ong before Texans had heard of “no pass, no play,” and before free
trade was a major political issue, the diminutive Dallas billionaire
H. Ross Perot entered my life as a super-patriot who believed per-
severance was the key to success. ¶ The date was June 17, 1970,
and I was receiving my Eagle Scout award in Dallas. If I had ever
even heard of Perot, it was only because North Vietnam had turned him
away the previous Christmas when he tried to deliver gifts and supplies
to American POWs held in Hanoi. But Perot had also recently donated
$1 million to the Dallas branch of the Boy Scouts of America. So when I
opened my case containing an eagle pendant dangling from a red, white,
and blue ribbon, there also was a printed note from Ross Perot. It read:
“This major accomplishment establishes you as one of America’s future
leaders. I will be watching your continued progress.. .”Perot waves to
supporters of
his presidential
bid during a rally
in downtown
Dallas on
November 2,
1992.As it turned out, Perot spent
no time watching me, but I spent
much of my adult life watching Per-
ot. I covered him during his two
presidential campaigns and kept
up with his other political and busi-
ness ventures over the decades. He
was one of those Texans who oper-
ated on a grand scale: disrupting
business, improving public schools,
and injecting into presidential pol-
itics a new approach to economic
populism.
In some ways, the former com-
puter magnate, who died on July 9
at the age of 89, was the beta version
of Donald Trump. Trump wants to
“drain the swamp.” In 1992, Perot
said it was time to “pick up a shov-
el and clean out the barn.” Trump
overturned Republican orthodoxy
to attack the North American Free
Trade Agreement. Perot warned
that NAFTA would create a “gi-
ant sucking sound” as jobs moved
south to Mexico.
But that’s where the compar-
isons end. Perot did not believe
that America had to be made great
again. As his note to me stated, the
United States was “the greatest
country in the world.” Perot was
also a Cassandra, warning that the
national debt, if left unchecked,
would ruin the U.S. “The debt is
like a crazy aunt you keep down in
the basement,” Perot said. “All the
neighbors know she’s there, but
nobody talks about her.” Trump
once bragged that he was “the king
of debt,” and he has proved it by let-
ting the national debt soar on his
watch.
I once heard a joke that Perot
was a self-made man: he worshiped
his creator. And yet he possessed a
humility and prudishness that are
totally lacking in our current pres-
ident. Perot held on to a tattered
copy of the Boy Scout handbook
from his youth, relishing its prin-
ciples of good deeds and honor. In
1955 he sought early release fromThe Last Boy Scout
That giant sucking sound? It’s a Texas without
H. Ross Perot, one of the most iconic Texans of the
past few decades.L
50 TEXAS MONTHLY
APPRECIATION by R.G. Ratcliffe
NEWS
& POLITICS
ERIC^ GAY/AP