Texas is not conservative and never has been. There are conservative elements and areas and pressures but if you run through Texas’ history there is damn little of Obama’s agenda that has not been mainline Texas dogma. From the radical Farmer’s Alliance to the Democrat/Populists to the Depression Democrats the instincts are distinctly mainline Democrat. One thing Franzie got right when he was here was the observation that Texas is full of LBJ Republicans. They ain’t got no truck with a community organizer from Chicago but they like their government active and in the foreground. When the country elects a Johnson or a Bush or a Bush Jr. and then wonders how they could be so liberal coming from Texas and all, they have misjudged Texas. That is exactly what Texas is.
When I was a kid I was working on a crew in Texas. I found a copy of A Texan Looks at Lyndon in an old cupboard and I tossed it in the truck to read on our downtime. The boss happened to see it on the seat and had a fit. He wanted to know if anyone else could have seen it and warned me that they would break my legs if anyone caught me with it. That’s how Democrat they were.
Texas populism embraced a broad spectrum of sometimes conflicting ideas: Rent control on agricultural land, government ownership of banks and communications and railroads, a “special” force of cronys and supporters operating under color of law and unanswerable to anyone but the Governor, controlled production of oil are all examples of Texas “conservatism”. The Texas Railroad Commission (whose scope extended far beyond hot oil and freight rates) had an anti-business bias that would make the Greenies jealous. They were about as far left as you could get without falling off. Texas was one of the first states to ratify the 16th. It wasn’t that they were Progressives, they just figgered you couldn’t tax what you didn’t have none of. Texas had two saving graces. The first was that it is so damned big that it had to be governed much like a country. A lot of “tax the big boy” legislation was DOA because there just wasn’t enough money to go around. The second was that enough oilmen got rich enough fast enough to buy the legislature. They woulda taxed them if they coulda. There are and have been some great conservatives in Texas (Gramm and Hersarling come immediately to mind) but they are the exception and not the rule.
Most Texas politics are clear as mud. You just have to cock your head sideways and watch for a while and then try to sort it out. Like in 1952 when the Democrat nominee for governor, Allan Shivers delivered an ass-whoopin’ to the Republican nominee for governor, Allan Shivers. It just don’t make no sense a’tall ‘cept in Texas. Then you have characters like Ma and Pa Ferguson and Pappy O’Daniel; call ‘em a conservative and they’d likely slap you around, call ‘em a liberal and they’d likely slap you around, call ‘em a jackass and they’d think about it. Texas makes my haid hurt.
And they think the rest of the world is screwed up.
The economics are quasi-socialist but the social structure is rigid and moralistic and authoritarian.
West Texas is a peculiar place. From the top of the panhandle, down across the llano and into the Permian there’s a flint edged conservatism that doesn’t tolerate a lot of diversity of any kind. It’s not Republican, it’s more of a frontier independence and a crusty absolutism. They don’t trust the government but they cash the checks and they better not be late. From the old XIT counties down along the New Mexico line there’s ranchers and oilmen and just plain eccentrics who couldn’t live anywheres else. As tough as they are, they’re a good humored bunch and I’d rather talk poly-ticks here than about anywhere. Most went Reagan by 70% and McCain by 90. There’s nothing quite like it, the closest I have seen is in northern Nevada.
It’s a hard and dangerous country and always has been. The Spanish and even the Injuns avoided it. You could die of thirst out there if you didn’t know where the watering holes were. The Comanches ended up there because all the other Injuns kicked their asses out of the more desirable real estate. The horse finally changed their status from bug eaters to feared warriors. There’s been a time or two when I’ve been caught in that parched wilderness with nothing to drink. I remember one time when things was getting mighty thirsty and the buzzards would have got us fer shur except that we happened across an old Injun who showed us that you could squeeze water out of a faucet. It was such a turrible ordeal that we had to drink water just to survive. It was rough but it kept us alive until we got back to civilization in a “wet” county.
Texas dry counties.
Once I got stopped for drag racing or some such in a grain truck. In the old days the law said that you couldn’t drive barefoot or with Jesus boots (sandals). That was understandable as much of the equipment we used was from the ‘40s and ‘50s or even the ‘30s. Kickback could break your ankle and you near had to stand on the brakes and drag a stick out the winder to stop.
