I wish I remembered more from my 7th grade Texas history class – it was a full year, and Texas has plenty of interesting history. Not always pretty, but interesting. I should look for some books. I do remember the teacher being a sweet woman who though her class was far more important than it really was. And we didn’t get US history until 8th grade. Texas came first.
I don’t want to live there again, though, the climate would kill me.
Why at the end of the “Real Men of Genius” commercial do they show a march on the Georgia state capital protesting the new state flag?
Texas is an awesome state. I spent a week there several years ago. I can understand the pride and the hyperbole that goes with it.
True, and that goes for Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and BC. Provincial politics and provincial identification is big in these provinces. I don’t know enough about the others.
Except Ontario, where I was raised for 25 years up until 75. Never heard of the term Ontarion back then. We were Canadians period. I think it is because we pretty well ran the whole country.
Texan here, from the DFW area and with relatives all across the state.
Yes, we have a lot of state pride. It’s a big place, and a lot of people who don’t live in the cities probably don’t meet a lot of people from other states. We have an awful lot of small towns here. Yet there is a lot of variety in the state’s culture and geography. You can travel a good ways and see a lot of different things without ever leaving the state. So there are some reasons why we identify strongly with being from here. If I were traveling abroad and someone asked where I was from, I probably would say first that I was from Texas. It doesn’t make me any less proud of being a US citizen. I think most people would have already guessed that I was an American.
No, Texans do not seriously entertain the idea of seceding from the US. I’ve only ever heard it referred to in a joking manner. The people QtM talked to sound like ignorant idiots. Every state has them. Texas has more people than most states, so maybe we have more idiots, too. It’s a percentage thing.
There are a lot of Texans in the military. In my experience, they are all proud to serve the country–the entire United States. I attended Texas A&M University, a school extremely proud of its military heritage. I never heard any “Texas first, the US second” attitude there with regard to military service. That would not have gone over well at all down there.
Regarding the pledge:
First, let me say that I agree with the author of the cited article that this requirement is fucking stupid (my words). In fact, just a couple of years ago the Texas pledge was revised to ADD the words, “under God.” I am a public high school teacher and at my school each morning the US and the Texas pledges are led over the PA system, followed by a moment of silence. There may be other districts and schools that don’t follow this requirement–I don’t know of any enforcement policy by the state. In my school, I don’t believe there are any teachers who force their students to comply, though in my classroom the majority of students do stand and recite the pledges. They’ve been doing it for years, so it is kind of ingrained in them. We didn’t do it when I was a student, and I feel that requiring rote recitations of a pledge (even ignoring the religious indoctrination) is detestable.
I’m a Texan, a proud son of Fort Worth. Texas is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes scary, always unique place; it’s the only place that’s ever really felt like ‘home’. Currently living in Florida, I consider myself a Texan ‘in exile’.
I have met a few secessionists, hardcore Republic of Texas militia types, that took all of that shit seriously. Most ‘normal’ Texans just repeat the “Seceed!” stuff as a gag.
I take it that you resided in southern Ontario.
Many folks in north-western Ontario are serious about either becoming a separate province, or signing on with Manitoba.
Quebec? That’s a very real separation movement, in which every few years they vote on it and tally at just under half. A lot of thought has been put into how to handle the separation (e.g. soverign or soverign but associated).
Snopes says that’s a myth. I suppose you could fly the Texas flag as the same height as the US flag in the sense that this is a free country and no one is going to lock you up for it, but the Texas flag doesn’t get any special treatment in the flag code.
Texans going abroad and telling people their are form Texas works because Texas is one of the few states a foreigner could probably identity. Californians could do the same thing, I betcha. When I went abroad I had to explain that Michigan was up by Canada, if anyone asks which state I was from.
I think that I’m an American first, and a Texan a very close second. However, I don’t like football or country music, so to many people I’m not a true Texan. 
The thing about Texas, and for that matter many of the Western states, is that it was settled (by white people) by people who were not happy with wherever they were from. They thought that the grass was greener in Texas. It’s not. In fact, I will state as a fact that the grass in the Fort Worth region of Texas is NEVER as green as it is in the Springfield area of Missouri. However, having said that, I vastly prefer Fort Worth, or any part of Texas, over any part of just about any other state. To get back to my point, Texas was settled by white people who didn’t like the back East regions, and thought that they were too civilized. We still get people coming to live in Texas because they are looking for a more self-reliant lifestyle. And then they’re surprised that being a Texan doesn’t mean that you automatically get issued a six-shooter, a ranch, and a herd of longhorns. :dubious:
IME, most Texans are proud of being Texans, prouder than other states’ residents are of being citizens of their respective states. I think that we have some reasons to be proud of our state, but I also think that we have reasons to be ashamed of our state. Again, to many people, I am not a true Texan.
I wouldn’t call the “Texas first and US second” mindset really mainstream, but I certainly wouldn’t call it a very small minority of Texans, either. It’s not rare, but the people who believe that are so vocal about it that they tend to stick in the mind.
Oh, and not only do we have Texas shaped pasta, but we have Texas shaped bricks/pavers.
Good point. I spent several years(75 to 78) in the central time zone of northwestern Ontario(back then it was half a year on TB time and the other half on Winnipeg time) doing most of our business with Winnipeg and hearing a lot of resentment towards Toronto which appeared to be a million miles away.
I lived in and around Dallas for 12 years myself, and agree with phouka.
