As you longtime TransGriot readers know I'm exceedingly proud of my Houston and Texas roots and wax poetic sometimes about growing up in a Lone Star State that followed its progressive political roots.Unfortunately the batturd wing of the Republican Party decided to use Texas as a laboratory for field testing the themes and policies they would later use to capture control of the state and later the country. After 15 years of disastrous GOP control of the state in the wake of Ann Richards successful 1991-1995 term as governor, the yahoos are running the asylum and did unto Texas what they did to the nation.
George W. Bush's disastrous mispresidency didn't help the image of Texans as far as the county and the world is concerned. Every time some politician says something stuck on stupid, you can count on three things: they're Republican, they're from Texas or both.
So of course I'm going to comment on the idiocy spouted by Governor Goodhair. It also speaks volumes as to probably why until 2002 Texans never elected an Aggie as the governor.“Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” Perry said. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”
First of all, Perry failed his Texas history class in junior high and at Texas A&M. Texas was an independent republic from 1836 until it joined the Union. The oft cited 1845 treaty that facilitated Texas' admission into the Union stated that Texas had the right to split into four additional states, not the right to secede.
In 1991 a Texas legislator filed a bill to do precisely that, but it went nowhere, just as it did when John Nance Garner proposed it in 1921.
Perry also misquoted Sam Houston, a former president of the Republic of Texas who became our seventh governor. He borrowed a Sam Houston quote that stated, “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may!”
The reality for you conservailliterates is that Sam Houston bitterly opposed Texas’ 1861 secession from the Union, and was removed from office when he refused to sign a loyalty oath to the Confederacy.
As for the question of secession, the Civil War settled that. Also note that the only peeps pimping this racist 'state's rights' secession bullshit are devoid of melanin. In addition to that 75% of the state in a poll released today said a resounding 'Hell No' to the prospect of secession.
My former state senator, Rodney Ellis, called out Governor Goodhair by saying, "that by not rejecting the possibility of secession out of hand, Perry "is taking a step down a very dangerous and divisive path encouraged by the fringe of Texas politics." The Texas House Democrats as well sponsored a resolution condemning the governor's remarks as well.
For the rest of you folks in the other 49 states that are hollering 'do it' and 'good riddance', let me school y'all on something. If Texas were an independent nation, it would be the eighth largest economy on the planet. Not something you want to lose if you're trying to pull the USA out of a recession.
The national Republican party is probably behind the scenes cursing Rick Perry out for even suggesting it because all of their presidential election scenarios begin and end with Texas in their electoral college calculations.
I'd like to also point out that while we unfortunately have the stereotypical Ugly Texan yahoos, many Texans have made substantial contributions to the United States on many fronts.You have military leaders such as Admiral Chester Nimitz, General and later president Dwight D. Eisenhower who hail from my birth state. Political statesmen and stateswomen such as Mickey Leland, Barbara Jordan, Governor Ann Richards, President Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn and Sen. Ralph Yarborough, the only Southern senator to vote for all civil rights bills from 1957-1970.
We have writers such as Molly Ivins, Larry McMurtry and J. Frank Dobie. Distinguished CBS News anchors Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather are from my hometown and Bill Moyers is a Texan as well.
I won't even begin to list the legions of Texans from Sandy Duncan and Renee Zellweger, Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, Tony winner Phylicia Rashad, Grammy winner Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Erykah Badu who have populated the stage, screen and music worlds. If it weren't for Texan football players, Oklahoma wouldn't even be an elite football program. It would take another post for me to list the Texans populating the professional sports ranks and Halls of Fame in various sports as well.
Those of us who are proud progressive Texans in the Billie Carr-Barbara Jordan-Ann Richards-Ralph Yarborough tradition are sick and tired of these yahoos purporting to represent 'real Texans' and us getting the negative backlash for their idiocy. Real Texans aren't nekulturny jerks like the fools who were on display last Wednesday. Real Texans care about all their fellow human beings, not a partisan slice of it.
