What's Left of Texas
"If I owned Texas and hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in hell." - U.S. Gen. Phillip Sheridan, 1866
When they held their constitutional convention in a cotton gin on the edge of the Texas Hill Country, they seemed a merry band of pranksters. The Republic of Texas Militia, which became a movement in the state during the mid '90s, had decided the state was not a part of the union. The fuzzy-haired leader of the organization, Rick McLaren, had studied the state's constitution and was convinced that the legislature had not ever taken the appropriate votes to rejoin the United States after the Civil War.
McLaren was an intelligent man and was capable of endlessly debating law. There was no charisma to his leadership of the group but his fire kept inspiring fringe characters to join the ROT organization. When the separatist group got a permit to march on the state capitol, McLaren stood on the steps and declared the independence of Texas.
"We don't have to put up with Washington," he said to about 50 followers and a few reporters. "We aren't part of the United States. We haven't been since the beginning of the Civil War. Why should we pay taxes? Look at what Washington is doing with our money and how they are meddling in our lives and we don't even belong."
Although the language is a little different the message and the rhetoric coming from the current governor of Texas is essentially the same as delivered by a man who led his tiny militia to the mountains of West Texas and bought a run-down trailer to establish a Republic of Texas Embassy. McLaren was willing to begin diplomatic relations between the ROT's new government and the U.S. Whenever I went to interview McLaren and keep track of his legal tricks and size up his politics, we sat on a rock outside his embassy. On the ridgeline above and in the trees I saw men patrolling with high-powered rifles and I kept reminding myself to make no sudden moves toward the leader of the ROT.
Nothing good was going to transpire. McLaren became more fervent. He declared the government in Austin defunct because it was established under state charter and Texas was a republic, in his analysis, and not a state. His embassy was the new location of the Texas Federal government. Eventually, he made even more absurdist statements that began to threaten other residents in the Davis Mountain Ranch and the Department of Public Safety was dispatched to reduce McLaren to custody. He did, however, have guns, and a week-long standoff ensued, which ended with a shootout that took the life of one of McLaren's "soldiers." As DPS officers closed in on his embassy, I heard McLaren calling out on the short wave radio, "Nations of the world, mayday, mayday, mayday; this is the Republic of Texas calling for all due military assistance to protect our sovereignty." He lived his fantasy to the end but his inglorious accomplishment turned out to be a life sentence in a federal prison.
McLaren's misadventure began with the same hysteria that Texas Governor Rick Perry has been stirring. Perry blatantly suggested during the Fox News National Tea-Bagging Festival that Texans are about ready to leave the union because they are sick of Washington. In one cartoonish moment, the Republican standard bearer in this state insulted our entire democracy and every man or woman from Texas who has served under the Stars and Stripes. What is it they fought and died for governor? Was it so you could leave the union when people who had different politics than you were in the majority? I think we had that horror already in our history and, if you read when you were growing up out in Paint Rock, you would know that it was called the Civil War.
If a governor of a Democratic state had suggested such a thing during the administration of the previous president then you and every Republican in the land would have been demanding he or she be tried for treason. Suddenly, you fancy yourself a folk hero leading a band of revolutionaries. Turn around for a minute, pull back the hair from your forehead, and take a good look at who's following you. They are the 2009 version of Rick McLaren's wingnuts.
When Perry finally tempered his remarks there was a naked political motive. The state is in line for $17 billion from the Stimulus Bill. God knows that after six years of B**h and going on nine of Perry that the money is sorely needed for a state increasingly in disrepair. Eliot Shapleigh, a state senator from El Paso, compiles a report each legislative session called "Texas on the Brink." Skimming it will provide more than enough data to show just how functional the Republican leadership of this state has been since 1994. Here are a few embarrassing tidbits about Texas that Rick Perry doesn't want the rest of the nation to know so he can start planning his little fantasy of national politics.
1) 49th in teacher pay
2) 1st in the percentage of people over 25 without a high school diploma
3) 41st in high school graduation rate
4) 46th in SAT scores
5) 1st in percentage of uninsured children
6) 1st in percentage of population uninsured
7) 1st in percentage of non-elderly uninsured
8) 3rd in percentage of people living below the poverty level
9) 49th in average Women Infant and Children benefit payments
10) 1st in teenage birth rate
11) 50th in average credit scores for loan applicants
12) 1st in air pollution emissions
13) 1st in volume of volatile organic compounds released into the air
14) 1st in amount of toxic chemicals released into water
15) 1st in amount of recognized cancer-causing carcinogens released into air
16) 1st in amount of carbon dioxide emissions
17) 50th in homeowners' insurance affordability
18) 50th in percentage of voting age population that votes
19) 1st in annual number of executions
Shapleigh's little book of horrors comes fully footnoted to avoid being attacked by partisans. His staff gathers data from the Census Bureau and Texas government agencies. One assumes they then go out and get deeply, profoundly intoxicated to deal with their sense of hopelessness. In many categories, we are no longer ahead of poor Mississippi. This, then, America, is what Texans have acquired after 15 years of Republican guidance from B**h and Rick Perry. You want some of this? Didn't you just get a big overdose?