I had a big gash in my foot from some sort of foolishness on the equipment and I had wrapped it and put my boot on over it but left the boot unlaced. This confounded the Junior Texas Ranger to no small degree. That just weren’t done. There must have been a nest of ‘em somewheres because he radioed for hep and they began arriving. I was sitting on the running board and as each patrol car pulled up the driver would get out come over and look at my foot. Yep, boot unlaced. They would then take a long look at my mug like they were trying to remember if they’d seen it in a poster somewhere and then they’d walk over and join the conference. After about an hour and six or seven patrol cars they finally decided that “boot unlaced” probably meant “barefoot” but they were going to do me a really big favor and let me go just this oncet. Any more infractions of civil society and it was the Big House for me.
Another time I was in a greasy spoon for breakfast. It was the usual early morning crew of ranchers, farmhands, oilfield roughnecks and a county cop or two. The banter was subdued and light. One of the boys jokingly said something that got one of the coppers in a dither. There was instant tension and absolute quiet while the cop stared down the offender. Just like the dumbass I am, I tried to crack a joke to break the tension. The cop instantly swung his attention to me and I was in a heap o’ trouble. The look he gave me let me know exactly how he felt. He would have shooted me and throwed the carcass to the coyotes if there weren’t so many witnesses and he was thinking about doing it anyway. The kick that I got under the table from the boss left a three inch dent in my shin. I shut my mouf. Biscuits and gravy finally got the best of the mountie and he went back to stuffing his gizzard.
When I limped outside, the boss caught up with me and warned me never to get on the wrong side of a Texas cop. “You aren’t in Kansas any more Toto, Here we grovel. I don’t want to spend the next six hours standing in the bar ditch while they write me tickets.”
When they say that you hain’t otter do something, it means that you hain’t otter do it.
I’m throwing these out there to illustrate just how authoritarian Texas is. From the last fencepost in Texas, north to the Canadian border, neither of these incidents would have happened. If it did there would have been a call to the governor’s office and a cop with a chewed-on butt. Up north we could go for weeks or months and never even see a cop. In Texas they were everywhere looking for the smallest infraction. The venerated Texan standing against the government is wash of the hog. You do it the Texas way or not at all. Everything revolves around government. Even Oklahoma ain’t that backerd.
When I heard that Perry was from West Texas it really piqued my interest. When I found out that he was from Paint Creek in Haskell County, well, that ain’t good.
This is Haskell County and these are the results of the 1976 presidential. Haskell went for Carter by 75%. That is not in the least surprising. In 1964 Haskell County voted Johnson with 85%, one of the highest in Texas. From the base of the panhandle south and east this is solid Democrat country with a decided flavor of the Old South; cotton country from the time cotton growers fled the weevil along the coast. If LBJ were to come back tomorrow I have no doubt that he would get the same 85%. The depression and dust bowl hit the region hard and set the Democrat ballot in stone. If you had to compare it to anything it would be Little Dixie up in Oklahoma. These aren’t LBJ Republicans, they are LBJ Democrats. They are nice people but you best watch what you say. They shoot skunks and Republicans.
Remember Ed Hale, the West Texas rancher who was very vocal in his support of Hillary Clinton and arranged well publicized cyber meetings in opposition to Obama? He was from Wellington in Collingsworth County.
In these parts politics are handed down grandfather to father to son. It is deeply embedded in the culture. You can’t grow up in that and not have it affect you. It sets your political instincts. They’ve shifted voting patterns but they haven’t changed their basic ideology. They don’t vote Democrat as much but they are reluctant Republicans.
If you start right after breakfast and drive due north you can have lunch at the Cattleman’s Café in Sublette, Haskell County, Kansas (Oklahoma has one, too. Pioneers weren’t original thinkers). Drive down to the courthouse either place and you won’t see much difference. Blue jeans and overhauls, pretty grey-haired ladies in the latest Wal-mart fashion, but there’s much more than the Oklahoma panhandle that separates them. The politics are polar opposites. Up nawth they don’t need therapy to vote. There was a Democrat here once but he lit out when he got out of jail and they haven’t seen him since. Both counties are turning brown at about the same rate as the old folks head for the pearlys and the youngsters head for Wichita or Abilene.
