I'm tired of all the Texas slamming around here

I know that Texas has its faults, but so does every goddamn place I've ever visited or lived in. I know that Texas has sinned politically and given the world the chimp. But goddamn it, Texas is my home and I love it and I am tired of seeing Texans and Texas trashed here at DU for reasons that have nothing to do with politics. I'm homesick for it for reasons that you non-Texans will never understand. I crave the flat, dry, scrubby vistas where you can see thunderstorms rolling in from the west for hundreds of miles. Yeah, sometimes I even crave the provencial, unsophisticated attitudes that make me smile and realize how far I've come (and how far I have yet to go). There's something touching about an old man in dusty jeans and a cowboy hat holding the door open for you and politely saying, "Howdy, young lady" when you are 42 years old. It will always be my home, and at the moment, my home has been taken over by mental runts who are busy screwing around with their Fisher-Price My First State Government. I'm a little sensitive about it. Slam the politics of Texas all you want to, I'll even chip in, but please, could we leave out the generalizations and personal attacks on all Texans? I read some stuff here at DU over the weekend that really sickened me. I like to think that DUers can discuss a subject, even joke about it, without sinking to that level.

For the record, I'm currently living in Michigan, a blue state, and I love it here but, OH MY GOD, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, IT HAS FAULTS. Can you imagine that? Gee whiz, guess no place is perfect. I thought all of you non-Texans were supposed to be perfect and had everything all figured out, what the hell happened??

OK, I've said my piece, I'll lighten up now.

and couldn't care less what people say about Texas because when it's all said and done, there's no wheres else that really matters but Texas. Without Texas there would never have been a United States.

Without Texas there wouldn't be a United States?

Explain, please...

in which the Texas rebels defeated Santa Ana and achieved independence from Mexico is recognized in world history as the battle that opened up what is now the Western United States. Texas at one time ran all the way up to Colorado and included just about all of New Mexico.

but I think Massachusetts and Virginia(to name two)would take exception to the idea that "without Texas there never would have been a United States"

Man, Texas was part of the confederate states which tried to secede from the Union. A lot of the people there today (or back in '81, when I lived there) still resent folks from other states who find themselves in Tejas.

I know there are some nice folks from Texas, but that doesn't change history any.

just to leave again a few years later. While there were slave holders in Texas, slavery was by no means popular in early Texas.

That's the big reason they joined the Union. And then, once the check had cleared, they decided to change their minds?

... from bashing Texas.

Texas is a different kind of state. But, so is California (my home) and probably every other state. And that's what's great about America! We're all different, but we're all American.

So, sorry for the Texas bashing. (cause I know I've done my share.)

I hope not, it is a very great state to live in unless having an overwhelming republican population bothers you.

I've never seen Wyoming bashing here. Plenty of Cheney bashing but since I'm usually at the head of that parade, I don't complain. Where are you??? I'm in Laramie.

Maybe I know you, or maybe I don't.

I don't have enough posts to do so.

I just sent you a couple. Go to the lobby or latest and there should be a flashing "You've got a message." Click on it and you will find my name....... Ah, the suspense is killing me! Now we can have our own little DU party in Laramie.

And just think of it, we were brought together because of patsified's texas-bashing-weariness. Ain't those Texans always the uniters???? ;-)

.

If you don't get it, use the link below for Stand Up for Peace Wyoming! and use the "have a problem with this website?" link in the navigational boxes to send me an email. Or trying sending one through DU -- although I can't remember if I have that function turned on.

Or just keep posting enough until they'll let you send a PM. Will they not even let you receive mine????

.

I've never heard of WyomingDemocrat and they don't know me! But we've established email communications now. What fun!

briefly lived in Cheyenne, lived in Loveland, CO for 4 years, I visit my dad who lives there every now and then but I live in Mesa, Arizona. I still don't feel like I live close to where you two live in.

5 days a week to do my job at Colorado State. I work from 8 am to 4 pm, I usually work extra hours for extra pay.

last month and I remember my dad was traveling to Fort Collins work at Colorado State 5 days a week. I remember, but I think he framed windows or I am not real clear but he calls himself a "window man".