There is little doubt that Perry is serious about seceding from the union. My guess is he's grown tired of fighting it out for last place with Mississippi.
Also at http://www.moorethink.com
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Oh...and when you texans start your own country, please check your schools, highways, border fence, Air Force, Navy, Army, FBI, Social Security, and unemployment insurance at the door. Thanks.
This is why the teevee show "Dallas" was so popular back in the day...all that sordid back-stabbing and posturing.
Hey...don'
I live in Texas and those rankings make it seem like a big $h8t hole!
we do need stricter pollution restrictions, better healthcare and education.
i think the groundwork is there for some progress.
Obama received almost 45% of the Texas vote, and won 4 of the 5 most populous counties!
As a hypothetical argument, the secession of Texas brings up some interesting problems. What happens when the refineries and ports that unload foreign oil are closed? Natural gas supply will also be impacted. Military bases will also be an issue, as will NASA and other government entities. Will other southern states follow, and if so how will this impact the many military bases that are scattered across the south? Even if there were no secession, a few dedicated people could cause severe strife for the rest of the country by disrupting fuel supplies.
Believe it or not- not all of us Texans voted for Bush, support Perry, and are Republicans. I've been a liberal Texan for 50+ years and I'm more than ready to join the rest of the US in making positive changes. I have no desire to re-fight the Civil War and to re-establish the Republic of Texas (even though I'm eligible to join the Daughters of the Republic of Texas since some of my ancestors moved here in the 1830's.) I'm more proud to be an American though I am proud to be a Texan. Just not proud of our clinging to the past and Perry. Like many many Texans, I want a Democratic governor who's ready for Change!
I hope you get your wish! Hang in there. You have a proud history of progressive elected officials, and it's not over.
It is hard to describe the dismay I have felt with the Republicans choking the life out of this state. The Perry regime has been harmful and toxic. Many of us are yearning for an end to Republican oppression, and we look forward to a shellacking of Rick Perry in the coming election.
I want a Democratic governor so badly I can taste it. We are striving to turn this state blue. I can hardly wait for that day.
Texans elected Perry. Let them determine his and their state's future.
We have more important business to attend to in the other 49.
They've garnered too much attention for too long.
Texas' future will be determined by how 'awake' their people are, as they rise-n-shine from their 19th century sleep and find themselves Rip Vanwinkles in the 21st.
Not all of us, God help us. Don't forget the 45% of us who want to be with the other 49. We've been stuck with this situation for too long. From the redistricting debacle to the secession talk, we've been through the wringer. It's hard to stay positive.
They redistricted the state to swing the majority to the R's. Delay wanted to be Speaker of the House and he thought he would be better positioned with a majority. They actually said, "we have to have a congressional delegation that supports our president.
It's been a long time since we had a really strong Democratic party, but they are awakening. We're waiting to turn Texas BLUE.
Civil War? No, according to the Southern wing-nuts it was the War Between the States, or the War of Northern Aggression. Slavery? Never heard of it.
No surprise that a Southern state is #1 in much of the bad stuff and at the end of the list in much of the good stuff. Moldova, you have it good!
Before Texas secedes from the USA, Congress should sell it to Mexico for a percentage of their oil production. This would contribute to national security, improve Texas's statistics on educational performance and eliminate future economic and diplomatic damage from its warrior-prone Presidents.
Don- what about the fact that mexico's oil industry is run by the corrupt and incompetent Pemex and they probably wan't be able to export in 3 or 4 years because they will have no production in excess of their domestic needs? Would not be a good deal. We are not seceding.
Forget Mississippi. According to the statistics stated in the article, Texas looks to be in competition with Bangladesh!
I'm a proud Texan, born and raised in Austin...n
Rick Perry is, as they say, all hat and no cattle. Hope Kay Bailey Hutchinson blows this lightweight out of office.
I don't know anymore. I'm just a long-haired country boy born in Kentucky, raised in Oklahoma and somehow became a "LIBERAL". It wasn't freaking easy but there it is! These fools just apparently can't help themselves, if they insist on voting against their common intrest I say just go for it! Let these idiots "secede" cut off all federal funds and seejust how much support they get from the poor voters who fell for their BS!
That long list of deficits, like 1st in air pollution emissions, just shows how Republican governance is a race to the bottom. It shows the despair that accompanies erasing all business and environmental regulation, dismantling the basic saftey net of government entitlements, and not funding education. It shows a state in a downward cycle that is not building on its human capital. Conservative governance is a race to the bottom.
I think it would be prudent to bookmark this article by Mr. Moore so that it is handy to refute the many specious arguments the Republican Base use.
We need W. Bush to come back and start clearing brush again. Now he was a "real Texan"
LOL.... now he lives in a gated community.
It's unfortunate that the "gated community" wherein Dubya now resides is not a PRISON, where he and so many from his (mis)administration belong!
Wilbur
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average texas republican. --- Winston Churchill
that is AWESOME - lol
Most of your list comes from the fact that our Federal Government does not enforce immigration laws which IS the responsibility of the Federal Government. You'll know this as they move to your state soon.
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