Well, you do know that the Texas GOP is taking a stand against "critical thinking", so perhaps that's the answer? :-)

(I couldn't place that feeling about the speech; besides being overly long, I just couldn't figure it out. That's what it was: he was addressing the audience in 2016. And trying to not be obvious about it. The end result was a bit odd.)

Eh. They're all the same, these groups - small groups intent upon being a soap opera. The only difference is the holier-than-thou crap.