That is what me and my company's been doing this summer, we have been installing windows at buildings in Colorado State University. I know quite a few people from Loveland, Colorado also who work with my company. This has been a strange day, it's been less then two hours and I met someone who lives in my same home town and I met someone who possibly has a father who works with me.

As a general rule, no one holds grudges like Texans, nor fights to the death over piddly, meaningless minutiae like Texans. Uniters we ain't...! Ooops, there I go generalizing.

Still, I am glad that the Wyomingans Wyomingers Wyom... y'all made contact on my pissy, bitchy thread. Makes it all worthwhile!:-)

And it sounds as though WyomingDem has united with all kinds of people here. Very weird indeed.

Thanks for your "pissy, bitchy thread." I now have one more name for our Stand Up for Peace information list.

How much do you pay those guys to roll up the side walk?

I had been looking for an out for years when I met the woman who would be my wife online more than six years ago.

Beautiful state, ugly political climate.

I recall driving through Wyoming on my way to California. Drove on that interestate from Cheyenne past Laramie to overnight in Rock Springs.

Never forget that drive....across the Red Desert after dinner in Laramie. The sun seemed like it took a long time setting...and the mountains off the left. It seemed like it took forever to pass one of them by. And there was nothing around..no houses or farms...nothing. Just the interstate and the afterglow after the sunset over that desert......just a real lonesome feeling.

I was a volunteer minister for the Wyoming State Penintentiary. Drove I-80 from Cheyenne to Rawlins many times.

Did you know that most of the time you were driving through the Red Desert, you were on the great divide? The Red Desert Basin IS the Great Divide in that portion of the Rockies. It runs along the mountain tips and forms a line through the mountains, but splits to encompass the entirty of the Red Deser Basin.

Think of this, too. The Wyoming State Penintentiary has always been located in the middle of the desert. Very few breakouts occur and it's usually easy to catch those that do break out.

anyone who has to drive across that state who doesn't want to be there! It takes forever. I felt that way about Nebraska, I thought I'd never get across it, nothing but corn as far as the eye can see. But I bet someone here at DU gets a tear in his eye when he thinks of all the endless corn. It's just a matter of what you're used to.

I admit that I have to spend time thinking about the good things about my beloved state, because there are sooooooooooooooooooo many bad things right now, I'll be the first to admit it! I want to take my state back from the Cro-Mags!! Of course, saying "take it back" implies that it was ever under the control of anyone else, and I'm pretty certain that it never has been. Gulp. It's not an easy place for a progressive, it's a wonder that any of us emerge from that place as free thinkers. But dammit, I still love it.

would most certainly NOT be my favorite drive in the state. Although it does have a certain charm. The Red Desert, once you're off the highway, is a beautiful, beautiful place. And no doubt it was Elk Mountain that took forever to pass. Indeed it does.

When I first moved here, in 1977, it did feel lonesome. Now it feels peaceful. And when I'm in high population areas, I just want out. I can't stand all the hustle and bustle.

And the thing about being alone in Wyoming is that you know you're not in danger. People will help, if you need it. That's a good feeling. Otherwise, you have space to breath and broad gorgeous vistas and stars!!!!

I lived in Laramie Since 1987 and that is how I feel about it.

you have space to breath and broad gorgeous vistas and stars!!!!

I like it because of the open spaces, Probaly the biggest city I have been to is Denver and I liked the city but wouldn't like to live there.

of miles and miles.

One of my favorite things about Wyoming has to be the light. It doesn't matter how many times you drive a road in this state, it's likely to look different because the light is always changing.

I'm a speaker with the Humanities Council so I travel the state quite a bit and, nearly always, it's an absolute joy to do so. Except, of course, for the couple of times I've been trapped by blizzards.

Now, Nebraska..............

Just like General Washington's Wyoming riflemen who crossed the Teton to surprise the Hessians, and Colonel Chamberlain's Wyoming Volunteers who stormed Little Round Top to open the way to Mexico City, Wyoming still keeps us vililent and free today.

if you'll just take Dick Cheney back for good and quit letting him pretend he's from my favorite "tip-of-the-hat-to-you young lady" cowboy state, Wyoming.

