When Rick Perry announced his run for office, the emergence of a raft of memes from the rabid left was a foregone conclusion. They despise Rick Perry, just as they despise all of Texas. Because Wendy Davis. Because guns. Because Bush. And because Rick Perry already ran in 2012. Like the sun rising in the east and setting in a carefully concealed sound stage run by the CIA, the reaction was utterly predictable.

One meme, one graphic, took an early lead as the most shared. If you have any democrat friends on Facebook or follow any on Twitter, you’ve certainly seen it by now. It purports to be a summary of Governor Perry’s legacy in Texas, and is included below.

 

It will no doubt fail to surprise you to learn that this meme came out during the 2012 election cycle, and is simply being recycled for this go around. (Ha! ReCYCLEd!)

Equally inevitable and likewise as predictably, the leftists newly and again favored jab is full of absurd lies. Nothing fires up a lefty like a lie. Just ask Rachel Dolezal. Now before we get into the itemization, it is important to note that a meme is a powerful thing. Shareable, impact media that people see and are influenced by and remember. Given that, it is not enough to simply tell you about the lies. We must correct the record in kind. To that end, please enjoy the following shareable meme on Rick Perry’s ACTUAL Legacy.
(Note: Where possible, creators of original meme were given benefit of the doubt and data was limited to 2012/2013 time frame of when it was created.)

This meme has the virtue of being true. The Texas economy is a nationwide leader, and under Rick Perry jobs, wages, and education soared. This is DESPITE cutting budgets and lowering taxes. So already, the entire premise of the dumb meme, which by the way was produced and distributed on Facebook by GOP Stoppers, is entirely, utterly, and irrevocably destroyed.

But wait, there’s more!!

Take, for example, the very first and arguably most alarming item on the leftist legacy rewrite: #1 in Worker Deaths. Can this be true? Well let’s just check with left-leaning fact checker Politifact and see what they think:

Texas ranked 18th, with a rate of 1.7 such deaths per 100,000 workers. Observing that the five states with the “worst” rates all employed fewer than 1 million people in 2011, we checked to see how Texas fared among states employing more than 1 million. The answer: 10th place.

“Worst” among the states were Montana (3.4 deaths per 100,000 workers), North Dakota (3.3), West Virginia (3), Alaska (3) and New Mexico (2.8). “Worst” among states with more than 1 million employed were Arkansas (2.6), Louisiana (2.3), Kansas (2.3), Missouri (2.1) and Kentucky (2).

During our look into the Everlasting GOP Stoppers’ claim, a bureau spokeswoman, Cheryl Abbot, responded to our inquiry about worker deaths in general by emailing us a federal document showing 2011 workplace fatality rates state by state. That year, according to the document, Texas had a rate of 4 fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.

That tied the state for 22nd with Alabama. North Dakota ranked first with a fatality rate of 12.4, according to the document, with Wyoming second (11.6) followed by Montana (11.2), Alaska (11.1), Arkansas (8.0), South Dakota (6.7) and New Mexico (6.6). Among the 10 most populous states, Texas ranked second to Ohio, which had a 5.5 fatality rate, according to the document.

So … nope. Lie.

Poverty level jobs is addressed above in the graphic. For this, let’s visit the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, in a PDF titled “Texas Leads Nation in Creation of Jobs at All Pay Levels” (which kind of says it all right there.)

As you can see, wages in the state rose in every category. Of course, that doesn’t address job growth. For that, another chart from the same document.

Do people still say boom? I’m going to assume that they do. Boom.

Texas created jobs across all levels of wages AND INCREASED THE WAGES FOR THOSE JOBS under Gov. Rick Perry. I’m going to say it again gratuitously. Boom.

What about carbon emissions? I will grant this is not something likely to provoke the interest of any real Texan, but just for fun, let’s check their facts.

Back to Politifact we go:

So, Texas has been No. 1 in total CO2 emissions, though it would have tied for 13th if each state’s emissions were adjusted for its population.In per-capita emissions, less populous states led the nation, topped by Wyoming (108 metric tons per capita); North Dakota (76); Alaska (56); Louisiana (50); Montana (36); Kentucky (35); Indiana (34); Iowa (30); Alabama and New Mexico (28); Nebraska and Oklahoma (27). Kansas and Texas each had 26 metric tons of CO2 emissions per resident.

This doesn’t even address the clear logical flaws. Among 50 states, someone must be last. And it stands to reason that states in the energy industry would lead the way.

So what does it mean to be number one? The implication is “worst offender.” By every possible measure, Texas is not the worst offender.

A third point, utterly destroyed. This is easy you guys. This isn’t even hard.

Next up was 49th in school funding. Oh those lefties and their tropes. It is not even a question to them that spending less equals worse outcomes. It is an article of faith. If you spend less, you care less. It is the essence of their very being. So of course, they rank the spending, not the outcome.

In reality, the outcome in Texas is phenomenal. Number two in America for on time graduation of students. Texas is number one in graduations for hispanic students, for black students, and for students from low income families.

Is that not the goal? Is that not what the purpose of education is? Is it not laudable that the most disadvantaged get the most advantage if they live in Texas?

Where is that info from? Why right here at The Washington Times. And right here, at the Department of Education.

50th in High School graduates indeed.

I’m going to say kablammo this time. KABLAMMO.

But we can give the Facebook meme creators one thing about Gov. Rick Perry’s legacy. Under his leadership, taxes were slashed in Texas.

Sorry?