The Texas Home School Coalition logo. While I initially thought that this organization might be of some interest, it turns out that they're an exceedingly right-wing conservative organization that from what I can tell cares more about restricting the rights of gays and women than supporting home schooling.
On December 12th, 2013 I received an email from the Texas Home School Coalition.
The email read as follows:
To the campaign office of Kevin Ludlow,
Mr. Ludlow,
My name is Lisa Scott. I'm an intern with the THSC, and I've been authorized to send you this questionnaire, that the THSC might consider an endorsement. Please fill out this form as soon as possible, and let me know if you have any questions regarding the THSC endorsement process.
Lisa Scott
THSC Intern
[EMAIL HIDDEN]
The Texas Home School Coalition Association supports conservative candidates for the Texas legislature and state-wide office.
THSC Association is dedicated to constitutional freedom, economic sense, and traditional values.
Tim Lambert, President
*Directions for Answering the Survey*
Most of the questions in the survey are in a simple Yes and No format. A few short answers are requested.
No trick questions are asked. Feel free to call our office at 806-744-4441 if any clarifications are needed.
- Please describe your philosophy of government and what practical steps you would take to implement your philosophy.
My philosophy of government is trivial: the government is to be restrained and limited its powers. Individual freedom and choices are the responsibility of the individual, not the government. The government can be (and should be) used an an arbitrator (of sorts) to address grievances between parties. Further legislation need not be created as a result of arbitrated agreements.
Implementation of this philosophy is educational in nature. It would be terribly contradictory to force the implementation of the philosophy I described above.
- Which of the following most closely describes your public policy views on social issues?
Social Moderate
- Which of the following most closely describes your public policy views on fiscal issues?
Fiscal conservative.
- Please add any additional explanation concerning your public policy views.
I think the goal of my public policy views is to shoot for a very hypothetical restrained-government ideal, but to tactfully go after policies that do individual freedom a great harm on a large scale (essentially prioritizing).
- Do you believe taxes are too high?
Yes.
- Will you vote, under any circumstances, to raise taxes?
No.
- If yes, what circumstances?
Never.
- Will you work to lower taxes?
Yes.
- Will you support the introduction and passage of an amendment to the Texas Constitution requiring a two-thirds majority vote in each house to raise taxes?
Yes.
- Do you believe that abortion is the taking of human life?
No.
- Do you believe the U.S. Constitution supports the right to have an abortion?
Yes.
- Do you support taxpayer funding of abortions?
No.
- Do you believe that an unborn child is a person under the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
No.
- Would you vote to prohibit abortion?
No.
- Would you vote to prohibit abortion in the case of rape?
No.
- Would you vote to prohibit abortion in the case of incest?
No.
- Would you vote to prohibit abortion to save the life of the mother?
No.
- Briefly explain how your view of abortion might impact your public policy votes.
I am not in favor of abortions and am interested in promoting REAL educational talking points around the topic rather than pursuing the never-ending partisan black/white discussion that we're engaged in.
That said, I do not believe the government should intervene in this matter in any way at all (perhaps other than to provide - or at least promote - the spread of information on the controversial topic).
I will not cater to any religious belief system. I believe that radical left-wing individuals on this topic need be more sympathetic to their counter-believers, and that radical right-wing individuals need to be more pragmatic and compassionate to their counter-believers.
- Do you favor adding "sexual orientation" as a protected minority under existing civil rights laws?
Yes.
- Do you favor conferring married tax status, health care and other benefits to homosexuals through the legal recognition of homosexual marriages?
Yes.
- Do you favor allowing homosexuals to adopt children?
Yes.
- Do you favor laws that restrict the production, sale, and distribution of pornography?
No.
- Will you work to restore parentsÂ’ fundamental constitutional right to direct the care, control and upbringing of their children by amending the Texas Family Code to stop the lawsuit abuse of fit parents under the grandparent access statute as related to HB 2547 in the 83rd Legislative Session?
Yes.
- Will you oppose any legislation that would result in the regulation of private and home schools?
No.
- Will you oppose legislation which transfers power from the elected State Board of Education to the Commissioner of Education?
Yes.
- Will you oppose efforts to change the elected State Board of Education to a board appointed by the Governor?
Yes.
- Will you oppose efforts to undermine parental rights in CPS investigations as attempted in SB 1440 in the 81st legislative session?
No.
- Will you support legislation allowing home school students to take part in extra-curricular activities at public schools?
Yes.
- Would you support legislation to end the use of daytime curfews by cities and counties to circumvent state compulsory attendance laws?
Yes.
- Will you support the Second Amendment right to own and bear arms?
Yes.
- Do you believe gun control laws reduce crime?
No.
- Will you support the death penalty in appropriate cases?
No.
- Will you support the decriminalization of drugs?
Yes.
- Will you support efforts to have Texas judges appointed instead of elected?
No.
- Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
While some questions in this survey may not be "trick questions" as suggested by the introduction, a number of them are simply not black and white (yes vs no) questions.
For example with respect to homosexual marriage, I do not support any type of government intervention of marriage at all. Therefore answering whether I would support homosexual marriage (in essence) is rather misleading for me. I believe all people are given identical rights.
Additionally the question of "Do you believe that abortion is the taking of human life?" is simply NOT a yes/no question. I answered no as it fits the political spectrum from which I believe. Is a 1-day embryo life - NO. Is a 250-day-old fetus life - probably yes. But this does not change my political stance on the matter.
Please call me with any other questions.