He's from Hell.

I'd stake my life on it.

it'll make your life a lot easier.

that would entail ignoring most of DU...!

:wow:

;-)

Some of my best friends live in Texas. The chili in St. Louis is hotter, though.

Ive travelled across the Panhandle, through Amarillo, and was impressed at how flat and desolate it was....(although Amarallio itself was sort of suprising as it had some fairly tall skyscrapers downtown). I didnt like what I saw that much.

Then there was San Antonio, which is a real special place. I liked San Antonio...I could live there easy. Its sort of a strange place though as it looks like its on the edge of this vast flat plain that heads to Mexico, but the land starts rising up in the city...I guess to that 'hill country" I've heard of.

Then I spent some time in El Paso. Now that is a different place! With that big third world city of Juarez across the Rio Grande. I was impressed on how bilingual EL Paso was. Im wondering whether Texans consider El Paso really part of Texas as it seems to have more in commone w. New Mexico and Juarez and is so isoloated from the rest of the state.

that you can only really love (or appreciate or be homesick for) Texas if you were born there. My dh grew up in England and it absolutely baffles him that I love Texas so much, because for him it is just flat and ugly! I think that only a Texan can see beauty in such a place.

I'm not one of these "Woo-hoo Texas is Number One Yee-Haw" kind of Texans; it's simply my home and a place that's close to my heart, and I believe that most people feel that way about the place where they spent a golden time of their life, whether it was their childhood or college years, etc.

I certainly don't expect everyone to share my feelings about the dadburned place, but it kills me to see the generalizations that often border on hatred, especially here at DU. When people say they want it to get nuked, it really bothers me.

Also, I'm experiencing PMS, that may have something to do with this whole post, LOL!

because I was born and raised in Alabama. Sometimes I get so mad at my natvie state and native region that I could spit. But it was my home and I do have many good memories.

By the way, I'm from Minnesota, and have nothing against TEXANS!

...is that * calls himself a Texan.

Wasn't he born "back East" as he would say?

Texas has always prided itself for being "biggest".

This is the value set forth by texas - "bigger is better". There is no sense of balance, no sanity, no respect, just unbridled destructive greed.

The oil megas were happy to have the best football team money could buy in the 70, now they want to rule the entire planet and force us into their unquestioning Baptists slaves (actually any fundamentalism that forbids individual thought will do).

You defend Texas against these allegations and I'll listen, but these are my impressions of Texas from 33 years as an American.

Forthermore, go to the El Farole in Santa Fe and see if you can spot the Texas tourists; it's not hard - they're the ones who are falling down drunk and slamming into everyone else on the dance floor as if they don't exist.

than I can defend mankind against them. Texas did not invent greed, it has existed as long as human beings have been on the planet. And I'm still waiting to live in a place where there is balance, sanity, respect, and no greed. Where is this Utopia? And the religious fundies are everywhere in the world, not just in Texas. I'm sorry that this is all that you have seen of Texas, and yes, it's there, but it's everywhere, in every state, every nation. I know so many kind Texans, liberal Texans, progressive Texans, tree-hugging Texans, big-hearted Texans, and if I could do it, I'd introduce you to them to offset your bad experiences. I'd introduce you to my father, who built a lake at our family farm because he wanted to improve the area environmentally. What used to be a flat, treeless piece of land with NOTHING on it whatsoever is now alive with birds, fish, it's green wetlands in the middle of a desert! So many people who give a damn about the world, but they're buried behind the more brash types that knock you down on the dance floor. It's true everywhere. Any place you go, you'll see the caricatures, so you need to sometimes go off the beaten paths to find the real people. The longer I live, the more I realize that people are pretty much the same everywhere.

Anyway, I hope you can find those kind of Texans someday, they're well worth knowing!

It's in Texas, thank you very much! http://www.utopiatexas.com/

Sorry, Utopia's one of my favorite places in the Texas Hill Country. Every time I think about just pitching it all and leaving this place and it's godforsaken government, I remember springtime in the hill country...

