A friend who shares my concerns about Indiana’s governance for the next few years sent me a news link intended to cheer me up–sort of. His point was that it could be worse. We could live in Texas.
Over the years, when I have needed examples of truly bad policies as illustrations in my Law and Policy classes, Texas has often supplied those examples. I’d begun to think that the Texan fixation with secession may not be so misplaced; in fact, an amicable divorce was beginning to look pretty attractive. My friend’s link reinforced that opinion.
Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party in Texas, suggests in his newsletter that the state should have an “amicable divorce” from the “maggots” who re-elected Obama.
Morrison posted on his Facebook page his post-election thoughts: “We must contest every single inch of ground and delay the baby-murdering, tax-raising socialists at every opportunity. But in due time, the maggots will have eaten every morsel of flesh off of the rotting corpse of the Republic, and therein lies our opportunity.”
“Texas was once its own country, and many Texans already think in nationalist terms about their state,” Morrison continued. “We need to do everything possible to encourage a long-term shift in thinking on this issue. Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government? Let each go her own way in peace, sign a free trade agreement among the states and we can avoid this gut-wrenching spectacle every four years.”
Reached for comment by Bud Kennedy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kent Batman, the chairman of the Hardin County Republican Party, said: “Wow.”
This guy is an official of the Texas Republican Party. That’s bad enough. But even worse, the Chairman of the State Board of Education picked Morrison to screen the state’s public-school textbooks.
Explains a lot, doesn’t it?
As a native of Texas, I can tell you the comments made by that Texas official in your post is tame, by comparison to others I have read and heard in the past.
But I always like to remind my conservative compatriots that Texans are three time turncoats. When Mexico wanted to populate the northern part of Mexico (Tejas), officials reached out to farmers and pioneers in Tennessee, Kentucky and other parts of the southern United States. In turn for a free plot of land, the American immigrants had to agree to leave their slaves behind, agree to pay taxes, submit to the authority of the Catholic Church AND renounce their American citizenship.
They moved to Mexico and quickly broke all their agreements. So, they renounced their Mexican citizenship. Later, Texas became a sovereign nation.
But that only lasted a few years and they joined the United States, only to renounce their American citizenship AGAIN to join the Confederacy.
So my point is, it doesn’t surprise me that Texans are proposing to leave the United States again: they’re on a streak, they want to renounce their citizenship again.
This reminds me of a song from South Pacific. The central idea is that you have to teach bigotry and hatred at a young age. “They have to be carefuly taught” I believe is how it was put. That this guy is involved in teaching children shows that they agree.
The sad thing is that most racists, bigots, anti-gay, anti-Semitics, anti-women, etc., do not see these facets of themselves. As that song says, they have been carefully taught, so carefully and fully taught that they believe their way is the right way, the only way. It is deeply ingrained in their heart and their soul. My cousin (a staunch Republican) and I were talking months ago about racism and she declared she is not a racist. I reminded her of my three biracial great-grandchldren and she responded with, “We have a biracial great-grandson we love to death. Of course his father never pays support but that is how they are.” Still thinking of blacks as “they” but not a racist? It is the same with the religious views we have been inundated with for months under the guise of protecting lives; their way is THE way. Too many southern states have not accepted the fact that the War of Northern Agression is over; that matter was settled 147 years ago. Check out the Southern Poverty Law Center web site for a clear picture of racism being alive and well in this country; overt and covert – many, many groups here in Indiana bear watching as they parrot those Texan’s beliefs. Since the election of President Obama in 2008, the number has doubled. Everyone has a right to their own beliefs, their own views and are allowed to speak out regarding these beliefs. But the level of hatred in this country is a form of terrorism; an undercurrent of all forms of bigotry that too often results in physical attacks. It wasn’t that many years ago that Indianapolis was the home of D.C. Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of the KKK which at that time governed Indiana and many other states – not only southern states. The Alamo was only one famous battle; we are gearing up for another version of the OK Corral on Friday. Don’t miss it!
The Republican party has been taken over by a bunch of tea party nut jobs.
The Tea party lost a safe Indiana Senate seat and the Presidency of the United States with crazy extreme positions.
Time will tell if our new Governor got the message and will avoid being destroyed by thinking the party extreme has given him a mandate that only exists in his own mind.
It’s time for common sense and real solutions, not vague grand statements and frequent references to god and faith that have no basis in fact, reality, and practical application.
Having your head high in the clouds without watching where you are walking can be quite dangerous.
Sheila; after rereading this article, I pulled out my copy of the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Spring 2012. The number of Active Hate Groups (KKK, Neo-nazi, skinheads, etc.) in Texas is 45; in Indiana we have 20. The number of Patriot Groups (anti-government); Texas has 76, Indiana has 38 – the Indianapolis Baptist Temple is listed. Considering the size and population of Indiana vs. Texas makes these figures frightening.
Yes, it does.
I have thought about this since I went out to find a copy of the 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform. The radicals who push the idea of forming their own country would have a lot of complicated decisions to make and very high taxes to support their own state department, department of defense, international treaties to propose and ratify, to say nothing of having to return parts of the state that are national parks, seashores, monuments, etc., deal with a large number of the population who live and work in the state but are not native born Texans. Do they really think that minorities would want to renounce their citizenship? The hotheads might think this is a good idea, but anyone who truly thought about the practical aspects of this might not agree.
Texas does realize if it breaks off relations with the United States it will have to get back with its Ex, Mexico. And that will be a hilarious re-union. Haha.