OPINION: Let Texas secede

The Republican Party in Texas has lost its damned mind. The Texas GOP has become so overrun by far-right, radical extremists that it approved a new platform a couple of days ago that was so outrageously filled with gob-smacking idiocy that one has to wonder whether someone had slipped hallucinogenics into their drinking water supply.

It’s a platform that doubles down on every lie and every culture war sortie that’s run rampant in the GOP since Donald Trump’s ascendency, including an evidence-free declaration that President Joe Biden had not been legitimately elected, a rebuke to Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) for daring to participate in the drafting of bipartisan gun reform legislation, a call to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that helped prevent American Blacks from being denied the right to vote, and a regressive declaration that homosexuality is “an abnormal lifestyle choice.”

While those platform planks were bad enough, there was one resolution in particular that stood out for its clarion call for a new American Civil War.

Echoing the actions of the Confederate States of the mid-1800s, the Texas Republican Party is now calling for a vote by the state’s citizens to secede from the United States of America.

This is the kind of seditious intent covered by the third section of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Consitution which reads:

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Theoretically, at least, any Texas Republican who voted to approve a party platform that calls for the state to secede from the union should now be barred from ever holding any federal office. No wonder they want to secede. Their future political careers likely depend on it.

I say let Texas secede.

It would be a huge tragedy for the half the people in the state who don’t subscribe to the deplorable policies of misogyny, racism, unlimited gun rights, and climate change denial that are the core values of the “God, Guns, and Greed” Texas GOP, but enough is enough.

As actor Ray Miland quoted the Gospel of Matthew while playing the title role in the Roger Corman 1963 horror classic X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, “If thine eye offends thee… pluck it out!”

Let Texas leave and soon the state will realize how much they actually rely on the federal government for their prosperity, reaping $36.2 billion more in federal financial aid than the state pays in federal taxes.

You would think that the state’s experience with their electrical grid — which Texas ensured would be disconnected from the grids that service the rest of the country to maintain exclusive state control of that valuable bit of infrastructure — would have taught the Texas Republican Party a lesson about the dangers of going it alone. When the Texas grid failed due to one of the increasingly frequent spells of extreme weather, more than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.

Yeah, is that the sort of state government you really want to be in charge of national defense as well?

Let Texas secede.

They’ll come crawling back, begging to rejoin the union, soon enough.

Yes, I’ll miss Austin and the 6th Street music scene, but SXSW can move to another state easily enough.

I’ll miss being able to go see the Menil Collection in Houston or go to the Riverwalk in San Antonio or visit the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo without having to break out my passport, but that would be just a minor inconvenience compared to not having to worry about the infectious political idiocy that originates in Texas.

Let Texas secede. They’ll have to build a border wall many times the size of the one that the Texas GOP is clamoring for now.

It probably wouldn’t be long before the Republican-controlled authoritarians running the independent nation of Texas would need that wall to keep its citizens from escaping back to the U.S. of A.

Let Texas secede. Their citizens will face fierce inflation as their leaders would be forced to negotiate new trade deals with international partners and the remainder of the United States, which likely won’t want to offer the secessionists particularly favorable terms after their departure.

Imagine the tax increases Texas would be subject to as they raise the money needed to buy weapons and armaments to replace those that would leave once the US military pulls out with all of their resources.

Let Texas secede. Call theTexas GOP’s bluff. Or at least let Texas Republicans face the wrath of their citizens once they realize how they’ve been hoodwinked by the false promises of unscrupulous and not very bright politicians.

Or better yet, perhaps the citizens of Texas can have the sense to vote all of these ungrateful, traitorous Texas Republicans out of office and let Democrats restore the state to its past glories as a lone star joined with 49 others in the stars and stripes.

This is an opinion column that solely represents the tongue-in-cheek opinions of the fed-up author.

Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.

Vinnie Longobardo

Managing Editor

Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.

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