IME, where this attitude existed at all (and never to the degree expressed in the OP) you were apt to run into it mostly in more rural areas.
The Austin Lounge Lizards weigh in.
One more stupid song about Texas
For miles and miles it rambles on
Biggest egos, biggest hair, biggest liars anywhere
Let’s sing another stupid Texas song
By God we’re so darn proud to be from Texas - yahoo!
Even of our pride we’re proud and we’re proud of that pride, too
Our pride about our home state is the proudest pride indeed
And we’re proud to be Americans, until we can secede
I also lived in Dallas for a few years. I didn’t really see too much of the Texas pride thing. But, I did notice some quirks.
You see the Texas flag everywhere. I don’t see the Arizona flag anywhere besides state government buildings. But, every car dealer seems to have a gigantic Texas state flag.
Beer bottles often have “True to Texas” or something else like that printed on the label.
A lot of truck commercials will say their trucks are built Texas tough.
I used to live in Texas and I never saw that kind of behavior. From my experience Texans are very loyal to the state but not to the point of wanting to secede from the country if things didn’t go their way. Tucking your tail and running from the economy doesn’t seem very Texan anyway.
I think these kinds of folks are found all over the country. In California I knew a lot of people that looked down on just about every other state; to them California - and especially San Diego - is the pinnacle of western civilization.
A lot of what I was going to say has already been said upthread, but I’ll hit the high points.
I’d say that it’s true that your run-of-the-mill Texan is extremely proud of the state and his place in it. I’ve never been to another state where the state flag was flown with the frequency that it is in Texas. Add to that the propensity for decorating our houses and yards with lone stars, and it’s fairly easy to see.
As for me personally, I always identify myself as being from Texas as opposed to the United States. I’ve been thinking about it, and I can’t really say that I’m a Texan first and an American second, but the two are at the very least equal. Like someone else said, I’d rather live anywhere in Texas than anywhere else. I happen to love the Piney Woods where I’m from, but I could handle the plains of North Texas, the scrub of Central Texas, the mesas…hell, even the grit of the Permian basin.
Having said that…if you take a gander at my location you’ll notice that I’m only 25-30 miles from the Louisiana state line, and there is a distinctive coonass influence in our food, culture, etc. I’d say that the folks from Louisiana are just as loony about their state, to the extent that a lot of them despise Texas. The Acadian culture is probably “deeper” than many others in the U.S. Lots of us sound like we’re speaking a foreign language, but those cats actually DO.
Folks from Arkansas (again, right up the road) tend to kind of recognize the reputation (undeserved, really) of their state and keep quiet. Okies, like some of my coonass neighbors, hate Texas. My guess is because it tends to overshadow them.
I can’t really explain it. When we go to Shreveport for shopping or whatever, there is this indescribable sense of relief and pride when crossing back over the state line. It’s like, “whew, I’m home.” I mean sure, there are logical points I could cite, such as the lack of a state income tax, our very nice concealed handgun license law, lots of money/infrastructure…but that’s all secondary to just being in this state of mind.
Which, geographically, is most of Texas. 2nd only to California in population, but 2nd only to Alaska in area. Texas has about 80 people per square mile, ranked 26th. A Texan might proudly proclaim that we’re denser than about half the states. You can interpret that as you like. 
This attitude isn’t at all unique to Texas. Plenty of folks in other states think that Texas should secede, too.
Seriously, though, Montanans have a touch of this attitude, too (you’re not a real Montanan unless your great-grandfather was born and buried here), but they (I don’t say “we” because by that standard, I’m not a “real Montanan”) don’t seem to be as rigid about it. A Montanan will still regard someone from Wyoming or Idaho or Alaska, or even some place like Vermont, as “one of us”. It’s just “Californians” who are regarded as a problem (though admittedly, “Californians” encompasses a lot more than just California).
I’m a native-born Texan. All of my family is there. After college, though, I joined the Navy, which sent me all over the U.S. I maintained Texas legal residency my whole time in the Navy (10+ years), with Texas license plates on my car, a Texas driver’s license, and voting in Texas elections by absentee ballot.
However, since my last duty station was in New England, and my wife is from here, I ended up settling down in Connecticut.
As the OP mentioned, I do tend to mention to acquaintances when I meet them that I’m originally from Texas. I’m proud of my home state, and I think it makes me kind of unique here in New England. My office cube has Texas paraphernalia (e.g paper weights, coffee mugs), for instance.
That being said, I find the attitudes expressed by the people the OP met to be very unusual. As a U.S. Navy officer, I took an oath swearing to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. My first loyalty has always been to the U.S. as a whole.
I’m proud of Texas like I’m proud of the university I attended or a local sports team. Texans definitely talk big, but for most, it is just posturing.
If some nutjobs in the Texas state legislature ever seriously tried to secede, I don’t think very many Texans would support them, nor would the Texas National Guard. Putting state loyalty above national loyalty is so 19th century.
Ah, I tend to forget about East Texas sometimes. . . and Louisiana, boy howdy, you know Mexico isn’t the only third world country on our borders. BTW, what’s a “coonass”? I know it isn’t what I’m thinking, but is it all Louisianans or a certain subculture?
That song kind of makes me proud, you know? Not just of Texas but of Austin . . . I’m getting homesick.
Well, if Texas *does *secede from us, it can pry Austin from my cold, dead fingers. We’re keeping Austin.