Texit gets more provocation all the time

The Texas Nationalist Movement keeps pushing Texas independence, or Texit. Their leader, Dan Miller, has offered himself as a Republican primary candidate for Lieutenant Governor. His movement has a paper petition to place the Texit question on the Republican and Democratic primary ballots. All these things are taking place amid a welter of publicity. One would expect, therefore, that a prudent federal government would seek to address the grievances Texas has against it. Wrong! The federal government not only takes no notice of Texit fever, but continues to “mess with Texas” in all the ways Texans resent most bitterly. Do they want Texas to secede? Or do they really think they can beat Texit through intimidation alone?

Current state of Texit

As regular readers will recall, the Texas Independence Referendum Act, or Texit Bill, died for lack of a hearing. But since then:

• Representative Chris Paddie (R-Marshall, Texas) returned home to his county of Harrison. Its Republican Committee slapped him with a vote of censure. So he decided not to seek re-election. TNM accuses Paddie of “chubbing” the Texit Bill by refusing to schedule a hearing on it.
• Dan Miller, head of the TNM, announced that he would run for Lieutenant Governor in the Republican primary. He made the official announcement on Thursday of last week (21 October).

• The Texas Legislature passed the Texas Heartbeat Act. Abortion activists, and the Biden administration, have tried to stop it in the federal courts. The Supreme Court has refused any emergency injunctions. They now have scheduled expedited argument on whether or not:

1. A State may devolve enforcement of a controversial statute upon private citizens bringing civil actions, and
2. Any federal court may enjoin a State court, or any officer of that court, from accepting or prosecuting such lawsuits.

• Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) asked specifically for a federal declaration of emergency regarding all those illegal aliens who camped out under a bridge on the Texas border. The federal government refused.
• Governor Abbott is deploying the Texas Rangers, Texas State troopers (Department of Public Safety), and the Texas National Guard to face the “mother of caravans” now making its way through Mexico, toward the Rio Grande.

No vax mandates in Texas

In addition, Gov. Abbott has forbidden “any entity” operating in Texas to mandate any vaccine against COVID-19. Recall that CNAV already said Gov. Abbott would have a serious decision to make in that context.

The governor also said that he would hire any federal Border Patrol agent who lost his job by reason of any allegation of “mistreatment” of illegal aliens.

Interestingly, Gov. Abbott made a “recess appointment” to the post of Secretary of State. The appointee: John Scott, who represented President Trump in his lawsuit challenging the 2020 result in Pennsylvania. (Ruth Hughs, the former interim Secretary of State, resigned after she failed of confirmation in the Texas Senate.)

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bill to send illegal aliens to thirteen “Democrat-led communities.” He did this after Biden’s press secretary had to acknowledge that the federal government was flying under age migrants into New York on “red-eye” flights.

Governor Abbott also signed a new law forbidding transsexuals to compete in women’s sports in Texas public schools.

Effect of Texas public policy actions

Governor Abbott does not strike CNAV as sincere. Which is why retired Lt. Col. Allen West will challenge him in the primary, even as Dan Miller challenges Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. But clearly Governor Abbott is trying to protect his job.

But this protection is bringing many positive results. The Mommy Underground blog reports that the Texas Heartbeat Act is already having an effect. A clinic of Houston Planned Parenthood reports turning away seventy percent of the women who came to the clinic for abortions. (Separately, two different plaintiffs are suing Dr. Alan Braid after he brazenly performed an abortion without checking for a heartbeat. But CNAV has already concluded that both those plaintiffs were merely trolling the system.

Apart from that, the anti-vax-mandate order, and the new law protecting women’s sports, all make Texas more attractive. Texas and Florida today lead in an unofficial competition as Flee-to States. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), for his part, has offered a five-thousand-dollar signing bonus to any law-enforcement officer who, after losing his job to a vax mandate, relocates to Florida. CNAV also has a source, who prefers to remain anonymous, saying that medical specialists are relocating to Texas rural areas. The source, a resident of New Mexico, can regularly see a rheumatologist for the evaluation and management of vaccine injuries.

But more to the point: Texas must now defend its own border with Mexico. And they must do it without federal support. That kind of thing prepares Texas for Texit.

Texit – a second try?

The Texas Nationalist Movement definitely wants to try again for Texit. In the legislative year just passed, they came as close as they have ever come to secession. Now the primary campaign starts in earnest. The petition drive to put Texit to a vote would not have any official force or effect. But just having the question on the ballot will draw secession-minded voters to the polls.

The TNM will not reveal – anywhere – how many signatures they have on their petitions. (That’s petitions, plural, because the Republican and Democratic primaries are separate ballots.) Possibly the TNM can’t keep track of it, because they are not running an on-line petition. Signers must put sign a paper petition at any of several petition drives the TNM hosts from time to time. The law gives them until December 13 to collect the number of signatures they need. TNM set a goal to collect 80,000 signatures by 1 December. They want time to vet the signatures before turning them over to the Secretary of State. And they want to make sure that enough signatures will survive the vetting process.

Already the Governor and Lieutenant Governor face primary challengers, all of whom at least would want a Texit Bill on the ballot next year. Allen West would be reluctant to secede. But if a Texit vote were yes, he would have the best qualification to fight a certain Second Texas War for Independence.

The Attorney General race

Ken Paxton, the Attorney General, faces three primary challengers:

• George Prescott Bush, son of Jeb Bush and current Texas Land Commissioner,
• Eva Guzman, former Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, and
• Rep. Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth).

All three will no doubt present their conservative credentials and play on Ken Paxton’s one weakness. He is under indictment over a 2015 securities fraud allegation, and faces an FBI investigation for alleged self-dealing in office. Paxton denies all wrongdoing and insists that the indictment and investigation are political. The FBI has demonstrably compromised itself lately, so CNAV will reserve judgment on the allegations. CNAV will also reserve judgment on which among the four would be the strongest advocate for Texit or for Texans.

State of Texas defenses

Texas is now effectively defending a large segment of the United States border after the federal government has stood down. No one has yet accused Texas of “engaging in war,” which would apply only if any Texas military or LEO forces crossed into Mexico. The U.S. Constitution reads in relevant part:

No State shall, without the consent of the Congress,…engage in war, unless actually invaded…

CNAV sees little room for doubt that an invasion force is on its way to Texas. This enemy might not come in a uniform, or with the sanction of any recognized foreign power. But the “mother of caravans” still qualifies as an invasion, nonetheless.

More than that, Texas is acquiring a new cadre of health professionals who do not agree with how federal health authorities have been handling the coming of SARS-CoV-2 to American territory. Furthermore, Texas has its own automotive industry, which will take the form of the largest electric-vehicle factory in the world. Texas has always had its own aircraft industry and now has its own space program.

All these things either contribute to Texit fever or make Texit actually sustainable, in ways no nay-sayer would have predicted. The refusal of the federal government to reimburse Texas for handling the illegal immigrant crossings will go down in history as the worst statesman’s blunder of which the Biden administration was capable. If Texit needed any further provocation, it just got it.

For further reading …

See the Texit List.