Matlock For Texas

Beyond Party Lines: Heeding the Founders’ Warning and Redefining Conservative as Texans and Americans First

By James Matlock�Cushing, Texas | Leading the Texans First Americans First Movement

The United States is trapped in a two-party system that the architects of our republic explicitly warned against. From the earliest days of our independence, the founders understood that organized factions—political parties—posed one of the greatest threats to the liberty and unity of the American people. Today, that warning echoes louder than ever as both major parties often place loyalty to the team, donor interests, and global entanglements above the plain duty to put Texans and Americans first.

In his Farewell Address of 1796, President George Washington delivered one of the most solemn and prescient warnings in American history. He did not mince words about the dangers of party spirit:

“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State… Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.�This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature… The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”

Washington continued:

“However combinations or associations… may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

He further observed that this spirit “opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”
James Madison reinforced the same concern in Federalist No. 10, defining a faction as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” He warned that such factions lead to instability, injustice, and the sacrifice of the public good to narrow interests.

The founders did not design our constitutional republic for permanent, all-consuming political parties. They designed it for a virtuous, self-governing people who would put the common good of Americans above factional warfare. Yet the two-party duopoly that emerged has hardened into something far more rigid and self-serving than even they feared. Primaries are often controlled by machines and big money. Debate is replaced by tribal signaling. And too often, both parties facilitate policies that erode American sovereignty while ordinary citizens—Texans working the oil patch, ranching the land, or raising families—are told to pick a side and stay quiet.

This brings us to the true meaning of “conservative.” The word has been stretched beyond recognition. At its root, to conserve means to preserve and protect the inheritance we received: a sovereign constitutional republic whose first duty is to secure the rights of its own citizens—life, liberty, and property—for ourselves and our posterity. That posterity is American. It is Texan.

True conservatism does not mean blind loyalty to any political party or abstract global ideology. It means conserving the nation for the people who built it and whose consent gives government its legitimacy. “Texans First, Americans First” is not a slogan; it is the logical application of the founding principles to the challenges of our time. It rejects the notion that American policy should be shaped primarily by foreign lobbies, multinational corporations, international organizations, or the next election cycle’s donor class.

Nowhere is this clearer than on the question of foreign ownership of American soil and resources. If an individual American citizen wants to donate their own money to support a cause, a church, or a humanitarian effort in another country, that is their private right and reflects the generosity of our people. But that is entirely different from allowing foreign governments, state-owned enterprises, or foreign entities—allies or adversaries alike—to own land, mineral rights, critical infrastructure, agricultural acreage, or strategic assets inside our borders.

Ownership is sovereignty. When foreign powers acquire title to Texas land or subsurface minerals, they gain leverage over our energy production, water resources, food supply, and national security. Recent data from the USDA’s AFIDA reports show millions of acres of U.S. agricultural land under foreign control, with Texas holding the largest share of any state. Legislative efforts in Texas and other states to restrict purchases by designated adversaries are a step in the right direction, but the underlying principle is broader and older than any single bill: America’s territory and resources belong to Americans. Period.

The two-party system has too often failed this test. Both parties have supported trade and investment frameworks that treat American land and industry as assets on a global spreadsheet rather than the inheritance of a sovereign people. The “spirit of party” Washington condemned makes it easy for one side to excuse what the other side does when it holds power. Meanwhile, working Texans watch foreign interests gain footholds in our energy heartland while domestic producers and mineral owners face regulatory and market headwinds.
We do not need to abolish parties to escape this trap. We need to dethrone them. That starts with rejecting the demand for blind partisan loyalty. It means supporting reforms—such as convention-based or more open primary systems—that return power to actual voters rather than party insiders and big donors. It means electing leaders who measure every policy by a simple test: Does this strengthen Texas and America for Texans and Americans, or does it serve some other interest?

Most importantly, it means recovering the founders’ understanding of citizenship and duty. We are not global citizens first. We are Americans—Texans—who have inherited a republic that was purchased with blood and preserved by generations willing to put their own people first. Washington’s warning was not partisan; it was patriotic. He saw that factionalism would eventually invite foreign influence through the very channels of party passion.

The time has come to take that warning seriously. True conservatism is not a team jersey. It is the disciplined defense of the American experiment for the benefit of Americans. It is Texans First. It is Americans First. And it begins by refusing to let the spirit of party— or any foreign power—subvert the power of the people.

The founders gave us the tools. The question is whether we still have the will to use them.

In the UN system, the United States is but one vote among 193 member states. Authoritarian regimes, communist governments, and nations governed by Islamic law frequently form voting blocs that dominate the General Assembly. These coalitions routinely pass resolutions condemning Israel, promoting global wealth redistribution, advancing agendas hostile to free speech and property rights, and undermining national sovereignty. The U.S. is consistently outnumbered on critical issues, rendering American taxpayer-funded participation a vehicle for legitimizing anti-republican outcomes.

This is why I never supported U.S. involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is why I don’t support globalization. Which countries have labs here?

As a former Marine with a Top Secret clearance, I don’t trust a lot of what I am seeing today. It is my life’s mission to dismantle several aspects of globalization. I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign and domestic. To understand that oath, you must understand the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble. What that oath really says, I will protect, defend, and uphold the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ourselves (Americans) and our posterity (future generations) from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I think everyone can agree that the rest of the world despise the individual sovereignty guaranteed by the Constitution. Would you believe that corporate greed despises those God given inalienable rights. This is why the public/private partnership scam has been allowed to use eminent domain for projects that don’t actually have public necessity. They manipulate the narrative in an effort to create a false crisis so they can trample the Constitution.

I’ll give you an example:

They are attempting to use eminent domain on 300,000 acres of land in northeast Texas to build a reservoir. The narrative is that the aquifer is being drained by the data centers.

There will be 67,000 acres flooded and 200,000 prime lake front property that would be sold at a premium.

With the help of a resident affected by the proposal, we offer up a solution that would keep the data centers out of the aquifer and eliminate the need for the new reservoir. We merely said that the data centers would be required to use recycled oilfield wastewater. We received a lot of pushback about the water contamination and other concerns. I merely pointed out that legislators passed bills saying that this very water could be used for farm irrigation, our food supply. This made me one of the most hated individuals in Texas politics.

A special little message to those who hate me, F you! I don’t give a damn! I will continue working diligently to crash your empires. I will uphold my oath!