There are those who choose to work together cooperatively. Typically, those are people who have a goal and understand that others share that same goal. They understand that it takes many ideas and many hands to achieve the goal. They are inclusive, good listeners, and incorporate others’ ideas into a strategic plan. And, they understand that those working for the goal all have talents that are needed to achieve the goal, like individual puzzle pieces creating an entire picture.
Then there are those who want to control everything. To these types of people, having control is as important as (or more important than) accomplishing the goal. They want to pick the players and control the strategy. They will determine, on their own, the road to take to achieving the goal. They will exclude free thinkers, new ideas, and different ways of looking at the steps needed to accomplish the goal. To them, power is everything.
In the end, king-makers fail, just as in the Rudyard Kipling novella and 1975 movie of the same name “The Man Who Would be King”.
Political leaders often fall into these categories as well. There are those who are quite willing to work together with other political organizations to achieve the common goal: winning elections. They understand “strength in numbers” and that everyone has something to offer, some talent in which they excel.
Then there are those who refuse to work cooperatively, sometimes to the point of attempting to sabotage and snuff out related groups working for the same goal.
We call individuals who do this bullies. We identify them as insecure people who are threatened by others’ successes. We say they don’t “play well in the sandbox”. The same can be true of organizations. As Patrick Henry so well stated in 1799, “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall.”
The unfortunate result of this refusal to work together, especially in the political world, is disharmony, distrust, dissension. Participants become disillusioned and stop participating. When that happens, the goal becomes unachievable. In the political world, that translates to losses at the polls.
As in the Bible, Matthew 12:25, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”
As per the novella and movie, “The Man Who Would be King” won’t recognize that until it’s too late and the opposing political party has seized control.
Bastrop County GOP swept every contested race in the County. Every GOP candidate won here. Congrats to Mike Gepner on providing the leadership, and hands on work, that a county chairman should. Congrats to Mike and his team on building the network needed to take us forward as a growing county with a growing Republican Party.
Texans continue to be represented by two Republican US Senators: Senator Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who handily won re-election. In our own Bastrop County, both Congressman Michael McCaul (CD-10) and Congressman Michael Cloud (CD-27) won re-election. 
