HarryTheSpider

It seems some Texans are really very keen to secede from the Union.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/us...s.html?hp&_r=0

Comedy & snide remarks aside...

I wonder if there is a deeper question here... That part of the great social experiment that is the USA, needs somewhere for those seriously unhappy with modern-day USA can go and try their own experiment?

Are we seeing the surfacing of long-standing strains in the US, similar perhaps to those we've seen for a long time in the EU, exacerbated some might argue, since the Eastern European countries joined a decade ago?

And can states actually leave the Union?

What would it mean in practice?

The article linked above states that Texas has an economy 30% bigger than Australia, and Oz does just fine. Bu isn't there more to it than the simp,e size of the economy? Australa is very rich in many minerals for instance. It has things the rest of the world really wants. Does Texas? Take away the federal military bases, prisons and other agencies, and you are left with...? Some oil, lots of refining capacity... That's something, but only as long as the oil is profitable to produce etc... What else?

And ditto for those other states that might contemplate secession...

I have no problem with Texas wanting to go it alone, but can it really? Will it's citizens still be US citizens, grandfathered in? And still having to file US tax returns? Will many of them leave? Refugee camps in Louisiana is not an image I would associate with a modern USA, but...

We live in interesting times!

scrubbedexpat097

Bags packed, on our way to Arizona. Do you have a spare room?


Joking aside we have been hearing this for years now, and Governor Perry doesn't help. He wants to rule and as he didn't make it in his Presidential campaign I guess this is his way for power


Remember, Tejas was stolen from Mexico anyway

HarryTheSpider

We do have a couple of spare rooms, just in case!!!

Weeze

It always says Houston on these things, but Harris County only had 2 votes between Obama and Romney. Hardly a Romney stronghold.

JRG67

If it set itself up as a tax haven, like Switzerland, it might be able to survive. It could also run casinos, like Macao.
Border wars might break out. If Texas seceeded, interesting times could lie ahead.

scrubbedexpat097

Casinos

That'll be the day in Texas

JRG67

Yeah, I fancy running a bar in a seceeded Texas like Bogart's in Casablanca
Do some drug smuggling at the airport. Turn it into a Banana Republic(not the store), and make myself President

I have visions for the country of Texas!

Mr Weeze

Take a look at the county by county vote results and there is a wave of blue coming from the south to sweep over the red in the future. They ain'tn't be happy about that...

ChocolateBabz

Never say Never. If they were run by good god fearing christians and the $10 chips had Jesus on them and the $20's had Joel Osteen....

JRG67

Hey, let's become business partners!

Speedwell

Let that be a lesson to me; I almost didn't go vote because "my vote won't count anyway."

All my UK and European friends seem overjoyed that Obama won, and relieved that Romney didn't, but I have to then remind them that politics is not a "Dems won so all our policy will be Dem from now on" sort of thing. No matter who wins, the elected officials will have the losing party on their minds to the exact extent they showed in the polls. That means the country is still half one and half the other... we're just buying the Democrat brand of distilled water instead of the Republican brand this term, if you know what I mean.

HarryTheSpider

The Republican brand distiller water won't be distilled as you and I know it... Why spend money doing that when it can be di 'stilled' - kept motionless for a (very short) while instead... Why let scientific fact and public health get in the way of profit. Caveat Emptor indeed...

Speedwell

Yup, I deliberately didn't post how I voted, but everyone reading my article will assume they can guess.

Hint: I didn't disappoint any of my UK or EU friends and relatives.

scrubbedexpat097

So you voted for Ross Perot then

(name popped into my head)

JRG67

So when will Texas succeed?
It's a great opportunity. Think Shanghai at the turn of the 20th century>>