Texas secessionists feel more emboldened than ever
Texas secessionists feel more emboldened than ever
At a recent conference that featured a sitting state senator, so-called “TEXIT” supporters celebrated their movement’s incremental gains.
WACO — Standing in front of a massive state flag on Saturday, Claver Kamau-Imani outlined his utopian vision of a Nation of Texas that he believes is just on the horizon.
No taxes or Faucis, no speed zones or toll roads. No liberals, no gun laws. No windmills, no poor people. A separate currency, stock market and gold depository. “Complete control of our own immigration policy.” World-class college football, a farewell to regulators. And unthinkable, unimaginable wealth.
“We are going to be so rich,” he chanted. “We’re gonna be rich. We are gonna be rich. We. Are. Going. To Be. Rich! … As soon as we declare independence, we're going to be wealthy. I personally believe that our personal GDP will double in five to seven years.”
“The independence of Texas is good for humanity as a whole,” he added to cheers.
Kamau-Imani, a Houston-based preacher, was among 100 or so people who spent the weekend at the Waco Convention Center for the first conference of the Texas Nationalist Movement, which since 2005 has advocated for the Lone Star State to break away from the United States — a “TEXIT,” as they call it.
Supporters of the movement said they are more energized and optimistic than ever about the prospect of an independent Texas, and pointed to appearances or support from current and former lawmakers — including state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, who spoke at the event — as evidence that their movement is far from fringe. The get-together also came as TEXIT supporters celebrated what they believe is crucial momentum: Days before the meeting, the Texas Nationalist Movement announced that it was more than halfway to the roughly 100,000 signatures needed to put a non-binding secession referendum on the Texas Republican primary ballot.
Yes please secede. Texas has enough electoral votes that if it split off, the modern republican party would never win again.
84Texas is an economic base - let them try, so they can get fucked to dust like the last batch of racists, but they shouldn't be allowed to succeed.
That would be stupid.
16If they were allowed to then the US Military would leave and the Mexican military would roll right in and claim it for themselves. I say let them. See ya, bye!
5So are California and New York. I think we'll manage. In fact whole Texas has the 8th highest GDP vs the world, California beats it at 5th. New York trails a bit at 10th.
5
The Republican Party hasn’t needed voters to win for at least the last 30 years.
1That's wholly incorrect. If it was at all true, they wouldn't be working so hard to prevent people from voting or to build a tribal voting base that votes based on party affiliation.
Your vote absolutely matters, and the 2020 election, the midterms, and the recent state general elections are all proof of that.
4
Like always, the equilibrium will just adjust around a different center. It would definitely be a big shift to the left without the largest red state.
1
"We are going to be so rich,” he chanted. “We’re gonna be rich. We are gonna be rich. We. Are. Going. To Be. Rich! … As soon as we declare independence, we're going to be wealthy. I personally believe that our personal GDP will double in five to seven years."
😂
Oh, he's serious. Where would the food come from? Because Texas is terrible for farming. You can't live off of beef.
Days before the meeting, the Texas Nationalist Movement announced that it was more than halfway to the roughly 100,000 signatures needed to put a non-binding secession referendum on the Texas Republican primary ballot.
Non-binding‽ Stop! I can't take it! 🤣
41Texas seceding would be peak FAFO entertainment if it weren't for all the innocent people who would get fucked over. It'd be like the US's own little brexit.
19Yeah, this is very much not the threat they think it is, and if anything it would go even worse than brexit and that's already one of the worst clusterfucks in recent history. All it would take is less than a year later when everyone is starving and freezing to death yet again due to Texas shit power infrastructure failing during winter storms for these morons to maybe finally realize they are in fact the problem. Or maybe not, they're still in deep deep denial about all kinds of things.
10
Brexit was non binding...
9Fair point, but secession is only something Texas politicians bring up to win easy political points with these kinds of people. It gets tossed around all the time, especially when things don't go their way in elections, and these rubes eat it up. They would never vote on it seriously.
The politicians know it would be economic and political suicide, because Texas does not have the infrastructure to be autonomous, unlike the UK, which was autonomous before joining the EU.
