TEXAS SECESSION

Since the reelection of President Obama, there has been publicity about petitions circulating in approximately 30 states advocating the state secede from the United States.  The most prominent of these petitions is the one in Texas because that petition has garnered more than 65,000 signatures.   

Wow.  That seems impressive until you consider Texas cast 7,850,239 votes for the two presidential candidates on November 6th.  Put another way, less than 2 percent of the 4,555,755 Texans who voted for Romney signed the petition indicating their childishness.  Surveys tell us far more Texans believe in UFOs and support gay marriage.  So, not only is secession not possible, it is another example of right wing nuttery since it is wildly unpopular even among Texans who voted against Obama. 

However, the concept is worth considering.  Maybe it is a good idea.  Where do I sign?  By getting rid of Texas the rest of America won't have to be embarrassed by its propensity to employ the death penalty on innocent people who have been falsely convicted.  We would be freed of the danger of future presidents and presidential candidates from Texas like George W. Bush and Rick Perry.  We would not have to deal with creationist science text books and whitewashed history books approved by Texas educators. 

Moreover, it would be entertaining to see how Texas survives on its own.  What do I mean?  How would secession affect the Texas economy?  Not so good.  I know Texas Romney supporters were never fans of recent federal stimulus spending, but if Texas seceded, there would be a significant anti-stimulus effect.  That huge sucking sound you would hear would be from the lost jobs and damage to the state's economy caused by a federal pull out.

 There are 15 military bases in Texas.  Four are close to San Antonio, three are in the vicinity of Corpus Christi.  Imagine all those military personnel gone and the civilian jobs those people create in the communities gone with them.  NASA alone employs more than 3,000 people in the Houston area.  Nearly all of those jobs are high paying professional positions.  All gone.   

As long ago as 2002, there were more than 13,000 federal law enforcement officers in Texas.  There are certainly more now.  This includes Homeland Security, Immigration & Naturalization, Customs Service, ATF, DEA, FBI and Treasury agents.  All gone.  Who is going to man the Texas borders?  Not just the border with Mexico because now they will have to guard the US border too. 

That gives you some idea of the lost jobs and the negative impact those lost jobs would have on the Texas economy.  But what about other impacts?  Texas has more than 3,000 miles of federal interstate highways and substantially more miles of non-interstate federal highways.  Most of the cost of maintaining those roads has been paid for by the federal government.  Not any more.  Texans better keep their 4 wheel drive vehicles and stock up on shock absorbers.   

What about federal funds supporting education in Texas?  Do you really think all those red neck, small government, secessionist types want to support the "librull" educated snobs in Austin?  The University of Texas and other state colleges will no longer be serious institutions of learning.   

But what about football?  Will American high school football players want to go play college ball in a foreign country?  Will the schools that now play Texas still want to when all of the players, coaches and fans that want to travel to the game will have to have passports?  

Have fun paying for disaster relief when the next hurricane strikes you Texas.  How about all those twisters rolling down tornado alley?  Want to clean up from that next oil spill in the Gulf?  You are on your own.  No FEMA or other federal disaster dollars.  

How about food stamps?  Is Texas sure it wants to leave?  In November of 2011, more than 3,700,000 Texans (more than 1/2 of whom were children) were receiving food stamps.  That is nearly 15% of all people in Texas.  That puts the % of Texans receiving food stamps as second highest in the nation.  Many of them also receive Medicaid.  When Texas secedes, that will all stop.  What about all those retired Texans?  Well, they won't be eligible for Medicaid to pay for their nursing home care anymore.  Texan's getting close to retirement?  When they secede they will be giving up their Social Security, their Medicare AND Medicaid.  All gone. 

 

Yeah, Texas secession.  I am warming to the idea.  Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

THE 2012 ELECTION: A TRIUMPH OF REASON, REALITY & SCIENCE

Republicans mourning the results of the recent presidential election would do well to examine their unwillingness to accept reality, reason, and science.  In the 1850's American political discourse was joined by a nativist group called the "Know Nothings."  The Republican party seems to be the heir to that group's legacy both literally and figuratively. 

The poster child demonstrating my point is Georgia Rep. Paul Broun who announced in a speech on September 27th that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell" meant to convince people that they do not need a savior.  Dr. Broun (the man is a physician, no less) also told listeners he  believes the Earth was created in six days and is about 9,000 years old.  

