Friday, April 17, 2009

Americans For The Secession of Texas

If you live for any length of time in The Republic of Texas you get to hear a native Texan proudly inform you that Texas, because it came into the Union through a treaty, has the right to secede from the United States at any time.

This, as it turns out is not exactly true, but why quibble with a few facts?

But the whole thing came to the front pages of newspapers and featured as a leading news item in the media from coast to coast, and around the world because its governor shot off at the mouth about it at a couple or three TEA rallies this week.

Notably at a TEA rally at Austin, where Governor Rick Perry whipped up a decidedly anti-Obama crowd with the idea that Texas is better equipped to run its economy better than other states and should not be told by the federal government how to run its affairs. His remarks elicited cries of “Secede!” from the Austin crowd as they roared their approval back at him. He later explained his remarks to a reporter.

“There's a lot of different scenarios. 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, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot.”

Where Perry is wrong, and where most Texans have it a little twisted, is that Texas never came into the Union by treaty. Yes, there was a Treaty of Annexation, but in the 1844 US Senate, rather than ratify the treaty by a required two-thirds majority, the treaty was rejected by the Senate by a vote of 16 to 35. Mexico, they knew would declare war on the United States if they annexed Texas. The next year, however, James Polk, an advocate of American expansionism (Manifest Destiny, he called it) produced an end run. Knowing the Senate wouldn’t ratify a treaty, he had his allies submit the treaty as a Joint Resolution, which did pass.

This, as bemoaned at this website, is why Texas was never legally annexed to the United States.

So, while only 18% of your run of the mill Texan thinks that secession is a knee slapper of a good idea, I think I’m with them. I think I’d like to form an organization to help them along: Americans for the Secession of Texas.

Heck, why not? If you buy into the historical facts, Texas never WAS legally admitted to the Union. It has been a sham that has lasted for 164 years.

So I’m all for it. Let us Americans give the people of Texas the independence that they crave. Texas is, after all, in the Governor's own words "a unique place." It even has its own electrical grid for cripes sakes. Texas gave America George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Ross Perot, NCLB and Astroturf. Surely America can return the favor.

Oh, but that $17 billion that we Americans are giving to Texans? That’s off.

And NASA and the Johnson Space Center?

Moving to California.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am suspect when the words secession and the confederacy are used. Such words tell me that I'm correct in thinking that this entire Tea Partying is in opposition to President Obama. In fact, the three aligned southern governors who rejected the Stimulus Package is, actually, a confederate stance against the President because he is black. And the Tea Partiers are not fooling anybody; they may not be opposed to black coffee or black tea, but they are opposed to a black President. Furthermore, since they were able to remain calm, cool, and collected opposed to being outraged during the horrific Bush years is a tell-tell signal that they are being selectively outraged toward Obama.

I agree with Hal. Those who desire to secede and leave the rest of us Americans who want to remain with the union is good news. The crowd of Tea Partiers bursting loose in full regalia portrayed the same type image as the McCain Palin crowds.

Wasn’t Sugar Land voted one of the best places in the USA to live a few years ago? Well, does all this Tea Partying, anti-Obama exhibits, talk of succession, and accolades to the Confederacy speak well of Sugar Land in the national scheme of things when viewed holistically?

Is this the national view that the city of Sugar Land wants to portray, particularly, when there’s been lots of boasting that Sugar Land is one of the best cities to live in the USA? Seeing the Tea Partiers in full effect with signs to boot does not bode well with that claim.

Fenway Fran said...

Hey Hal, our Portland Oregonian columnist has a suggestion for Rick and co. You'll love it, it involves PIRATES...arrrrr

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/index.ssf/2009/04/secession_is_so_extreme_but_th.html

Anonymous said...

* secession *
THE SOLUTION



why not? it would provide ample opportunity for those east/west coasters to do their own thing with the hi-density-living big cities of the north, while allowing us God & constitutionally driven folks to do ours.

Hal said...

I am in complete agreement. All we Americans will have to do then is build the border wall a little further north than presently planned. Along the Red River rather than Rio Grande.