That is FUNNY! And sadly, accurate. These imbeciles are driving me crazy.

Not to jack your thread, but I went to the TARAL home page today and looked up all the CRAP the repukes have dealt to abortion rights. As of January 1st, women will need to wait a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, after they're given misleading literature that tells them that there's a connection between abortions and breast cancer, among other things. When Dems tried to make amendments, including not requiring the waiting period in case of rape, incest, or physical harm to the woman, the Repukes just tabled them. :mad:

Texans are fine, it's the government that sucks.

Texas can be pretty bad if you have a uterus.

Especially if you are poor and/or live in a rural area.

Imagine having to drive hundreds of miles to a major city to get a legal medical procedure, only to be told that you have to wait 24hrs, honey, to think it over.

And if you are a minor, it's even worse.

Kinda amazing considering Roe v Wade started in Texas way back in the early 1970's.

Truth be told, I bet the Bushes don't even like Texas or Texans for that matter. Shrubya didn't do alot too better the state! In fact, he left us with a huge deficit! Imagine that!:eyes: I am not a native born Texan. I am married to a native Texan, whose family has been here for generations. They are life long Democrats and are fiercely proud of Texas, and despise Shrub more than one could possibly imagine! I have lived in this state for 11 yrs and although it will never take the place of California, my home state, I have grown to love it. We may have some crummy politicians.........but we have some great musicians! Willy, Stevie Ray Vaughn and ohhhhhhhh George Strait! And! ZZ Top! Not to mention, some really great Mexican food!

:shrug:

That's the closest I can come to "bashing" Texas.

A real Texan will say "a whole NOTHER country." But someone hijacked that saying and Yankeefied it for marketing purposes into "a whole OTHER country." 'Tain't right, I tells ya.

but it's easy to bash the state. It just is. Especially for a transplanted yankee who just doesn't quite get it. The people are fairly friendly, I'll give you that. Why do people here act as if Texas is it's own country? There's an arrogance to it I find offensive. Sorry - just how I feel.

have been around plenty of native Texans and have never experienced any who feel that Texas is it's own country. My husband's family have been here for generations and they don't act arrogant in regards to being native Texans. Sorry that you have experienced a negative aspect with regards to residing here.

I think that it's because of its size that Texans do frequently feel that there is no one else on the planet because that's simply how it feels, geographically. I'd say that it's true that Texans could definitely benefit from more travel. Too many of them go to Padre for their vacation.

It's probably easy to bash a place you're transplanted to that is so different from your homestate. When I came up here to Michigan, I found myself laughing at Michiganders for reasons which are very well known to any Michiganders who are reading this. Then I started to look beyond all of that and found that Michigan is a gorgeous state with 4 fantastic seasons and the people here are every bit as friendly and helpful as Texans are. (But the "ar" sound still grates on my ears.)

I hate to sound like Pollyanna, but I really believe that there is beauty and goodness to be found wherever you are. I hate typing those words, the cloying sugary Shirley Temple sweetness is dripping from my fingers, but so help me, it's true.

I met them yesterday and she kind of quietly mentioned she was from Texas..when I said "Oh don't worry, I don't bash Texas," she got the HUGEST smile on her face. Turns out they are RED BAITING LIBRULS...it was great!

WHERE IS TEXASLEO? :D

He is missed!

texas could make molly ivins empress for life & it wouldn't make up for president moron.

Lyndon Juhnson, William Buroughs, Katherine Ann Porter, Dr. DeBakey, O. Henry, Gatemouth Brown, Bob Wills, Howard Hughes, Lightnin Hopkins, Scott Joplin, Leadbelly, Larry McMurtry, Kinky Friedman, Willie Nelson, Leon Jarworski, Joan Crawford, Rosko, Walter Kronkite, Emma Tenayucca...

Y'all can kiss my ass

John Kenneth Gailbraith, Lou Dubose, Bruce Buchannan, Bob Eckhardt, Andrew Litton, Jake Bernstein, Jim Wright, Cliff Olofson ...

