Why is it the Texans I've run into are *so* proud of, and *so* quick to take offense about it?
Well, it takes all types to make a culture, and there are certainly a few Texans who would let your good-natured ribbing slide. Here's my take on why most wouldn't...
Texas and her people have a uniqueness unlike that of most other US states today. Remember, that for a short time in its history, it was its own country. The people who put this state on the map fought their own war of independence against Mexico. They were a hardened lot, because it's a hard land. Something about the geography and the history of these people made them fiercely proud of their heritage and each other. An attitude of beating the odds, and overcoming adversity prevailed. In time, the people of Texas thrived, and made it their business to be the best at everything they did. They became quite successful in a multitude of different endeavors, and that success strengthened an already extant abundance of state pride.
It's only in recent times that other Americans have come to see the Texas stereotype as a fable or a myth. Not long ago in our history, that stereotype was very real. It still is in many ways.
I've learned a great deal about this place in the six years I've been here. One of the very first things I noticed after moving here, is that Texas actually has it's own distinct culture, separate from the rest of the US. I've never experienced that in any other state. At least not to the degree that I've experienced it here. I'm not even saying that other states don't have their own unique cultures, but I sense that they've allowed themselves to be overtaken and diluted by the influences of new arrivals. Certainly, that's happening here as well, but not nearly to the degree that it's happened elsewhere. Texans just seem to be resistant to the concept of 'melting' into the great undifferentiated mass that is modern America.
I saw an interesting statistic about two years after moving here. In a nutshell, Texans are the 'stickiest' of all Americans - that is, a greater percentage of native Texans either never leave Texas, or return home after living elsewhere in the US, than residents of any other US state.
That's a very telling indicator about this place. From all that I've seen and absorbed in my time here, I think Texans have every right to be as proud as they are.
Understood about the hardscrabble pride in one's accomplishments; and, scriptural injunctions about pride notwithstanding, I see how a hard-bitten confidence from having survived can stick with you.
What I see is the transferrence of that confidence to a sectarian *arrogance* -- in the words of a character in a Dorothy Sayers novel, "a self-confidence so supreme that it will not even trouble to justify itself" : only not on an individual basis, but applied to everyone from the state.
It is this attitude which I seem to be picking up from some of the Perry supporters.
(Thanks for a prompt and thorough and non-flaming reply to such an apparently touchy subject. I am answered.)
Cheers!