White Pages Austin Texas

The Rick Perry you don't know

SAN ANTONIO — In the 1850s, on the steps of the Waco courthouse, Wallace Jefferson's great-great-great grandfather was sold. Today, Jefferson is chief justice of Texas' Supreme Court. The governor who nominated him also nominated the state's first Latina justice. Rick Perry, 61, the longest-serving governor in Texas history and, in his 11th year, currently the nation's senior governor, says these nominations are two of his proudest accomplishments.

French cuffs and cowboy boots are, like sauerkraut ice cream, an eclectic combination, but Perry, who wears both, is a potentially potent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination because his political creed is uneclectic, matching that of the Republican nominating electorate. He was a "10th Amendment conservative" ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people") before the tea party appeared. And before Barack Obama's statism — especially Obamacare's individual mandate — catalyzed concern for the American project of limited government.

Social issues, especially abortion, are gateways to the Republican nominating electorate: In today's climate of economic fear, a candidate's positions on social issues will not be decisive with his electorate — but they can be disqualifying. Perry — an evangelical Christian, like most Republican participants in Iowa's caucuses and the South Carolina primary — emphatically qualifies.

Pausing in his enjoyment of a hamburger the size of a hubcap, Perry, the Eagle Scout son of Democratic tenant farmers, says he entered politics as a Democrat: "I never met a Republican until I was in the Air Force." Perry's father had been a B-17 tail gunner flying out of England in 1944. Perry, stationed abroad flying C-130 transports, became a captain and a believer in American exceptionalism.

He matriculated into the culture wars in the riotous year of 1968. As the University of Texas at Austin was becoming a bastion of liberalism, Perry headed to Texas A&M, which was transitioning from an all-male military school, but not from conservatism. He became a Republican in 1989 — "I made both parties happy" — at a younger age than Ronald Reagan did, and has never lost an election.

Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, might be easier to elect than to nominate. The reverse might be true of Perry. Is he a wine that will not travel? To win the White House, a Republican must be competitive among independents, including women, in places like Montgomery County outside Philadelphia. Perry — his accent, his Westerner's body language, those boots — is proof that, despite the culture's homogenizing forces, regional differences remain remarkably durable. But so, too, do regional antipathies, some of which have intensified as voters have become more polarized, partly because of a Texas governor who became president.

White Denim at Rock Lobster | Indianapolis Indiana

White denim used to be all the rage. In the 1980′s, you saw it on mini-skirts, tight jeans ragged with holes, jackets, everything: it was the symbol of a new American fashion, a modern take on that old standby of the working class, blue jeans. Thirty years later, white denim as clothing has all but died, but the term has new meaning for those with an interest in new frontiers of psyche rock and musical experimentalism. Austin, Texas based four piece White Denim have been redefining one of the 80′s worst fashion mistakes with their pastiche of rockabilly, jam band meandering, garage scuzziness, and the computer based mastery that is usually the sole territory of electronic artists. Oh yeah, and they’re also reputed to have one of the most energetic live shows around. This Wednesday, June 29, 2011, White Denim will be performing for rabid Indianapolis music fans at Rock Lobster .

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Texas Monthly

The Alcalde

Studies in farm tenancy in Texas