Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat
Greetings, everyone. As I write this, it is Saturday morning, March 6th, and I am in San Antonio staying at the Hotel Gibbs. I arrived in San Antonio at 1 AM after speaking at a Veterans Memorial event in Murphy, Texas. My room is on the 6th floor, in the corner, overlooking The Alamo battlefield. I was truly tired upon getting into my room, but I opened up the curtains and looked down upon the Alamo in the city lights, and the aforementioned Latin quote came to mind, “Fortune Favors the Bold.”
There have been many different attributions of this quote, including Alexander the Great. However, when one considers those words, and this day, it embodies the defenders of The Alamo, led by a 26-year-old, Lt. Col. William Barret Travis.
The motto of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment resembles this quote, “Fortune favors the Brave.” One of my former units in the Army was the 1st Battalion (Air Assault), 377th Field Artillery Regiment where I served as the Battalion Executive Officer, call sign “Gunslinger 5.” Our motto was “Be Bold, Air Assault.”
I think it is important that we clarify something. Boldness — bravery — does not mean recklessness or throwing caution to the wind. Boldness, and its ensuing results, come from a commitment and conviction to stand with resolve regardless of the loss of personal comfort, or in the case of The Alamo, life.
It was the boldness of those men who decided which side of the “line in the sand” they would stand on that enabled us to live in the Lone Star State. History is replete with the stories of ordinary men and women boldly asserting themselves to achieve extraordinary achievements.
So, what does Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat mean for us in Texas, in America, today?
It’s simple. We are faced with a clear and present danger to our personal liberty, freedom, and way of life. We are on an ideological battlefield with a deranged, delusional ideology that believes Dr. Seuss is racist, and that a three-month-old baby can acquire racist tendencies. Of course, that is if these progressive socialists allow the baby to live, and not be dismembered in the womb.
We face the most deadly political philosophy that has been responsible, in and of itself, for the deaths of tens of millions all over the world by way of instilling fear, intimidation, coercion, and violence as the means to advance itself. We have come to know this philosophy as Marxism, collectivism, socialism, statism, Stalinism, fascism. It is the eradication of individual sovereignty and replacing it with onerous, intrusive government control.
There is only one way to defeat this scourge that has taken root in our America, seeking to establish itself in Texas: boldness.
Consider HR 1, which nationalizes elections under federal government control. It would mean the permanent implementation of a one-party rule. Only boldness at the state level can undermine such a dangerous endeavor. It is the type of boldness reflected in the principle of constitutional nullification, which we discussed in a previous Monday message.
HR 5, the disturbingly titled Equality Act, seeks to destroy our very first liberty, the freedom of religion, and the free exercise thereof. Fortune will be attained with the boldness to re-establish the sovereignty of our states by denying an ideological agenda to be forced upon citizens.
Legislation such as HR 127 and HR 130 would undermine our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, a right that shall not be infringed. Every totalitarian system has advanced itself by first disarming its people, rendering them subjugated.
Boldness means our respective State legislatures must say “no” and disallow our constitutional law enforcement officers, sheriffs, federal government agents to confiscate the firearms of legal, law abiding citizens.
Texans have an example of boldness when on October 2, 1835 they defiantly, boldly, told the Mexican calvary who wanted their cannon, “Come and Take It.”
Here in Texas, we are facing a massive crisis at our border, created by the progressive socialists of the Democrat Party. They are seeking to implement an open border strategy by Executive Order, clearly unconstitutional. Texas must be bold, and step up our game and send a direct message. We will secure our border. We will keep our streets and communities safe and secure, and deport (or turn back) those seeking to illegally enter our state.
The days of believing that we can compromise, appease, negotiate, and acquiesce to Democrats are over. Their ideological agenda and philosophy of governance is inconsistent with the fundamental principles and values of Texas and America, and the rule of law in a constitutional Republic. Our future, our fortune, must be secured, but it will require bold men and women who seek not to be liked but, rather, regarded.
Republicans can no longer be reticent and recalcitrant here in Texas, nor anywhere in America. The Party of “cancel culture” has one objective: cancel any and all political opposition.
Download our new Republican Party of Texas Legislative Priorities digital playbook. Ensure that you are informed, educated, and then activated to be bold in this 87th legislative session and advance a constitutional conservative platform.
Fortune does favor the bold here in Texas. Travis boldly stated that he would not surrender or retreat, powerfully saying “Victory or Death.” Colonel James Fannin, three weeks after the fall of The Alamo, on March 27, 1836, was executed, and his men massacred just south of Goliad at La Bahia, after surrendering to the Mexican Army. Texans, choose today, will you boldly stand and fight, or surrender?
Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat!
Steadfast and Loyal,
LTC Allen B. West (Ret.)
Chairman
Republican Party of Texas
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