3
Lol oh my god I genuinely hope they try it - especially if it becomes a “promised land” for MAGA types and Nationalist Christians. We’ll vote with our feet, and I’m pretty confident the results will be quite unambiguous.
4Maybe they will try to grow something in Odessa. 😃
1Where would the food come from? Because Texas is terrible for farming.
Citation needed.
You can’t live off of beef.
...
...citation needed
-4See the bulletpoint that covers the breakdown of agricultural products. There's a reason cattle is over half of Texas agriculture and corn is less than Greenhouse & Nursery:
https://www.texasagriculture.gov/About/Texas-Ag-Stats
Also worth noting is that the corn plants produced are quite small compared to places like Illinois and Iowa. The complex soils combined with the generally higher temperatures are not good for produce like corn and wheat, but it is good for cotton (second place for market value, but still much less than cattle). Texas is far from the Breadbasket.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadbasket#The_Americas
As for whether you can live off of beef, I'll leave you in suspense.
7
If he's a preacher why hasn't his church had his tax exempt status removed. All federal perks or aid to him or his church need to be taken away
33Am agreeing with cowboy. Great state of Texas is independent and strong thinker, like Putin. Must show US their secession in order to live among the free peoples. Certainly they will become very wealthy. I am woman of color who works in factory and is liberal.
19No Liberals? Do they plan to sell Austin?
18austin has people who call themselves liberals; not actual liberals.
2
Go ahead, this'll be fun. Let's see, to travel out of your country, you'll need a passport, and for that to be accepted, you'll need a treaty in place Sure, you've got oil, but you basically need to be part of OPEC to sell it, and they decide price and volume. To ship anything you produce, you need treaties in place
Yep, let's see how this goes.
17You do not need to be part of opec to sell oil. The US, UK, and Norway, just to name three, are not members.
1Ah, thanks, wasn't sure as they seem to pretty much rule the market
1
Ok, but next january or february when the snow wipes out their electrical system, we won't be sending any linemen from the United States to help patch things up.
16This would be such a shit show. Democratic states outside of Texas would be all for this, because the right would loose a ton of representatives.
Moreover, all the big centers of commerce in Texas would push back hard. Austin, Dallas, etc. The big cities that make the money are all blue.
15Texas currently has 38 seats, Republicans outnumber Democrats 25-13. If Texas had already seceded than Hakeem Jeffries would be the Speaker right now.
8
I'd trade Texas for Puerto Rico any day.
Also... Oh, your colleges aren't in the US? No, you don't get to play with us. You can't have it both ways, shitheads.
15Wonder how long it would survive without US support? Probably less than a year. Mexico could reclaim their land after that.
14That's what I was thinking. No US military means they're on their own. Though... It looks like they have their own military that is about 10-15% the size of Mexico's. That's actually nothing to sneeze at, and it would also come down a lot to what the US would leave behind (if anything) in such a scenario.
An independent Texas with leftover US nukes is the nightmare that will be waking me up tonight.
2There is no way in hell that the DoD would let any nuclear weapons reside in a secessionist state.
1
Ok. Bye.
So anyway ...
1446% of the voting population of Texas voted for Biden in 2020.
2The new, better, slimmer America will welcome all refugees of fascism.
0
Ya'll going to be so surprised to find out that those military bases don't answer to the state & aren't just employment opportunities for poor folk.
14Please do! Without their 40 electoral votes we won’t see a Republican in the White House for generations.
11If they succeed well they will accomplish is getting their ass whooped while being invaded by the us, you'd think the last civil war would be a tipoff that you can't succeed.
5You realize it is, in fact, possible for a state to secede peacefully, right?
It's even a requirement for actual self-determination.
The last time wasn't acceptable because of the way they did it and why they did it.
But a mutual agreement to part ways is perfectly reasonable.
