Breckenridge Texan

As primaries approach, we need more independent conservatives, fewer MAGA sycophants.

By Glenn Rogers

“I think they’re terrified to step out of line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them,” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl this month.

Once a supreme loyalist to President Donald Trump, Greene is now singing like a canary. She said she suspects many of her GOP colleagues’ unshakeable loyalty to Trump comes largely out of a fear of defying him. After disagreeing with the president on releasing the Epstein files, Greene was labeled a traitor by Trump and has reportedly received death threats directed at her and her son. She has announced her resignation from Congress and has been on nearly every media channel to tell the world her story: top Trump lieutenant turned exiled outcast. Now, she may be wondering, “Is there a place for me in today’s political environment?”

To Greene, who deservedly has been labeled as “wacky” by Trump, I send a hearty welcome to the Davy Crockett Club, where members are not intimidated by authoritarian rulers and “wear no man’s collar.”

As she suggests, and as I witnessed in the Texas House of Representatives, Republicans are publicly as loyal to Trump and party leadership as possible, but privately many are in disagreement. I must admit, I found myself trying to walk this line during my campaigns and tenure in the Texas Legislature. One veteran politician gave me a piece of advice before my brief sojourn into Republican primary politics: “Vote as far right as you can stand, while holding your nose.”

After a group of rural Republicans, including myself, voted to remove school vouchers from an omnibus school finance bill in 2023, we were branded as “RINOs” by Trump on Truth Social. For that single issue, Trump endorsed our opponents and millions of out-of-state dollars were used to campaign against us in 2024, spreading lies and false information about us throughout our respective districts.

It is not just loyalty to Trump that keeps our elected officials chained. Its loyalty to Gov. Greg Abbott; its loyalty to the megadonors and their “scorecards.” Those in high places of power, often operating from behind the curtain, rule by fear. And the terrified public servants, many who entered the political arena with pure hearts and good intentions, are the tools with which the elites keep a firm grasp on their dominion.

Cowed legislators “vote the scorecard” enough to keep partisans off their back in the next primary.

Misguided loyalty, whether to Trump, Abbott or the megadonors who control our state and national government, is best described in Trump’s 1987 book The Art of the Deal, where he praised disbarred and disgraced New York attorney Roy Cohn. Trump wrote about “all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who made careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty … What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite.”

Trump clearly believes uncompromising loyalty is supreme, and he has in mind loyalty to a person, not to principles. He means loyalty regardless of integrity. This statement is not from godfather Vito Corleone, but from the current president of the United States.

When I read Trump’s self-centered and repugnant comments on the murder of Rob Reiner, I thought, “How can anyone look themselves in the mirror and defend him anymore?” Republicans are supposed to be the party of honor, moral clarity and integrity. Yet from most elected Republican officials, fear rules and silence speaks.

We need more independent conservatives to rise up, to speak out and to reject the purity tests that control our politicians. Loyalty is an honorable trait, but when an oath of office is taken, it is an oath to defend the Constitution, not an oath to obey a president, governor or political donor.

Greene is not alone. Former Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan, who arguably led the most conservative session in Texas history, including passage of “constitutional carry” and the “heartbeat bill,” recently told a crowd, “I am not a MAGA Republican.” Phelan received plenty of those nasty Truth Social posts shortly after.

The primary campaigns are officially underway here in Texas. Negative campaigns commenced on Day 1; many of their attacks are all about Trump, trying to paint opposing candidates as anti-Trump. I have personally received multiple texts attacking a candidate who is challenging the incumbent representative in my district. Yet I have not received one piece of campaign literature about what the incumbent has accomplished, nothing about his record. Just attacks on the private citizen who was courageous enough to go up against the well-funded establishment.

We as voters should not reward these kinds of vicious and negative campaign tactics. What do Texas legislative candidates’ opinions on Trump have to do with local issues like water, schools, the rural health care crisis or property taxes? Nothing, of course.

As we start to decide how to vote in the upcoming primary election, we should be asking the tough questions. We should not be basing our votes on who Trump has endorsed. We should be voting based on the candidate’s ideas, policy goals, voting record and dedication to serving us, the constituents, not anyone else.