Recently, the fairly Austentatious* periodical Texas Monthly did a piece on Texas Independence, and of all the left-of-center press that’s ever covered the topic in my memory, I must say that Texas Monthly almost seemed ready about the prospect of, if not a Republic of Texas, then at least the open discussion of it.
Why do I say this? Because for the first time that I can remember in which any big Texas paper addressed the issue, the Monthly actually cited the fact that independence may actually be legal, or at least not illegal. In contrast to dozens of articles over the years from the Houston Chronicle and Austin American-Statesmen, wherein the mere idea of independence is met with open jeers and ridicule, this article was nothing less than a breath of fresh air.
My sense is that we’re making real progress with centrists who are becoming just as disillusioned the efficacy of Washington, D.C. Whether you are on the right or on the left…whether you love Trump or hate Trump…if you’re honest you have to admit that our elected representatives have accomplished nothing that they said they would this year, or any year in some of our lifetimes. Even if you are a die-hard Trumpster, it should be clear one year in that the notion of one man fixing anything in that town is pretty much laughable. Sure we’ll get some good executive actions and some limited rollbacks of regulations, but herding cats would be easier than persuading a few hundred soulless creatures to agree to limit government to constitutional limits.
Where’s the wall? Has amnesty been put on hold? Where’s the repeal of Obamacare? Is the Iran deal still in place? Have taxpayer-funded abortions stopped? Has the military stopped persecuting chaplains who practice their religious faith? Has the NSA stopped recording our phone calls, emails, and monitoring our correspondence? Has the TSA stopped groping our daughters? Has federal spending been rolled back, even slightly? Have the foreign wars stopped, or are we on the precipice of new ones? Is Hillary in jail? Is Bergdahl in jail? Is Manning in jail? Is Lois Lerner in jail?
If we define efficacy as actually accomplishing stated goals rather than “God we love how he gives those Democrats hell!” then I ask you…how effective has Donald Trump been so far? And beyond that, how many election cycles do we have to go through, with all the hand-wringing and hopes and dreams only to realize years in that really nothing is much different than the way that it was…
And do we all want to keep going on, putting all our hopes in one man to single-handedly dismantle the enormous bureaucracy? Or…would it not be better to put our faith in ourselves to make a difference in a smaller, more decentralized government here at home…in our own country? Having involved myself in local and state politics in the past, I will say unequivocally that you can totally make a difference here in Texas at home, or in Austin. Try to do the same in Washington.
We’ll wait.