And, quite frankly, fuck those losers, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
-3
Texas state government received $39.5 billion in grants from the Federal government. I'm sure that would put a dent in their infrastructure maintenance for the state. Source: https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2017/november/federal-funding.php
11There is only one proper response to this:
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-population-majority-latino-census-bureau-update/
Texas has been majority white since at least the mid 1800s, but Hispanics have been expected to overtake the majority for some time. Now, new data shows that happened at some time in 2022.
The U.S. Census Bureau updated its official population estimates, and the numbers confirm Latinos have officially made up the largest share of the state’s population since at least last July.
Lloyd Potter, state demographer of Texas and director of the Texas Demographic Center, said Hispanic Texans made up 40.2% of the state’s population last summer, edging out non-Hispanic white Texans, who made up 39.8%.
“When we look at demographic and population change, there’s what we refer to as components of population change,” Potter said. “The three major components are births, deaths and net migration. So when we look at and when we compare population change between the non-Hispanic white population and the Hispanic population, the dynamics of those elements are different.”
For example, Hispanics tend to have higher birth rates than the non-Hispanic white population, Potter said.
10as a san franciscan-california latino who had to live in texas for 5 years, texan latinos are so conservative that they make florida cubano expats looks like communist loving bleeding heart liberals; especially the evangelicals; and nothing will change texas because of that.
not that it matters, i fully expected texas to become a minority controlled apartheid state in all but name eventually and now i know i was right thanks to this article.
7
"build a wall, let texas pay for it."
9They deserve everything that's coming to them. Best of luck in your endeavors.
6Good... and also "bye".
6Bye Felicia!
346% of the voting population of Texas voted for Biden in 2020.
-2A blatant lie. In 2020, 66% of the voting population actually voted - and this was a record high! Of those, 46.48% voted for Biden/Harris. So that's just under 1/3rd, or 30.68% of the voting population of Texas.
Now, do I feel for these folks? Yes. Is it terrible that they're being disenfranchised by their state and local governments at every turn? Also yes. Is this going to make me feel at all bad if the state whose main claim to fame is keeping slavery going an extra 2 years splits off, only to get gobbled up by Mexico?
Not in the slightest.
1
Quit shitting your pants about it and just do it, Texas.
5But what's wrong with windmills??
5Insufficiently destructive of the environment.
9
These fools are severely underestimating how much value comes with being part of the US. There's are just too many advantages being in a strong economic union like the United States. Its cities especially would have their population leaving in droves. Of course, none of these prosperity gospel preachers are going to have Texas go anywhere. The South already tried that once, and it didn't turn out so well for them did it?
5Who cares?
Stop trying to dissuade them and let them hang themselves.
1Unfortunately, I have friends and family who are anchored to these loons.
4
Bye bye! Don't let the missing welfare transfer hit you on the way out. It'll save the other states tons.
4I LOVE this Country and want to NOT be a Part of it anymore!
3The libertarians will get what they want: freedom from taxes and public services like police, courts, insurance regulations, you know, stuff nobody needs.
3This is the best summary I could come up with:
WACO — Standing in front of a massive state flag on Saturday, Claver Kamau-Imani outlined his utopian vision of a Nation of Texas that he believes is just on the horizon.
For years, experts have thrown cold water on Miller’s movement, saying that secession is patently illegal and unconstitutional, and would be economically catastrophic for the United States and Texas alike.
(Miller vociferously disagrees, arguing that there is no constitutional ban on secession and that the post-Civil War court case often cited by experts — Texas v. White — is also unclear on the issue).
And the event's lineup included Hall, the Edgewood senator, who discussed “securing” Texas’ elections and power grid, and Kyle Biedermann, a former state representative who in 2021 proposed putting a referendum on secession to voters.
Packed in a small exhibit hall between amateur knife traders, book publishers and essential oil sellers, they commiserated in their intense distrust of government – a sentiment that they said has become more normalized since the COVID-19 pandemic, to the boon of their movement.
Beyond grievances about federal overreach and corporate welfare, though, few attendees offered concrete details on what a new Texas nation would look like, or how it would operate or confront the many intractable economic, cultural or political problems that could follow.
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2No Liberals? Do they plan to sell Austin?
1
