Texas Secession--Where Would It Lead? A Look at a Future Lone Star Republic
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Maybe we unionists are being hasty. Maybe we should let Texas secede.
Think about what life in Texas would be like if its pandering governor has his way.
The new nation would have to raise an Army and a Navy and an Air Force from scratch, of course. For the first few years, if it didn't want to be gobbled up by Mexico or intimidated by the hugely irritated United States to the north, there would probably have to be confiscatory taxation, and a draft of a million or so healthy men and women over 18, just to guard its thousands of miles of borders. The drug violence and corruption in Mexico would quickly move north and permeate the new nation. Loyal Americans would no doubt launch a resistance movement. Under such conditions, in this militaristic state, we can assume that certain "adjustments" would be made in civil liberties.
So, high taxes and repressive government. Texas could play its hand like Cuba, and become a satellite of China or Russia, and save money on defense that way, but that sort of defeats the purpose of independence, no? Isn't escaping "socialism" the whole point?
With all that local tax money going to defense, the state's schools and roads and bridges and medical infrastructure would suffer. Agribusiness and ranchers and old folks and colleges would decline as well. No more of that dreaded U.S. federal aid.
I presume that more than a few of Houston's wealthy lawyers and doctors and Dallas financiers would decide that the ol' US of A isn't so bad a place, after all, and discover the charms of Colorado and New Mexico. So brain drain would be a problem. Offshore accounts and tax evasion would flourish.
As for manufacturing, Texas doesn't really make anything important by itself anymore. Its oil fields are pretty much tapped. We in the states would be taking back NASA and closing all our military bases, of course. I suppose that, until the American states along the Gulf build up their ports, Houston and Galveston might limp along for a while. But the U.S. embargo on Texas imports, in the long run, would empty those docks.
Austin would be an interesting case. Would its liberal software designers, musicians, University of Texas faculty and filmmakers stay with Texas? Or secede, in turn, from Texas and rejoin the United States? Or become a kind of laid-back Switzerland, playing both countries against each other?
Once you start down this secession road, all sorts of things can happen. Think about San Antonio and south Texas—heavily populated by Mexican-Americans. There are so many minorities in Texas, in fact, that put all together they make up the majority. Like California, today's Texas is a majority-minority state.
How long will the Texas majority be content to be ruled by a minority of idiotic right-wing rednecks who are ruining their economy and forfeiting their liberties and giving up the blessings of belonging to the greatest and richest nation, and brightest beacon of freedom, in the world?
As for the rest of us, we in America would miss the wonderful sly humor, the rich culture, the courage and patriotism and poetry of our brothers and sisters in Texas. The benefits that this great state bring us far outweigh the burdens—the Dallas Cowboys, W, Roger Clemens—that we sometimes have to endure.
America would not be the same without you.
Stay, Shane.
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Reader Comments
US Debt & Deficit
Mr. Farrell, the U.S. federal deficit in October reached $1.4 trillion and the federal debt is almost to $12 trillion. Bush certainly made a lot of bad moves that racked up a huge deficit by the end of his presidency, but Obama, in his first 38 days, created a deficit even bigger than Bush made in eight years.
With all due respect, I have noticed that one of the liberals' favorite dismissals of much of what the conservatives say is, "That's a lie, you just heard it from talk radio." I didn't get those numbers above from talk radio, and I didn't make them up, either. Texas has a healthy economy and industry, even in the recession. Why then would we not want to be free from trillions of dollars of debt and deficit and bankrupt government programs? That's my concern. It makes for at least one good reason for secession, whether you like it or not.
to all the doubters
Let's look at the facts shall we:
1) Texas Gross Domestic Product - Texas had a Gross Domestic Product of $1.245 trillion in 2008. This would place Texas ahead of 183 other independent nations.
2) Population - A 2007 estimate put the Texas population at 23,904,380. This would place Texas ahead of 117 other independent nations.
3) Labor Force - Texas has always been known for it's outstanding labor force. The 2009 estimates for the Texas labor force stand at 11,861,400 which would be more than 152 other independent nations.
4) Potential Government Revenue - Since a tremendous amount of tax money paid by Texans goes to fuel a bloated Federal bureaucracy and fund Federal programs that would not exist in an independent Texas, it is a piece of information that has to be calculated. We will also have to make one assumption to arrive at this figure. For the purposes of arriving at potential government revenue, we will assume that all taxes paid to the Federal Government will be shifted to Austin. This will give us a "potential" revenue for the government of an independent Texas. Texans paid $225.4 billion into the Federal tax system in 2005 (the latest year from which we can obtain data). The State of Texas collected $77.5 billion in the 2008 fiscal year. Combine these two and you receive a potential government revenue of $302.9 billion per year. This would place Texas 12th in the world in budget revenues and ahead of 183 other independent nations.
5) Exports - Texas exports in 2006 totaled $150.8 billion making us 28th globally and ahead of 167 other independent nations.
6) Military - Since Texas doesn't currently have a standing military other than the State Guard, we will have to calculate these numbers based on what we do know. The United States spends 4% of its Gross Domestic Product on the military and defense. Applying this percentage to the GDP of Texas gives us a figure of approximately $50 billion per year which would rank us 5th globally in military spending ahead of 190 other independent nations.
7) Energy - Texas Crude Oil Proved Reserves: 4,613 million barrels, ranked 1st in US. Texas is fully self-sufficient in current energy resources, when used wisely, to last Texas easily another 100-300 years. Besides Texas' oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy capabilities, Texas is a leader in wind, solar, & methane energy development and practical usage.
On top of all this, Texas is known as a "donor state" which means we get less that what we put in, so all of you who say "well who would pay for your roads and military ect." we would, and we would have more money to do it with (and more efficiently) Texas is more than likely to survive (and thrive) on it's own, while the US continues to slide into oblivion.
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