If not, you really need to send this one to her:

It will always be my home, and at the moment, my home has been taken over by mental runts who are busy screwing around with their Fisher-Price My First State Government.

Dial-up connection: $9.95 a month plus tax.
Reading quotes like the above on DU: Priceless.

Way to go patsi!

Me tell Molly what to write in a column? Heaven forfend! LOL

I do tend to go a little colorful when I'm banging on the keyboard at 100wpm with a full steam ahead PMS blowout and a pan of brownies waiting for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

After all...where is the fun in slamming any group of counties, or any plot of land that we refer to as a state? All who have followed the redistricting battle in Texas can only admire the courage and persistance of the state Democratic party for not caving in to the iron hand of Tom Delay. Despite the fact that shrub won Texas in 2000, Texas is one of the remaining states left in which Democrats control most of the Congressional seats.

Chet Edwards, Martin Frost, Gene Green, and Sheila Jackson Lee are all samples of the best leadership this state has to offer. Former Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower is another example of southern populism at its best.

After two Republican Governors and the lack of leadership in the statehouse, criticism of this state's environment disasters, lack of a standardized education system, and the dictatoral means of creating a one party system would naturally open any state to criticism. But this should rally all Texas Democrats to the important cause of winning back state government. Remember...don't mess with Texas!

and thousands upon thousands of decent Mexicans and Central Americans, the good Texan folk on the list, the liberals scattered around the state and concentrated in some of the towns. There are plenty of people who have never approved of the Bushes - for decades.

On the other hand, I'll let you in on a little tidbit - whoever invented the term 'the me generation' had certain Texans in mind.

I may have to give you that one.

One of my Michigan pals was relocated by his company to Texas. He was freaking out, had never been there before, didn't know what to expect, only knew about the caricatures and the chimp. Just two weeks later, he called to tell me that he'd found a pocket of liberal vegans such as himself in the Dallas area, along with some purty little gals who speak with drawls while they discuss environmental policy, and now that Yankee boy's as happy as a pig in slop. He had the option of coming back home to Michigan and he declined. Amazing.

We dang liberals are everywhere, you know that? We just need to shout as loud as the Repubs do, that's all.

I thought they just played polo and laughed about the hardship of others.

Liberal vegans...purty little gals, do you have some unresolved personal issues?

My friend was a liberal vegan and couldn't believe that he'd find such a group in Texas. And the fact that he found some attractive female companionship just made him even happier. Am not sure what you mean by my having unresolved personal issues, please clarify...?
:shrug:

I really don't see how such unrelated matters as astrology, female companionship, and politics would surprise or offend anyone. :eyes:

(and did so very badly) was that my northern pal had convinced himself that it would be nearly impossible to find anyone in Texas who was a liberal, much less a vegan. That's all.

You must be very highly educated. ;-)

"waiting for a pan of brownies," that does explain alot! I was born and raised in Louisiana and after graduating from college, I moved to Texas kicking and screaming (for graduate school). After living there for 10 years, we finally made a move to a state that had trees taller than us--ARKANSAS!! I guess I'm a glutton for conservative punishment...lol!

Seriously though, I know what you mean about the "feeling" you get when you go back to that childhood home. I have alot of history in Louisiana and even though I would not want to live there again, it is holds special memories. Texas was never home for me and when I got married --to a Texan--we had to make some serious decisions on where to raise our family. We both like nature and we needed to stay close to my elderly mother.

I think that the South has alot of great things going for it, so the bashing threads just show how much they have missed, especially, when it comes to all the great Southern cooking.

Where "dubya" is concerned, many know him for the liar he is...they just choose to ignore it. For goodness sakes, look who supported and encouraged him to run for President...Democrat, Bob Bullock! Go figure...

I had never been there until this summer... talk about preconceived notions being dashed to the ground. I'd be ashamed to tell you what my mental vision of Arkansas had been for all of these years. Well, one visit there made me see how wrong I was. It was such a beautiful state, the roads were ten times better than Michigan's roads, and the people I met were incredible. It taught me, yet again, that an open mind is always very necessary!

where it is all Bush* all the time---and God Bless Governor Perry and save us from those renegade Demoncrats"

I love Austin and San Antonio and El Paso. Dallas, Houston, and Corpus are OK.