Both are ag counties and both depend on God and the Ogalala for prosperity. God seems to favor the Kansans because income is far higher there. There is much more food stamp usage (3X) and general welfare reliance in Texas because more folks are po’. There is government everywhere, hepin’ folks, learnin’ ‘em how to farm, to eat, to get on another government program. Population is climbing in the northern Haskell and declining in the southern one. At current rates Texas will have to fold it up and move it to a better location in forty years. Haskell County, Kansas is as conservative and Republican as you can get. Haskell County, Texas ain’t either one.
This is what I’m working on. Federal agricultural subsidies have stabilized production and brought a degree of prosperity to the central states for half a century. They are going to end. We are trying to move out ahead of the storm and garner whatever support we can and to get these areas to prepare. It’s surprising, on the northern plains the farmers are receptive. Actually receptive is the wrong word, they are resigned to it. They know it is going to end. They piss and moan a bit and they’ll drag it out as long as possible but they are ready. In Texas it’s a different story. If Gawd dint want them to have the subsidy checks he wouldn’t have put them in the envelopes and mailed them.
They have a point. I’ve seen a dozen or more models of what will happen without subsidies and this is the area that gets hurt the most. It will devastate the area. Here, there are just no options. We may just have to give it back to the Injuns.
Most of Texas went with Reagan in 1980 but it wasn’t a slam-dunk. Texas was critical for Reagan and he focused on it. It took a lot of effort and a vice-presidential nomination to seal the deal but he did it. Haskell County and its surrounds liked Carter better.
In 1984 there were still some holdouts for Mondale, as Northern and as liberal as you could get.
In 1988 Dukakis made a strong showing against H. W. , a Texan. Dukakis fer God’s sake. He weren’t no conservative Southern Democrat
Perot and Clinton
Dole vs. Clinton.
What does an ambitious young feller from Paint Creek do? He grows up Democrat. He lives Democrat. He votes Democrat. He runs for office as a Democrat. He supports Democrats for national office. He is a Democrat. I wouldn’t be the least surprised if he had a “D” branded on his rump. Can a farm kid from Paint Creek go off to Austin and become a born again Republican? I suppose it might could be. More likely opportunity presents itself and he gets a shiny new coat of Republican paint. That don’t make him a Republican.
The current prosperity in Texas was a long time in the making. It was Mark White, a Democrat who was Governor when oil crashed in the mid-80s, who started the ball rolling. One of his protégés was a jug eared lunar-tick named Ross Perot who convinced him that there was more to the world than oil and cotton and cows. Bill Clements, a vastly underrated governor, picked the theme up and ran with it. He imported some Yankees who set about making UT a tech powerhouse and teaching the Aggies how to count past fingers and toes.
Right now Texas is riding the oil boom. Ag is strong but hurting from the drought and tech is sputtering along. We’ve seen it before in other states, the growth in Texas is in growth. At least tech is there, something they didn’t have before. Texas is limping, just like every other state, but they should lead in coming out of this mess. All of the elements are in place.
Perry didn’t create the economic model that keeps Texas afloat but he did nothing to derail it, either. The hard work was done a long time ago by some super sharp business people and professors and banks and civic leaders. There are a bunch of states studying what Texas did and how they did it. Many of the people responsible have passed on and most are retired but there are some really interesting stories on how a few hundred people can affect the destiny of a state. Low taxes are a necessity but they are not the end all and be all.
There are several possible candidates that we would prefer, they just ain’t likely. Sarah Palin would be tall cotton for us. Jim DeMint isn’t an exact match but he’s close enough that we can mash him in with a hambler. A President Perry would not be the worst thing to happen to the Republic but we are going into this with eyes wide open. In the first place, Perry would dance with those what brung him. Regardless of who gets swept out in front by the tsunami their options have been limited. The big question is whether he reverts to boyhood values or whether he understands the economic forces at work and lets them run their course, even if it destroys those boyhood values. Independence and a willingness to relax the federal grip are of more importance than any other posturing. So far we like what we see from him. Time will tell if it is just happy talk or not.
We want to do two things. We want to break the western states out as a regional power and we want to wean the red states off the federal tit. When he used the phrase “have states compete” our ears perked up. That is our language, straight out of our literature. Of course he, or someone near him, could have purloined it or figgered it out on their own. What was obscure is now becoming obvious.
May God Bless.
MM
