I am a Westerner, but not a native Texan. After one week in Chappaqua, New York, now famously the “home” of the SecState and her husband, What’s-his-name, I said to my husband as I lay at the side of the main thoroughfare in Milwood with a broken leg, “I give this place five years, then we are outta here.”
I came to love Texas sometime in the fall of ’93 when I spoke to a man who had dispatched the problem of a neighbor’s 6′ boa constrictor in his driveway with a pistol. Since then, I have come to love it for other reasons, and not least of all for today’s kudos from Charles Krauthammer on Special Report. Let me quote, as accurately as I can (I’ll fix as soon as the t-script is published):
Today the governor of Texas said that he will reject the healthcare reform legislation citing his interpretation of the 10th amendment. I say, why stop there? Why not secede? Secede from health care, secede from cap and trade. Texas has a history of gaining its independence. True, there were some losses the first time [laughter] but they won against Santa’ana, and Obama is more lightly armed.
Comments 11
It was White v. Texas (1869), I believe, that finally settled the question, “Can a State secede from the Union without the consent of the other States?” SCOTUS: “No.”
I don’t remember the details, but it was all about money. The Supreme Court told me Mr. White that he could not collect money owed him by the Confederate State of Texas when, during the war, he swapped US Treasury bonds for Texas bonds because the Confederate State of Texas had never really existed or something like that.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Good citation, Joe. There is another opinion that the question had already been decided.
July 24th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
it’s a nice citation, but some hold that the question had already been decided.
July 24th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Um, I think Charles was kidding. Anyway, his joke was that Obama is a less formidable adversary than Santa’ana.
And if we’re talking about money…
July 24th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Full disclosure: Dad was a Texan. Got relatives all over Texas. Lived in Corpus Christi as a kid, when Dad was stationed there. So I love Texas, even though I hate the Long (phtaw!) horns with a mighty passion. The Texans in my ancestry are Aggie (Gig ‘em!) fans.
So it’s with bluebonnets waving in the breeze, and Lone Stars a-twinkle, that I say, Don’t do it, Texas. Don’t secede. The Union needs you.
Oh, repudiate Health Snare and Crap-n-Tax and all that. Go for it.
But no seceding. And raise your speed limit on I-40. It’s a disgrace. Drivers can go faster in Oklahoma and New Mexico than they can in Texas, and what’s up with that?
July 24th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I don’t want TX to secede, and no one has seriously suggested it, Perry’s stumping notwithstanding. Nevertheless, there is a strong “element” (Yes, Virginia, those are real scare quotes) that eggs on the talk of secession- but it’s stupid and, to use Ch. Ø’s formulation, “distracting.” Still, ChKr’s comment was funny.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Don’t sweat it, J.E. This is just TX’s reaction to what is rapidly becoming an untenable presidency. They will get their wits about them, and join the rest of us in doing what is necessary to wrest back the country we love. The tea parties were just the beginning.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Well, I live in Hyde Park, not far from the 0bama Compound, and down the street from Bernadette D and Billy A, and I can tell you, I got this thing about moving to Texas and having a pickup with a 30 – 30 in the gunrack and a sixshooter by my side.
So, Please, Texas, don’t secede till me and mine get there.
OK
I’m very afraid that Obama knows just what he’s doing: they can fix elections in all North Eastern and almost all Midwestern States. Never mind Washington, Oregon and California. They know how to vote the recently deceased, they know how to vote for the people who have moved away, they know how to round up the old ladies in nursing homes, they know how to fix the vote.
And, when it’s necessary, they know how to count the votes, too.
This is Prezzy 0′s and Nancy P’s Ace In The Hole.
They do not intend to leave.
At least we’ll still have Texas.
Ok: Wyoming and Utah too.
Utah?
What if somebody wants to stop all those S Security checks to all of those kids who got 60+ year old daddies?
July 24th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
And every commie pinko in the country was up in arms about GWB “stealing” elections. How do these people sleep at night?!
July 24th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
@4 Well look at it this way, if Ø gets his druthers on DC and Puerto Rico and manages to keep Texas in the Union, he can campaign in ’12 that he “saved or created 3 states” . It could be his singular accomplishment. Although I think Lincoln saved or created more states — depending on which way you count — I am sure Ø thinks of himself in that august company –and if he doesn’t already I am sure he will in a couple of years.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Um, I’m pretty sure it’s Santa Anna. I think Santa’ana is some overhyped guitar player.
July 25th, 2009 at 2:58 am