managed to win favor with the Republican voters largely by reciting soundbites from Ron Paul's manifesto (which, ironically, people start listening to when other people say them.)

But Rick Perry is a fraud. He's no more conservative than he is a cowboy. This Texas loudmouth is actually as entrenched an establishment politician as it's possible to get; and his appalling political record speaks for itself.

For example:

• Rick Perry claims he wants to reduce the size of government, but has done the complete opposite while in office. He's actually doubled the size of the Texas state government since taking office.
• Rick Perry claims he wants to balance the federal budget, but doubled Texas' state debt as governor. Since taking office, Texas' outstanding debt has ballooned from $13.4 billion to nearly $40 billion; with a gaping deficit in the state budget.
• Rick Perry claims he wants to lower taxes for Americans, but raised taxes 6 times as governor of Texas. Today, the people of Texas pay significantly higher taxes than they did before Perry took office; and that's despite the budget having a huge deficit.
• Rick Perry claims to be against lobbyists and the "same old game" in Washington, but is an old-school Republican shill:
• He passed an executive order forcing parents to vaccinate their kids with the controversial Gardasil vaccine because he received hefty campaign donations from the company that made it, Merck, and got one of his staffers a cushy job with the company.
• In 2007, he attended a meeting of the Bilderberg Group; which is essentially a dating service for pairing corporations with obedient political puppets. 
• As a state legislator, he led the charge to deregulate dangerous pesticides that were poisoning farm workers – in exchange for campaign donations from the Texas Farm Bureau.
• In 2005, Perry passed an executive order expediting the issuing of permits for building coal-fired power stations – and received over $100,000 in campaign donations from utility company TXU in return.
• In 2003, Perry allowed the building of a controversial nuclear waste dump in Andrews, Texas – and denied protestors the right to appeal the decision in court, even though the dump was within 14 feet of groundwater, and posed a very serious risk of contaminating the local water supply. In return, his campaign coffers swelled with $1.1 million in donations from Waste Control Specialists, which built the dump.

• Rick Perry claims he would govern America according to the constitution; but has outlined seven ways in which he intends to change it, including amending Article III and by repealing the 16th amendment. 
• Rick Perry claims to support and American's right to life, liberty and property – but will steal their property to build a "superhighway" between Mexico and the rest of America;  largely accomplished by use of 'eminent domain' (or, forcing people to give up their land.)

Republicans should also not overlook the fact that Rick Perry campaigned for Al Gore in 1988, and was his campaign manager in Texas during the election. How is this man marketing himself as a conservative Republican when he used to be an active supporter of a very liberal Democrat?

Well, he's how - because that's what might win Rick Perry the election.

Once you strip away the posturing Perry is doing to win the Republican primaries, you're left with a centrist politician with a Democrat-friendly history and a track record of applying the same sort of political policies as the previous governor (and President) George Bush. The fact that he's such a laughable failure as a 'conservative' actually makes him arguably one of the more viable contenders for the 2012 election.

And that, my friends, is a somewhat scary proposition. Because here's a man who's bankrupted his state, raised taxes, poisoned kids and stole people's land. Is that really who you want in the White House?