“Majority”

Yes, this is a political post. I don’t do many of them, but certain things warrant attention.

Today it’s the Lone Star State. Shocking, I know. As some may have heard, the "State of Texas" is petitioning to be allowed to secede from the Union. I use the quotation marks to indicate that the petition by no means represents the feeling of the actual state of Texas.

See, everyone seems shocked and amazed that the petition has accumulated more than 112,000 signatures. Congratulations! Less than half a percent of the state’s population believes that Texas should secede and form its own federal government. And it’s not like people don’t know about the petition, since it’s been making national news since it started. So even with media attention, you can’t even must up a whole one percent of the people who think it’s a good idea? Sounds like a rock solid proposal to me.

A friend of mine posted about this on Facebook the other day and my response was that they’re acting like eight-year-olds threatening to run away from home because Mommy and Daddy are mean. Well, the typical response from a parent is to help the kids pack their bags and let them go for a little while, secure in knowing that they won’t go farther than their tree house out back and will be home once they want dinner. Obviously, the logistics of helping Texas pack her bags and showing her what she’ll miss out on by herself makes that experiment impractical. Another of his friends posted that since Texas is one of the few states that contributes more to the federal government than it takes, it’s entirely feasible that they could sustain an independent economy.

I think this view is remarkably blinkered. It doesn’t take into account the sheer federal presence within the state and what that contributes to the economy. There are over 350,000 federal employees in Texas, including retirees (still drawing a government pension). Immediately take out ALL of them. The military personnel will all withdraw and take their families with them. There are 15 major bases in Texas. And they employ members of the local community in addition to military members. So bye-bye to them. I’m not too sure what would happen with National Guard members, since they take an oath to both the United States and their particular state. They may be given a choice. Who knows? So let’s leave them out of it for now. Well, on top of all the military members, you can say goodbye to all federal employees. I’m not saying they’d necessarily leave, but their jobs certainly would. So would all those nice pensions provided by the federal government. And a lot of the students would leave as well. Many students participate in federal loan programs, so you can bid those goodbye as well. And just because your state gives more to the federal government than they take, doesn’t mean they don’t take anything.

So please, take all of the federal money and personnel out of towns like Killeen. Out of the top 10 employers in the town, Ft. Hood and the Ft. Hood Exchange account for almost 60,000 employees (and that’s NOT military personnel). The rest of the top ten account for just over 13,000.

What was that about Texas not needing the federal government? Yeah, maybe they would make it on their own, but I promise you that no one has thought it through. Towns like Killeen would become ghost towns. And for all their wealth of resources, they would still need to develop trade relations on their own. No more federal subsidies of agriculture either.

So stop being morons, petitioners. If you don’t want to live in this country anymore, why don’t you leave? Aren’t these the same people who are constantly telling liberals to pack their bags?

~Liz