These views do not make Broun an outlier in the Republican Party.  In fact, many recent Republican candidates for president have expressed doubts about the theory of evolution (among them, Mike Huckabee, Michelle Bachman, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo and Rick Perry).  In fact, despite his views (or perhaps because of them) Republicans appointed Broun (a member of the Tea Party caucus) to serve on the House Committee on Science and Technology.   

Another example of the Republican rejection of science concerns climate change.  Scientists knowledgeable in the field overwhelmingly endorse the concept climate change is occurring and change is being accelerated by human action.  But science is not good enough for Republican orthodoxy.   

The "know nothing" wing of the Republican Party similarly continues to believe president Obama was born somewhere other than Hawaii, and holds the rather inconsistent belief president Obama's politics are reflective of the years he spent as a follower of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (a Christian pastor), and yet that he is (simultaneously) a Muslim and an atheist.  He can't be all three.  Donald Trump's post election rant claims the election proves America is no longer a democracy (it has always been a republic, not a true democracy) because Obama was elected despite losing the popular vote (although Obama won the popular vote in addition to the electoral vote). 

Before the election, Fox News political pundits (most notorious among them George Will, Newt Gingrich, and Karl Rove) rejected the cold, statistical, scientific evaluation of  the polls to determine how the election would turn out that was forecast by Nate Silver's 538 blog in favor of predictions based on "gut feeling," "momentum," and years of political experience.  Come the morning after, it turned out the Republican rejection of science concerning political polling was just as crazy as their rejection of other science.  Silver called every single state correctly and "gut feeling" by Republicans was dead wrong. 

But it is not just rejection of science holding Republican's back.  They reject reality too.  Before the election, Republican pundit Dick Morris predicted Romney would win "in a landslide" garnering 325 electoral votes.  In making this prediction, he was rejecting science as did the others noted above.  But where he rejects reality is his comments after the election trying to explain how the election turned out so different than he expected. 

How did Morris characterize what he had just witnessed?  "I've got egg on my face. I predicted a Romney landslide and, instead, we ended up with an Obama squeaker."  The "landslide" Morris predicted was 325 electoral votes for Romney.  Notice how he characterizes an Obama victory with 332 electoral votes (7 more than would have constituted a "landslide" for Romney) as a squeaker?  That is just not understanding the concept of reality. 

Reality hampered the Republicans in the 2012 elections in other ways.  Despite knowing women normally compose about 52% of the votes, Republicans seemed to go out of their way to say and do things to alienate women voters.  Despite knowing Latinos were a crucial, and increasingly large voting block, Republicans did everything they could to alienate Latino voters.  Despite knowing approximately 82% of Roman Catholics reject Catholic doctrine opposing birth control, Republicans attempted to convince them it was an attack on their religion for insurance companies to require coverage for contraception.  

The Romney economic plan was also a bit short on reality.  It offered no explanation how the numbers were supposed to add up.  How could increased defense spending and no tax increases square with deficit reduction?  It couldn't.  It's not complicated math, its arithmetic.  What about the Republican phobia about increasing the top marginal tax rate for fear the richest (the "job creators') would send the economy into a nose dive?  According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, that is not true.  Raising the top marginal tax rate was also found not to negatively affect job growth.   History confirms it. 

Finally, Republicans ignored reason by abandoning moderate politicians in favor of radical, sometimes lunatic fringe, Tea Party candidates.  This probably allowed Democrats to win elections they may well have otherwise lost.  Which seats am I talking about?  Alan West in Florida.  Richard Mourdock in Indiana.  Todd Aiken in Missouri.  Joe Walsh in Illinois.  Linda McMahon in Connecticut.  Josh Mandel in Ohio.  Sam Wurzelbacher ("Joe the Plumber") also in Ohio,  From the last election cycle, add Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell.  Going back 4 years, add Sarah Palin. 

 

If Republicans want to win national elections, they would do well to embrace facts rather than ideology, be more open to women, minorities, and educated individuals and reject the lunatics in their midst.  But instead, it seems they are opting to be even more fervent about everything that brought them to this debacle.  Republicans appear to  believe the problem is their candidates are not pure and "conservative" enough.  This brings to mind the common aphorism often (but probably erroneously) attributed to Albert Einstein.  "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."  Of course, the scientific method would prevent such a problem.  Too bad the Republicans reject science.