I meant to get around to this Joel Connelly piece earlier. I had earlier accused him of being unhelpful in a writing a piece about states seceding that, whoops, he didn’t write. This one about Texas though is all him. I’ve double checked the byline.
So no, Texas shouldn’t leave. Those of us who aren’t from Texas and are less than thrilled with the politics and politicians coming out of Texas should figure out ways to empower the more than 3 Million Obama voters, and engage the countless Texans who didn’t vote at all. That doesn’t mean that we should ignore our values to court Texans, it means there’s a large base of support there (and in every state) that already supports Democratic values.
Secession. I’m reminded of a childhood nursery rhyme.
The boys sing,
Rachel, Rachel, I’ve been thinking
What a fine world this would be
If the girls were all transported
Far beyond the Northern Sea
And then the girls,
Rueben, Rueben, I’ve been thinking…
Anyways, besides being a dorkified idiot, Rand Paul is a real asshole. If that was a preview of 2016, Republicans are truly fucked.
No question we would be better off without the country’s biggest dumb state. The real question is how much we would have to pay Mexico to take them back.
Texas fighters contributed significantly to the Confederacy’s armed forces, appearling in most major battles and distinguishing themselves with their bravery and hard fighting.
But all this secession talk is nonsense. The GOP needs Texas to keep it’s control over the House, and to support an attempt to control the Senate. Without Texas and it’s gerrymandered districts, it would lose any real chance of controlling Congress.
It is amazing how few Texans vote, especially among voters likely to vote for the Democrats. It needs to be investigated to see if there is significant voter repression at work.
@ 2
I think we should just leave Texas on Mexico’s front porch and set it on fire.
# 4: Well, maybe we could keep Austin.
I also have to object to Connelly’s reference to the U.S. needing Texas on the “technology” front. The “tech” jobs in Texas were created elsewhere in the U.S., and then the more manual functions of the jobs exported to Texas for it’s low wages, tax credits for busineses, and lack of worker or consumer protections. Those jobs can just as easily be transferred back within the U.S. if Texas were to seceed.
Basically a great deal of Texas’ legacy of “high tech” stems from Lyndon Johnson’s influence during the ascendance of NASA and the race to the moon. The same thing to a degree applies to the state’s tradition of innovations in medicine. Just a little tiny bit comes from things like Texas Instruments having originally been in the business of making…well, instruments for petroleum exploration and refinery control systems.
Well, the first attempt at secession ended poorly. Perhaps the enduring problems over the next hundred years stemmed from our failure to treat secessionists more appropriately….trials for treason, execution for all leadership, stripping of citizenship and expulsion for all participants business interests included and dispersal of the remaining population. Seemed to work ok for Native Americans, they haven’t been a threat since. The American experiment in being nice to losers seems too often to have substantial blowback.
If Texas were a foreign country, we’d have to have B-52 bases in Washington and North Dakota. Oh wait, we already do.
I spent about 3 years prying a Texan’s head from his Republican ass and now he votes as a Democrat. But in Grayson County, Texas, it doesn’t matter how he votes. And in King County it doesn’t matter how I vote.
But Texas is overdue for all about to change. Admit it or not, San Antonio is now a Border City and so is everything to the South and West of it. If honest redistricting ever hits Texas (need I finish?), the Dallas County and the Border Counties will gain rightful control of the TX Legislature.
And this will bite Whitebread Texas squarely in the ass. Texas has long neglected the Border and the infrastructure is shot. The Border needs and deserves its fair share of public money and the guys who run the Border (at least on our side) know which side of the tortilla has the lard. The Border tends Democratic and this trend will last for a very long time.
Tom Delay, Carl Ballard’s secret dance partner, redistricted Texas to prevent them stinky Meskins taking our gubmit, but soon they will. Between Democratic Dallas County and increasingly Democratic San Antonio (Bexar County), Texas is headed back to the days of Sam Rayburn, Lyndon Johnson, Ralph Yarborough, Lloyd Bentsen, Jim Wright, and Wright Patmen.
@7, yes. As to medicine, let’s not forget that Cigar Dealer Ben Taub founding of Houston’s TX Med Center and Ross Perot funding of SW Med in Dallas, both noble acts that have paid huge dividends.
The University of Texas system used to contribute to medicine until the Permanent University Fund was raided by pals of a former Texas Governor who Molly Ivins wrote about and who on to lesser and lesser things, finally fading into a well-deserved and hopefully lifelong obscurity.