Last Wednesday, Governor Rick Perry told a group of teabag-wielding Texans that the state might secede from the Union again. This won him cheers from the crowd — unsurprising, since Mr. Perry is a former Aggie cheerleader. Now that we think about it, that appears to be his major qualification for public office.
Texas seceded from Mexico (John Wayne was in the movie) and from the United States of America a few years later, an arrangement that didn’t work out so well. Grumblings about sedition are a bit excessive, but Mr. Perry’s talk about a third Texas secession sure makes Texans sound like a stubborn bunch of quitters. Nice work, Governor.
Mr. Perry’s thoughtless secession remarks won him the gratitude of the disgruntled – and TV comedians — but they may lose him a few” Juneteenth” invitations. The Texas Juneteenth holiday commemorates the events of June 19, 1865, when U.S. General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to enforce the emancipation of the state’s slaves. Not every Texan family has fond memories of the Lone Star State’s last secession.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Tags: Republicans, Rick Perry, Texas
April 18, 2009 at 2:23 am
Well, I’m sure glad we seceded TX before they quit the country! Will you let us get my husband’s family out first before the, well the Coast Guard won’t work, neither will the Seals. We’ll have to deal with infantry divisions and they’re all overseas, sir.
He does look pretty enough to be an Aggie cheerleader, but I know you and your gal love dogs and Aggies put out great vets, not to mention physicists. I just chose an Aggie vet here in Utah and Zoe is fine, thanks.
Please allow me to state that while I do have a TX voter card I did not ever vote for this particular governor. Your cooking pal, Dee
[Ed. note: Dee is a recent Texas`refugee now living in Utah.]
April 18, 2009 at 2:44 pm
As I recall, when TX entered the Union [enter Right to Work joke here…] the agreement allowed a possible renegotiation that subsequently could split the Big Unit into as many as 5 separate states. This was subject to some sort of Congressional agreement.
Maybe the Congress would allow a partitioning of the Lone Star State, and just one or two of the new statelings could secede. I think West Texas might like to remain in the Union, or maybe join up with NM. After all, the NM border is a bit disputed…
April 18, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Good article! Maybe you’ll pick up a few readers from your comment on Contextual Criticism…
Regards!
April 18, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Complements on a fine offering, Mike Licht. And I particularly enjoyed the comment on Juneteenth, when Texans were finally forced to tell their slaves that they’d been emancipated weeks earlier (well, years to be exact).
It’s a little early for Perry to start taking on Kay Bailey Hutchinson directly, but apparently this doesn’t include a little practice for his rodeo clown act. As an outsider, I’m looking forward to hearing what Kinky Friedman has to say about all of this.
April 18, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Texas can’t afford secession.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/doc_magnus/2009/04/secession-just-not-in-the-budg.php#comments
April 19, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Good article, GREAT title! (I wish I would have thought of it)
Thanks for the comment Mike.
http://commonsenserepublic.com/2009/04/19/extreme-common-sense-loss-gov-rick-perry-and-secession-talk/
April 19, 2009 at 2:46 pm
HL: Here’s a 1921 article and another from 1930 about subdividing Texas. I recall a Texas Monthly cover story on this topic on the 70s or 80s. A 5-foe-1 Texas split would mean 8 more Texans in the U.S. Senate, which wouldn’t be so frightening if two of them were Jim Hightower and Kinky Friedman.
April 19, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Nice. Very nice.
I see T-shirts in your future!
April 25, 2009 at 11:39 pm
[…] 4. https://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/if-at-first-you-dont-secede/ […]
April 28, 2009 at 3:02 am
You might be careful with the whole stubborn quitters talk. Have you read the stats of how many guns (and what types) we own in this state? :)
Perry is a camera hawg searching for the next byte that will get him on the “news”.
Hope you don’t mind me sharing the shot of Rick Perry flashing the peace sign: http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/2009/04/rick-perry-flashing-peace-sign.html
We went to a gun show shortly after the election to try to find some cool tomahawks and were shocked. The only thing I could compare it to is a mall at Christmas time in the 80’s. The entire convention center parking lot was packed, there were cars parked up and down the side of the road for over a mile, police directing traffic and a line around the building to get in.
We went in out of curiosity. They held my camera at the counter and let me enter. I called a friend who is a gun collector to let him know what I was seeing. He said, “While you’re there, would you pick up a couple of 30 round clips for me?”
“Sure, I guess.” I said.
Didn’t happen. I went to the counter, asked for the clips and the lovely young lady said, “Sure, it will be about 3 1/2 hours.”
I asked if everyone was waiting for clips. She said that was all they sold there. I went home.
August 14, 2011 at 12:07 pm
[…] meat-eatin,’ gun-totin,’ Texas secessionist candidate Rick Perry wasn’t officially in since he threw his Stetson in the ring too late, […]