February 12, 2018      4:54 PM

Grusendorf: Winning

From the Right: Former Chairman Kent Grusendorf argues the upcoming speaker’s race may give Republicans an opportunity to stop trying to find ways to surrender at the Texas Capitol

Dan Patrick and Donald Trump have something in common.  They both play to win.

A friend recently told a story of two lobbyists working together in Austin.  One had previously served in the legislature as a Democrat; a recently retired Republican legislator joined him to lobby on an issue.  After working the session, the former Democrat was astonished and said of his new Republican lobby colleague –“He was constantly looking for a way to surrender.”

Although today Republicans have majorities in both Austin and Washington, they were in the political outhouse for so many decades, it is clear that they are unaccustomed to winning, nor have they learned how to win.  For decades, Republicans’ only chance for winning was to cut a deal in return for not getting run over.  A token victory was superior to nothing. Republican leaders learned over the decades that surrender was the closest they could come to victory on many fronts.

Times have changed. 

The full column by former Rep. Kent Grusendorf is in the R&D Department.

By Kent Grusendorf

Copyright February 12, 2018, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved