My personal Texas experience consists of a two day conference in San Antonio. The river walk was quite nice. The Alamo- worth an hour to see a bit of history. San Antonio- not bad in my estimation.
Texas as a whole- too hot. Too many dangerous critters. Dysfunctional government. Too red politically. No Big Ten schools. Not for me.
It’s a purple state but not enough citizens vote blue, based on the inhabitants that I know who reside there. Texans are being targeted by New Mexico not to visit because too many Texans are non-maskers who are probably asymptomatic. Their education system is reflected by the taxes they don’t pay - so connecting the dots relative to Cruz’s abandoning them probably will never happen. One-sided (white-washing) history of their state is required in public schools. They’re the only state with water law where the one with biggest pump gets the water. The Beautication Act by Lady Bird was inspired by the crowded billboards along the highway. There are people helping women without means, to get pregnancy terminations via an underground network because of the trap laws. I’d only live there, if I was rich and retired because the folks are generally pleasant.
I’m reminded of an old joke about the huge Texan who died and they couldn’t find a coffin big enough.
An astute mortician said “Texans are so full of sh*t, that I’ll just gave him an enema and then I can bury him in a matchbox”.
This jibes with my experiences in Texas. Luckily, I dodged a bullet in my early 20’s by being rejected in job interviews in Dallas.
I was born in Dallas but managed to escape. I returned for my dad’s being honored at the Cowboys’ 25th anniversary dinner, but I don’t see any reason ever to go back.
The way I feel about Texas is similar to the way I feel about Florida, except that Texas is more arrogant while Florida is more hapless.
Texas and Canada are basically the same in that their entire identity is based on things they ARENT rather than actual achievements. It’s always “We aren’t California” or “We aren’t the North” or “We aren’t Mexico”.
It really puzzles me the Texans you meet who are Pro-Southern even over Texas. If you ever meet someone from Texas who describes themselves as “Southern” first run far far away.
Old joke: Texas would have separated from the US a long time ago…if Oklahoma didn’t suck.
My first experience with Texans was not a good one. There were 16 of them in my boot camp company, all of them loudmouths and braggarts. Oddly enough they didn’t mess with us three Alaska boys. It didn’t leave a good impression, and I’ve not had much luck with Texans since then unless they were Latinos. I’ve also not had much use for their elected Republicans. As a state: I’ve only been to DFW, San Antonio and El Paso, all on business. None of them left me with a good impression, although San Antonio wasn’t horrible. The drive south from there towards Laredo was nothing but sagebrush and dead armadillos.
I’ve never heard that version before, but this one was ubiquitous.
Why doesn’t Texas fall into the Gulf of Mexico?
Because Oklahoma sucks.
Just a couple of datapoints from my immediate family.
My son worked in McAllan Tx for a couple of years. Even tho it was his dream employer out of school, he couldn’t get outta there fast enough. But McAllen surely isn’t representative of all of TX.
My dtr and her fiancee are looking to move out of SoCal. Austin was on her shortlist, before the recent weather kerfuffle. Just made her realize that it was important to them the extent to which a state’s policies correlate with their values.
Of course, they were raised in a liberal heathen Yankee household, so my wife and I permanently damaged them!
I assume you’ll sell “Texas tuxedos” there too. AKA paper toilet seat covers.
That almost perfectly summarizes my view and experience working for a gigantic Dallas-based company full of Texans and spending many, many days in various Texas cities.
My only quibble is you left out the part about them being cowardly paranoids. Like little yappy dogs, often demonstrating unneeded aggression against their trumped up fears. Mostly fears of non-conformity to their proudly ignorant ideals.
Up here in Chicago we Yankees refer to such people as being all hat and no cattle! 
@Dinsdale: You mean like this?
Uh - yeah.
Reminds me of one time I was in a Southern Ohio court as a young atty, and for whatever reason I decided to respond to my opponent’s argument by saying, “That dog won’t hunt.” The magistrate judge looked at me and drawled, “Counselor, you don’t do that accent well enough to say that in my court!” 
Oops. Red cheeks indeed.
Ever notice how all the best stories come out of stuff you goofed, not the few times it was “nuthin’ but net!” Life’s weird that way. Keeps us on our toes.
I’m sure it’s a nice place to visit, and I’d like to do so some day*, but between the climate and the people I don’t think I’d want to live there.
* It’s one of the eight states I’ve never been to.
Ok, what are the eight? Inquiring Dopers want to know. Might even spring you some invites.
Really depends on where you’re at. For some reason the northern suburbs seem to be more sparsely treed than the older ones in Dallas or Richardson. I mean, my buddy lives on a street in Frisco with 30 year old houses, and while the trees are adequately mature and good sized, there are still fewer of them. I can see what @Chad_Sudan is getting at, even if it’s not a universal thing.
For example- a treed street in my neighborhood:
and for comparison, a street in my buddy’s neighborhood (houses are early 1990s):
There’s a clear difference in the number of trees per yard between the two.
I always chalked it down to San Antonio being SO much older than the rest of the state. I mean, San Antonio is of similar age to New Orleans (early 18th century), and was a Spanish city, then a Mexican city before becoming Texan. So it should probably have a different vibe than the other major Texas cities.
I think that’s an unfair generalization. Plenty of Texans are not racist, reactionary or braggarts. Case in point- Houston is routinely ranked as one of the most cosmpolitan cities in the country, and in some rankings and polls outstrips places like NYC and Los Angeles for multiculturalism. And it’s been that way for 30-40 years now. That doesn’t happen in places bent on being “racist, reactionary braggarts”.
Yes, it really is, even though I made it myself. One of the nicest people I have ever known is a Texan. But what they export as a cultural image is certainly the stereotype.