The Erin Shank/Doc Anderson debate is scheduled for Saturday, September 24th at 2:30 p.m. at East Waco Multi Purpose Center, 1020 Elm Avenue in Waco. Doc Anderson has been sent an invitation by U.S. Mail, email and through phone messages. He continues to simply ignore these invitations. So, I will either debate Doc Anderson live, or I will debate an empty chair.
Debating an empty chair would be very appropriate since Doc Anderson is the two time recipient of Texas Monthly’s Furniture Award, which is awarded to the legislator who is no more consequential than his/her desk or chair. There are 181 legislators in the Texas House and Senate. Doc Anderson has been voted dead last... twice! McLennan County, we deserve better!
Preparing for the debate, I sat down and read the Texas Republican Party’s 2022 Platform. A review of Doc Anderson’s voting record reveals that he has voted almost unanimously with his party on every single bill ever presented to him. With that track record in mind, every citizen of McLennan County should be very concerned about what his party is proposing in their 2022 Platform. For instance:
1. The Texas Republican Party is advocating that Texas secede from the United States. Paragraph 33 of the Platform states as follows:
Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified. Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto (emphasis added).
2. Paragraph 140 of the Platform proposes to defund Medicare by allowing workers to opt out of their payroll deductions that fund Medicare if they have private insurance. If younger working Americans stop contributing to Medicare, there would be insufficient income to fund Medicare which is the sole source of medical insurance for almost all Americans over the age of 65.
3. Paragraph 139 of the Platform opposes the expansion of Medicaid, which would continue to leave 1.7 million Texans uninsured, advocates that Texas exit the federal Medicaid program and proposes to convert Medicaid to a temporary assistance program.
4. The Platform states that Climate Change should be taught as a challengeable scientific theory. It also proposes to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and advocates that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
5. Paragraph 104 would give parents a private right of action to sue teachers, with both civil and criminal penalties, for infringing on the parent’s rights. The Platform also supports school vouchers which would financially imperil Texas public schools that are already underfunded by $3,000.00 per student.
6. The Platform advocates that life begins at conception thereby making illegal many types of birth control and infertility treatments. It criminalizes abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and prohibits all sex education in Texas public schools.
7. The Platform proposes to abolish the Social Security Administration and turn it over to a private company. Social Security would be converted into a 401(k) type retirement savings account and citizens would only have access to the amount of funds that they contributed to social security while they were receiving a paycheck.
8. The Platform proposes to abolish the IRS, the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It also advocates that the U.S. withdraw from the United Nations.
I could go on and on with more and more horrific examples, but my space is limited.
Perhaps this explains why Doc Anderson is not responding to the many debate invitations that he has received. He does not want to stand before you and defend his Party’s Platform.
I believe that the citizens of McLennan County do not endorse these extreme, radical views. This is not who we are. This is not what we believe. Vote Erin Shank for Texas House on November 8, 2022. Early voting starts on October 24th. If you are eligible to vote by mail, request a vote by mail ballot now by calling the McLennan County Elections Office at (254) 757-5043. This election is too important for any of us to stay home and not vote. Vote like your life depends on it, because it does.
Published in the Waco Tribune-Herald on 9/18/2022