This Is Not An Odd Book Discussion: Stop talking about Texas!

This post originally appeared on I Read Odd Books

This is not a political rant. This is a common sense rant.

I have noticed online some disturbing statements from unhappy Romney-ites. Once it was revealed that Australia was not really the paradise they thought it would be to escape godless Socialism, eyes fell on Texas. Let me clear up a few problems with the idea of hoards of white, disappointed folk rushing my state in the hopes of creating a new republic when Texas engages in a bloody war against the USA to secede:

1) Texas is not about to secede. I know Perry spoke of it but Perry said a lot of things (I was of the opinion he deliberately tanked his presidential chances by saying loony things – he didn’t want to be president any more than I do), and despite being Governor, he really isn’t the boss of us. David Dewhurst is the boss of us and he has higher political aspirations and won’t risk them suggesting that Texas engage in what can only end up being a giant, bloody clusterfuck. Outside of Texe Marr enclaves of utter lunacy you will not find the mass of Texan bosoms heaving for secession. We are devoted Americans, though many of us value our state as much as we value our country.

2) I do not know where the idea that Texas as a whole hates the Democratic Party came from, but a simple Google will show you that a full 40% of the state voted for Obama. National election-wise we are a Red State but in terms of popular vote we’re more a purply-magenta color. We are not your default angry-white-dude Eden.

3) If common sense fails you and you find yourself on a modern day wagon trail coming to Texas thinking we will soon be a new country and a conservative stronghold, please understand that you may want to step lightly as you barge into my home state, a place where even the housewives are armed. It’s untrue that all liberals eschew pro-2A ideals, just like it’s untrue that Texas is about to secede. We won’t take well to Romney carpet baggers rushing down here and telling us what to do.

Yeah, I know all those people bloviating online have no intentions of moving here. But of all the reactionary things said in reference to Obama winning, this one is so dumb. At least when whiners in 2004 sniveled about going to Canada when Bush won, Canada made sense to the ideals of liberal butthurt.

Seriously, how hard is a Google. If the only places you can find sources for Texas secession as real possibility are infowars and the comment sections on a variety of AM radio stations, then don’t pack the car (or babble about packing the car). If the people who are commenting that Texas is about to secede are using Confederate Flags as their user icons, mayhaps they have a far different agenda at work than simply longing for “freedom.” If you don’t bother to look up how the actual popular vote went in my state, you will miss the better opportunity to go to Oklahoma, which is a far Redder state than Texas.

In fact, may I make a suggestion? Oklahoma: A Much Better Choice for Unhappy Romney-ites!

ETA: Yes, yes, a bunch of you are sending me a Fox News graphic showing that “thousands” want to secede from various states all over the Union. Maybe even tens of thousands? All I can say to this is that 26 million people, give or take a few, live in Texas. Even 500,000 people wanting to do anything in Texas is such a meaningless number that I cannot help but lip fart at anyone who thinks that signing online petitions means anything. If half a million people in Texas want to secede, that means about 2% of the state wants out. At any given moment 2% of the state wants all sorts of damn fool things they ain’t gonna be gettin’. I imagine 2% of Texans want to legalize meth, want to make it legal to beat postal officials on sight, want to make church attendance compulsory and similar half-baked notions that are near and dear to the lunatic fringe.

But that 500,000 I mentioned is a generous number since not even 100,000 Texans have signed the online petition. One hundred thousand butthurt souls wanting a bloody war of secession equals about .3% of the state. I imagine .3% of the state want to have sex with a tree. .3% of the state want to write snake handling into the constitution. .3% of the state want to eat your dog. And not even that many people want to secede.

So go on being butthurt while the national media eggs you on the way they egged on Alec Baldwin when Bush beat Kerry. All less than .3% of you. Tell Alex Jones I said hello.

12 thoughts on “This Is Not An Odd Book Discussion: Stop talking about Texas!

  1. I remember reading somewhere of an island a rich libertarian or two have been talking about building in the Pacific. Send them all there!

        1. Reading the article you linked to, I see we’re talking about two variations of the seasteading theme. Peter Thiel wants to dodge taxes and regulation by building autonomous floating islands, while the creators of the “freedom ship” want to create a humongous cruise ship in order to provide for/fleece rich, tax-averse misanthropes. It keeps them happy, I guess, and there’s the upside that it leaves them with less money to donate to super Pacs.

  2. Well done; don’t mess with Texas women indeed.

    While reading your post something else occurred to me: Texas has the fourth largest gay population in the US, Houston has the fourth largest in terms of sheer size (Dallas is #8), and Austin is number four in terms of population percentage (the previous sheriff of Travis county was an open lesbian). Houston also has the nation’s fourth largest Vietnamese-American population. And let’s not even get started on Hispanics and Hispanic-Americans, and Texas’ close ties to Mexico.

    Those ninnies hold a cartoon view of the entire world. I wonder if they think we all ride horses and wear ten-gallon hats.

  3. “Texas has the fourth largest gay population in the US”

    Must…resist…FULL METAL JACKET…reference.

    People are still banging on about Texas seceding? I know at least a few of these folks are sincere about the threat of secession as a check on federal power, but that the door closed a long fucking time ago.

  4. I don’t blame you for not wanting a bunch of angry white people migrating to your state for safety. Angry white people are scary. Thanks for reminding all of us that Texas is not Rapture!

    (and even if it were, there would still be gay people and taxes)

  5. Adding on to the ETA and my earlier comments: according to the American Community Survey there are approximately 579,968 LGBT folks in Texas (I think those are 2006 numbers – due to population increase the number is certainly higher now).

    Comparing the number of Texans willing to openly advocate secession with the number of Texans identifying as gay leads to some interesting conclusions — which I will leave as an exercise for the reader because it’s taking every bit of my self-control to resist making a Rick Perry joke.

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