First, they separated from Mexico because Mexico banned slavery. Then they tried to leave the U.S. when Lincoln was elected president because he hated slavery. Then they committed treason in 186, seceding and making war on the U.S. Now there’s a Texas Nationalist Movement that wants to secede again, denying the treason in secession. Treason or not, I say get out. Texas has never been an honorable member of the United States. Their first principle has always been that white Texas men are entitled to injure others with everything from guns to slavery, segregation, the subjugation of women and labor policies that turn workers into peons. Let’s retroactively accept Texas’ secession. The Union will be better without them.
Texas leads the movement to prevent women from controlling their own bodies. In Texas it’s OK to force women to bear children so they become dependent on and can’t leave their oppressors. The rotten court that calls itself Supreme won’t help. Women will have to be airlifted out of Texas to states which care about protecting women instead of subjugating them and their bodies to the will and whims of Texas men.
And Texas is trying to corrupt elections for the whole country. As far as Texas is concerned, if you’re poor, Black or a person of color, don’t bother to vote – they’ll do everything they can to stop you. That can change the complexion of the House, Senate and White House. They’re trying to assert the right not only to control people in their own state but to control all of us from Texas. Kick them out before they destroy the country more than they already have.
There’s no justice in Texas. Sandra Bland is dead in a Texas prison because “It was not a model traffic stop.” To protest that an armed policeman is denying you your rights as a human being and an American citizen is “not a model traffic stop.” Worse, it justifies imprisonment and a staged “suicide.”
Texas denied American citizens their rights by withholding their birth certificates until 2015 when a lawsuit forced it to provide birth certificates to children born in Texas.
Then there are their governors and candidates for president. Perry. Bush. Abbott. Need I say more? I’m getting tired of Texas. Let’s reconsider their secession. They’re obviously not patriotic Americans. Let them go.
Even better: the President and the Senate have the treaty power under Art. II, sec. 2 of the U.S. Constitution. A treaty with Mexico could give Texas back. Think that could only be to settle a war? Fine. We could make a sham war with Mexico equivalent to Texas’ sham prison suicide of Sandra Bland, and settle it by transferring the state back. That would be good for Mexico, and good for America.
There’s another option – one they’re really afraid of. We could have federal registrars register their undocumented citizens to vote and take over Texas. Then when the rebels fly their true Confederate colors over the weapons of their racist army, we could send the Grand Army of the Republic back to Texas, where it served until prematurely withdrawn in 1876, and drive those rebels into the Gulf. That’s a dream devoutly to be wished.
I’m just tired of Texas. Let’s get rid of it. OK, there’s no way, and I’ll never get a spot on Comedy Central. But I do deny the patriotism and human decency of Texas’ bigots. I’m truly tired of Texas.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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