You can keep Midland, Odessa, Brownsville, and Lubbock. If you can stand 'em.

Texas ain't the arm pit of the world but I'm not bending a knee to worship it either---and, since I pay taxes, vote, and live here. I guess that's my damn right.

As a Texan-all-my-life, but born in ND, it took many many years for me to come to love this place.

I like the smell of a bunch of mesquite trees on a humid summer night. Frogs in the southern parts, and lightening bugs in the eastern parts. Growing watermelons in the sandy soil of the northern parts, and the beautiful cactus in the western parts. I know lots of other places have these things as well, I just felt like mentioning the more humble reasons I like living here.

I also liked living in Cheyenne, Maine, Greece, Germany, as well as visiting every single state in the union. Some I can't remember, being a little baby, but I sure remember the whole western part of the country. There is more visual appeal to places with mountains, but for some reason I still love the rolling hills of central Texas. (hehe, we call 'em titty mountains).


I really do know why I love it here. My grandmother. She was solid, thru and thru Texan, and picked cotton, and told me stories of her childhood. I guess because of her sweat and toil, it made it mean more to me. That and most of my older kinfolk is buried here. The rest of us haven't left yet, so it must be something here that keeps us.

Isnt this the way with most people? If you are lucky enough to grow some roots, isnt it hard not to love to come back?

nobody slams just plots of land at DU...but those political idiots that seek to impose their way of life on any free and peace loving American citizen.

I know that Texas has sinned politically

We're not being overly harsh in not forgiving Texas for giving Bush a 21-point margin of victory in 2000. The fact is, Texans aren't sorry they did it. They'll do it again in 2004.

Sinners seek forgiveness for what they're ashamed of, not for what they're proud of. The overwhelming majority of Texans love George Bush and everything he stands for: militarism, secrecy in government, anti-environmentalism, the death penalty, hostility to civil liberties, etc. ...

This forum isn't about repentance; it's about politics, especially elections and voting. When regional apologists ask us to set aside our "biases" and look instead at the underlying "truth", most of us think the underlying truth is politics, not mesquite or sunsets or gallant old gentlemen who hold the door for you.

The fact that Texas voted 59-38 for George Bush makes it, in my opinion, an unattractive place. It's not as unattractive as Nebraska, which voted 62-33 for Bush.

on every political word you wrote.

But when people here at DU write long, colorful, hate-filled missives about how Texas should be nuked, how they hope that Osama strikes Texas, how all Texans are clueless lying idiots with big egos, wishing Sherman could come back and burn the state down, wishing Texas would leave the union, etc. etc. etc., yeah, I get a little pissed off. I prefer it when DUers keep the focus on the politics, not on destroying my home or making personal attacks. When I read stuff like that, it makes me think, my God, WE are the party that's supposed to be tolerant and progressive? The party that's supposed to make the world a better place? I like to think that Dems know how to debate better than Repubs, know how to talk politics better than Repubs, then DUers go and let me down when talk turns to Texas. The gloves come off and anything goes. I just don't like it.

I was born and raised in Texas. I left for California when I was married in 1975. I then moved back to Texas a year later but always felt like California was much more comfortable for me. In 1988, I came
back to California and have only been back to Texas three times (a funeral, a wedding, a graduation). There is an arrogance that I believe is in Texans. I grew up believing that Texas and Texans were better than anyplace/anyone else. One of the things I love about California is that there's such a live and let live attitude. People just do their own thing. I love it!! I get as defensive about California as people get about Texas. There are some really great people in Texas like there are all over the place. I don't even think it's most Texans fault that there is the arrogance. When one is raised from early childhood leaning about the Alamo, well, it just goes on and on.

The reason behind Bush's aggressive foreign policy is that his part of the country is essentially immune from terrorist attack. Crawford is three hundred miles from anyplace that would be worth blowing up. This is not the case with New York, which is an attractive target for terrorists. The funeral parlor in my neighborhood was busy for months after September 11th. New Yorkers want an intelligent foreign policy, not Texas-style strutting and braggadocio.

