A handful of Texas Republican district or county conventions in March passed resolutions calling for a vote on secession, paving the way for a potentially awkward debate at the state GOP conference in May. A Nederland-based pro-independence activist group, the Texas Nationalist Movement, said at least 22 of the hundreds of conventions passed secession items. Texas GOP chairman Tom Mechler said he “would be very surprised” if that many had indeed passed the conventions. The Houston Chronicle reached out to GOP officials in the counties listed by the Nationalist Movement. Ten responded and all confirmed passage of the resolutions. An official count should be available from the Republican Party of Texas in early May…. [T]he resolutions represent a significant milestone in the growth of a fringe movement in the Texas GOP, which drew attention last year when members of the party’s State Republican Executive Committee pushed for a vote at a December meeting.
Having spent 10+ years living in Texas (3,722 days…not that I was counting or anything) prior to leaving for saner pastures, I think this is a subject I can speak to with some degree of authority…once I stop laughing.
To the untrained eye, Texas politics looks from the outside to be the province and playground of those desperately in need of professional help…and I’m here to tell you that assessment is not altogether inaccurate. The old saying that “Texans would vote for a ham sandwich if it had an ‘R’ behind its name” is largely true…because most Texans don’t care enough to do anything but vote emotionally. The Lone Star State is home to what surveys have shown to be among the most politically disconnected and easily manipulable electorates, who reflexively vote Republican because it feels safe. They may not know much about politics, but they know “Democrats” and “Liberals” to be harbingers of evil- America-hating, freedom-despising terrorist sympathizers who’d sell America to those angling to institute Sharia law if given half a chance. That most Texans couldn’t define Sharia if the definition was highlighted in a dictionary and handed to them matters not at all. It’s Muslim, and as any good, God-fearing, Conservative Christian patriot KNOWS, ALL Muslims are terrorists and live to destroy American and the freedom they hate.
Those who do wield the levers of power- Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Rick Perry, Louie Gohmert…and this list continues to grow- are more often than not hyper-Christian ideologues who cherry-pick American history, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the Constitution to support their belief that this country should be a Christian theocracy. They despise the federal government…until they need some form of disaster relief, in which case they’ll scream bloody murder if that assistance isn’t rendered yesterday. They oppose most social welfare programs (ESPECIALLY an increased minimum wage), but they have no problem with providing sizable tax breaks to “job creators” and other members of the 1%. Blaming the poor is a cottage industry, as is propping up their wealthy benefactors…often by taxing the poor.
To be a Republican in Texas is to wallow in some truly outrageous, indefensible, and barely lucid views of the world and the people who inhabit it. White heterosexual Republicans- and ONLY White heterosexual Republicans- are God’s chosen People and divinely ordained to exercise dominion over all aspects of public and private lives. Atheists are forbidden from running for elective office because they spread evil, godlessness, and Liberalism. LGBT rights are of the Devil. Democrats sit at the right hand of Satan. Public schools should be taxpayer-funded wholly-owned subsidiaries of Evangelical churches. Critical thinking skills have no place in a K-12 curriculum. Education should be about creating reliably Conservative Christians who will vote as they’re told and obey the established power structure.
There’s more- much more- but you get the point, right?
If you’re reading this and thinking that it doesn’t sound as if I’m going to be arguing against allowing Texas to secede, you’re correct. I have friends who are Texans, and who love their home state. There are things I certainly miss about Texas- Austin, the Hill Country, the music, Tex-Mex- but on the whole, Texas is a drag on the Union and a national embarrassment. If the wackjobs who wield political power want to lead Texas into becoming an independent, sovereign nation…I say let ‘em. The insanity of Texas Republicans should be cause for shame…if that was an emotion they were capable of feeling.
I can think of no compelling reason to prevent Texas from seceding. The only state which possesses the right to secede if it chooses, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t negotiate a “Velvet Divorce” along the lines of the division of Czechoslovakia. If the Right-wing theocrats who’d turn Texas into the People’s Republic of Jesus can convince Texans they’d be better off striking out on their own…well, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, knowhutimean??
I think Texans would discover the economic and political realities of life on their own would be a fair bit different than the uber-Jesus-y Paradise on Earth what they envision. I also think America would be a much better- and certainly far more compassionate- place without the likes of Louie Gohmert, Joe Barton, and the rest of the Texas Congressional delegation mucking things up in Washington.
Good luck with developing your own economy and creating your own military, eh? Good luck controlling your borders…because that wall so many would like to see built may well be erected- to separate Texas from Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
While we’re at it, how about fortifying that wall with razor wire and anti-personnel mines?
There are those who will discount my argument, convinced that I hate Texas…which, strictly speaking, isn’t true. I don’t hate the Lone Star State, but I do very much despise the hatred, intolerance, bigotry, and religious zealotry it stands for. I came to know many good and decent people during my sojourn in Texas, but there are also many who believe Conservative White Christians like themselves to be the Alpha and the Omega of humanity- superior beings anointed by Almighty God to create and administer a righteous and godly world.
THAT’S the Texas I believe America would be a far better place without.
