Remember Texas oil and gas service man Eddie Chiles? Maybe you remember his radio commentaries of the 1970’s which began with “I’m Eddie Chiles, and I’m mad as hell.” Remember the bumper stickers “I’m mad too Eddie”?
Eddie Chiles was a great Texan and great American. He worked his way through school in the depression, no government grants my friends, and founded a firm that became one of the largest of its type in the world: Western Company of North America. He also was owner of the Texas Rangers baseball club.
Chiles was the type of American establishment elitists don’t much care for: A self-made man with strong political opinions and enough of his own resources to make his ideas known – all without worrying about the approval political elites or their government functionaries. Those who feel entitled to rule our lives don’t much care for free speech when it is powerful and exposes them.
Through his “I’m mad as hell” radio commentaries, Eddie Chiles became a populist political folk-hero of sorts. He wasn’t seeking election to office, he was simply speaking his mind and thereby influencing politicians.
There’s a Midland oil man today doing much the same as Chiles in a more systematic and personally modest way. Tim Dunn is a major backer of the most effective conservative organizations in Texas. Dunn doesn’t put his name all over things but, the press certainly puts his name in all their stories about Texans for Fiscal Responsibility as if it’s wrong for a citizen to put his resources to work for conservatism.
The Austin political establishment is doing all it can do frustrate Dunn’s efforts, and by extension the efforts of all conservatives. Eddie Chiles was a citizen-hero of sorts who rocked the political boat. Tim Dunn is much the same and deserves our appreciation.
Tim Dunn is a modern but modest Eddie Chiles
Robert Pratt
Remember Texas oil and gas service man Eddie Chiles? Maybe you remember his radio commentaries of the 1970’s which began with “I’m Eddie Chiles, and I’m mad as hell.” Remember the bumper stickers “I’m mad too Eddie”?
Eddie Chiles was a great Texan and great American. He worked his way through school in the depression, no government grants my friends, and founded a firm that became one of the largest of its type in the world: Western Company of North America. He also was owner of the Texas Rangers baseball club.
Chiles was the type of American establishment elitists don’t much care for: A self-made man with strong political opinions and enough of his own resources to make his ideas known – all without worrying about the approval political elites or their government functionaries. Those who feel entitled to rule our lives don’t much care for free speech when it is powerful and exposes them.
Through his “I’m mad as hell” radio commentaries, Eddie Chiles became a populist political folk-hero of sorts. He wasn’t seeking election to office, he was simply speaking his mind and thereby influencing politicians.
There’s a Midland oil man today doing much the same as Chiles in a more systematic and personally modest way. Tim Dunn is a major backer of the most effective conservative organizations in Texas. Dunn doesn’t put his name all over things but, the press certainly puts his name in all their stories about Texans for Fiscal Responsibility as if it’s wrong for a citizen to put his resources to work for conservatism.
The Austin political establishment is doing all it can do frustrate Dunn’s efforts, and by extension the efforts of all conservatives. Eddie Chiles was a citizen-hero of sorts who rocked the political boat. Tim Dunn is much the same and deserves our appreciation.
Flashback: Eddie Chiles, the angry man of Texas, more