New York is a negotiating kind of place. We have all kinds of markets for all kinds of business, including the headquarters of the U.N. But Bush will have none of it. He denounces Arabs as "evil" and refuses to negotiate with them. To him, the lives of New Yorkers don't matter.

You dislike Texas-bashing but the term, as you use it, is figurative. New York bashing, which Bush's swaggering foreign policy encourages, is quite literal. We don't welcome it. To us, it's personal.

Not all of us in Texas are lobotomized chowderheads who have been playing at cowboy for the past 30 years of their lives like the Prez.

While I feel differently about your criticism than the author of this thread probably would, I do see how resorting to some of the more comfortable blanket stereotypes about Texas (cowboys, swaggering, braggadocio) can be infuriating to certain people.

Two things ruined Texas for those of us in the substantial minority here who do not like George Bush, and he personifies both of them: Evangelical Christianity and Carpetbaggers. The suburbs of our cities are now populated with wingnut Rapture-chasers from the North. It's these people who pushed the Republicans over the top in Texas, electing national embarassments like Tom DeLay, Phil Gramm, and George Bush to office.

Just because they live in Texas does not make them Texan. They are as foreign to those of us who are native Texans as George Bush is to true Texans. Yes, we have a lot of people in our state who drag the rest of us down to all the comfortable stereotypes the rest of the country has about us; but I think it is possible to dislike George Bush and the Evangelical Republican establishment he comes from without tarring the entire state of Texas at the same time.

The Golden State's hands aren't clean, either...

and I'll trash it anytime I f***ing feel like it.

Maybe if you would convince your fellow Texans to cool it with the "everything is bigger in Texas" attitude, the rest of the country would cut you some slack.


Two ranchers meet in a bar in Branson Missouri. One of them is from Texas and the other is from Florida*. They start buying each other drinks and before long, the Texan starts bragging about the size of his ranch.

He says, “My ranch is so big, I can get up before dawn and start driving across my ranch and not get to the other side before the sun goes down.”

The Floridian replies, “ you know, I used to have the same problem, but then I got the carburetor fixed on my pick-up.




*That’s right, we have ranchers in Florida. Florida is the number nine state in cattle production. We would probably be higher, but the Supreme Court stopped us before all the cows were counted.

...all the republican operatives came down from the northlands and moved into gated communities right around the chimpy/ann richards election.

the local courthouse was purged of democrats.

...who is just as heartsick as you are about the beastly and backward politicians (Bush, DeLay et al).

And there are many good Texans (musicians, authors, actors, and even some politicians!) who have made their mark on the national scene.

Given the sins of a few, however, it's hard not to grumble about the state of affairs in Texas. I'm busy cheering on Ivins and the Killer Ds at this point.

Perhaps you could start a Reclaim Texas project, advancing the progressive cause. Also, given demographic developments, Texas can't stay in its current state forever. Governor Goodhair's day will, and so will the infernal DeLay's, to say nothing of the Chimp at 1600 Pennsylvania.

I was born here and have lived here all of my 30 years, patsified; mostly in North Texas but also in South Texas and the Brazos Valley.

I've noticed the same things you've noticed on DU regarding Texas, but I have to say it doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother you. People all talk out of their asses sooner or later, and I just chalk up this Texas bashing that's been going on as people who just don't know any better but don't really mean anything personal by their ignorance.

I like the Fischer-Price image!

Way better than the shithole called Missouri where I grew up. Been in Dallas 5 years now. (Dallas is a little different than the rest of the state as most people here all seem to have come from somewhere else.)

My theory is the only good states to live in are on the border of the United States. North/South/East/West
Think about it...

He was born in Hubbard (home of baseball great Tris Speaker), and later moved to El Paso. I too like the arid country, and unlike most folks, I find the drive through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas very stimulating spiritually.

My dealings with Texans have been nothing but warm and positive. They are a terrific, independent-minded people.

Nobody's perfect -- at the moment, Texans have put some bad apples in charge, but don't be surprised if those rotters are shown the door one day real soon.