No way. I heard this when I was growing up and I hear it now from my California neighbors... "We're the 4th most powerful economy." Texas or California could probably survive, but it wouldn't be at a level the citizens would be happy about. In Texas... No more NASA, there goes a tremendous brain drain out of the state. No more Federal grants for research or for students at UT, A&M, etc., another brain drain. No more Federal highway dollars. No more DOD installations... there go a few billion bucks. No more Border Patrol... Texas will have to fund the whole thing from NM to the Gulf. Not to mention airline security. No more EPA... some might think that would be a good thing, but within a few decades, Houston would be New Jersey on steroids. Drought, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes... Texas would be hard-strapped to respond to a series of emergencies by itself. After a few years, Texas would be closer economically to Central America than North America and probably just as socially stratified. I could go on, but what's the point? No state could stand alone and expect to enjoy the same lifestyle... they are all too intertwined with the rest of the country. Plus, if you start thinking that way, it makes it easier to dismiss what other parts of the country are going through instead of helping out when needed and it makes it easier for other parts of the country to say "they got what they deserved" when help is needed on the other end. For instance, I can't tell you how many firefighters from across the US have done 2-3 week rotations in Texas since last Fall... If Texas was by itself, those folks would not have been there, many more thousands of acres would have burned and undoubtedly, many more homes and businesses. This attitude I see in some Texans and especially Californians these days drives me crazy. Similar attitude between "reds" and "blues." We're all Americans for gosh sakes.
But, rimrocker, there would also no longer be federal income tax and everything else that Texas gives the Union (not to mention, as an independent country, we could run a deficit like the Feds do, if we wanted). I'm not advocating secession, and I can appreciate the argument that all states prosper from our mutual cooperation, but your list would suggest that Texas actually takes more from the Union than they give. I can't believe that to be the case. Texas is productive and fairly wealthy. All those things we'd lose from secession we should be able to provide ourselves without having to help prop up expensive endeavors the US engages in outside Texan borders -- minus the effect of strength in numbers.
Does a state really have to be allowed to succeed to succeed? That doesn't seem to make much sense...
It is not inconceivable to consider that Texas does take more from the Union than it gives, counting up all tangible and intangible benefits from being a part of the USA. In fact you could say the same for every state. You can't just look at tax revenues and arbitrarily say that states on one side of the line could viably secede. Rimrocker is right - Texas, California, and everybody else in the short term would be much worse off and it's questionable whether it would be better off in the long term either.
My Reconstruction history is a but hazy but weren't the 11 Confederate States treated as conquered territories and ruled by appointed military governors? Didn't they have to be "reinstated" back into the Union? Does that imply that they had, in fact, seceeded?
No, I believe after the war, the feds pretended like they had never seceded, despite all the conquering business.
I think the situation was a little of both. The Confederate states still had state governments but those were essentially puppet governments of chosen candidates by the Fed.. About 30 years ago you would often hear elections in the South being noted as "the first time a Republican has held this office since Reconstruction" or "the first time a black has held this office since Reconstruction" because the Republican party was the party that put Reconstruction in place, picked the candidates and pretty much got them elected in the occupied South. After Reconstruction ended the South was pretty much solid Democrat until the 1960's because of the bitterness toward the Republicans because of Reconstruction.
I live now in Tennessee, and when I see commercials of "Texas, it's like a whole other country", #1 It cracks me up/annoys me, #2 I wonder if this plays into the myth (Texas actually becoming a new country)
Megalomaniac that I am, I've often dreamed of running for governor on this platform. Think about it- WASPs are a given for support, the Mexicans can be exploited with the quixotic idea of regaining lost nobility, and the black vote can be won with proposed social programs I'd never follow through on. By the time people realize I was a madman, my army of rabid followers will have burned a trail to Austin with a Koresh-like zeal that could only end in bloodshed....immortality would be mine. Failing that, I'd at least greenlight bombing raids along the Oklahoma border, justifying them as "pacification" efforts, Cambodia-style. What possibilities....
Don't think for a second I haven't considered that possibility. In fact, I already have a preliminary cast in mind. - Patrick Stewart as my ideological guru, lending a modicum of respect to the production critically. In case you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go rent his TNT mini-series "King of Texas." Not since Jarry's "Ubu Roi" has a modern-day version of MacBeth been so well-done. - Jared Leto as my eccentric and loyal no. 2, morally conflicted by the dangerous path I'm leading the state down. - Naomi Watts as my Eva Braun, mentally unstable and by my side until the end. - Matthew McConaughey in the lead. I couldn't bear a non-Texan trying the accent, and I'm vain. And the piece de resistance... -Chuck Norris revising his role as Texas Ranger "Lone Wolf McQuade," from the 1983 movie of the same name, who single-handedly brings me down. If crap like "Into the West" can be made, I must at least have a shot.
http://www.texasrepublic.com/ I stumbled upon a site similar to this one a few years ago. I'm not sure if it's the same one, but it's very interesting.
