America's Pulpit Above the Tailpipe

Pro-life vs Confederacy: The conservative guide to choosing a license plate

As everyone with a bumper sticker knows, there's no point in having an opinion if you can't showcase it on the back of your ride.

When it comes to being a traffic evangelist, the presentation matters as much as the message. That's why over 100 organizations, from the Girl Scouts to the Dallas Cowboys to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo have promoted their brands on specialty license plates for a share in the fees.

But now that the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is considering a plate that features a Confederate flag, what's a principled conservative to choose?

What means more to you — Dale Earnhardt Jr. or a fetus you've never even met that will probably grow up to be a Democrat?

It's a tough call. Sure, you could go with a plate from your alma mater, Baylor or the University of Oklahoma. But unless your pick-up truck (and it is a pick-up truck, isn't it?) is black and really sets off your Texas Tech tricolor plates, after the age of 25 (or three years after graduation, whichever comes second), it's time to find a new conservative statement.

Should you go with the Confederacy, which "honor[s] Texans who fought in the Civil War," the newly approved "Choose Life" plates, which fund controversial crisis pregnancy centers, or should you flaunt your nonpolitical passion, NASCAR?Sure, the Confederate flag is the classiest possible way to represent Southern pride, but this completely non-racist memento of our proud past fighting to continue the enslavement and ownership of other people has been tarnished by Michiganders and trashy residents of the Jersey Shore.

While your cotton sharecropping ancestors might be proud to know you haven't forgotten how they fought to preserve the plantation-based economic structure, some idiot might think you just don't like minorities and accidentally ding your car in the parking lot 10-15 times. It's a risk.

So maybe it's better to focus on the living than the long-dead. And maybe Kyle Busch and the NASCAR people don't really need that license plate money. (Especially now that the state is taking it.) But what means more to you — Dale Earnhardt Jr. or a fetus you've never even met that will probably grow up to be a Democrat?

Having Choose Life plates could get you some pats on the back at church. Having NASCAR plates could totally score you some free beer from other tailgaters at Texas Motor Speedway.

And frankly, doesn't the NASCAR plate say everything you want it to say? Doesn't it effectively identify you as white, conservative, Christian and male, all while giving you that special tingle of knowing that you've got the number 24 on your car when you're drag racing on 288?

Yeah. I thought so.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family