As Bridget Burke says, things are changing. Not as fast as we’d like, of course, but between people moving into Texas, increased mobilization of less reactionary demographics, and kids growing up a little less bigoted than their parents’ generation, there is progress.
Bashing the state as a whole does not help that progress. By all means, mock the loons behind the bullshit–I certainly do–but please try to keep it focused on them. Slapping us all with the Texas stereotypes and crowing about how wonderful it would be to dump us is more likely to make people defensive and that much harder to reach. Painting the state as a total conservative hellhole likely discourages more progressive people from moving here, hindering progress in another way.
Besides all that, I can’t imagine any way that pissing on the morale of people who are on your side can be helpful.
They all hate the gubmint until there’s a flood, a hurricane, huge wildfires, a massive earthquake, tornadoes, etc. Then they’ve all got their hands out for tax dollars.
I guess I’ve never understood this boards hatred of Texas. I have to figure that most people talking about it haven’t actually been there. As far as a Texit, leaving aside the fact that it’s a pretty small percentage of the population, much smaller than the Scottish independence movement and so would have zero chance of getting it through in a referendum (hell, they don’t even have the weigh to GET a referendum, unlike the Scots), I don’t see how this would be good for either the US or for Texas. What I think is it would be good for (in their feverish minds anyway) the ridiculous political extremists on both sides.
As few people cough realize, I grew up in Texas, spent 24 years in that hellhole, and I would say good fucking riddance to it. What really ought to happen is just burn the whole place down. A Texit won’t happen, but a boy can dream, can’t he?
Great, so we’ve got to look forward to 100,000 articles in the near future which find people who are unhappy about something or other, then add “exit” to where they live (QuebExit! VermExit! ConnExit!)
Not to dash too much water on a more or less true statement, some of the problem are people moving into Texas.
If you have a look at Collin County, for example, a lot of the suburbanites out there are transplantees from California or other states and more conservative about some issues than some native Texans. And that may be expected, since you might expect that of people who choose to live in the suburbs instead of Dallas proper.
For example, immigration from Mexico hasn’t traditionally been much of a hot button issue in Texas. The border has always been porous, and long-term Texans have generally accepted this as normal and perhaps even desirable. For example, Rick Perry gotten in a bit of hot water over it at time, since he hasn’t been as anti-immigrant as the rest of the Republicans, as opposed to Ted Cruz - the Texan with Canadian/Cuban roots - who’s been more hardcore over it. The average attitude toward immigration in Texas has been changing as culture shifts and as more people from out of state move in.
But yes, there is progress, but, as in many things, it’s slow. Real, lasting change is the work of generations, not something you get after 1 or 5 or even 10 years. Giving up on Texas (or other states) just kicks the can down the road and onto other generations and people.
Mom born and raised in Texas. Cousins all over the place. I’ve spent more of my life in Texas than I care to contemplate. If it wasn’t for Elgin, Lockhart and a few scattered pits elsewhere, I have no use for the state.
Many Texans have no use for California either. I don’t get the hate, or the glee that folks have about either states (pretty much small to inconsequential) secession movements, but I figure this is just fantasy mental masturbation here so I’ll leave you all to it. I’ll go back to fantasizing about the break up of the EU as the European nations collapse into individual black holes of ego, self righteousness and holier than thou smuggery compounded by economic collapse as the bills come due for all their vaunted social programs while their individual defenses sink into obscurity and their collective heads explode because of the contrary data of hating and looking down on the US while becoming more and more reliant on the US to protect them since they increasingly can’t do it themselves (and the US pivots towards Asia even faster since Europe becomes more and more irrelevant). I don’t really think any of this fantasy will happen (unlike the OP and perhaps several posters in this thread wrt Texas), or that it would even be a good thing (same…even more so), but as a poster above says ‘a boy can dream, can’t he?’.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Texas. I like Texas and I like Texans. But I can see where the anti-Texas sentiment is coming from. It’s not that we really want to get rid of Texas; it’s just that we get tired of Texans telling us how special their state is and threatening to leave. So when Texans talk about secession and we tell them “the door’s right there” it’s a way of calling their bluff and reminding them that they’re just one state out of fifty. The United States would survive the separation better than Texas would.
