Posted on 10/27/2013 11:27:58 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A shape of things to come? A Time cover story seems to think so, with the Lone Star State serving as a model for the future of the U.S.
Yikes. They have seen the future, and it is us.
Texas, I mean.
The cover of last week’s Time magazine has all the states rearranged into the shape of Texas. “The United States of Texas,” it says. “Why the Lone Star State is America’s future.”
That’s flattering, but hold on a minute. Do we really want a bunch of imitators out there? Don’t mess with Iowa?
Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of the article. It starts with a cliché. “They say the Lone Star State has four seasons: drought, flood, blizzard and twister.” And then it meanders like the Guadalupe.
It was written by a professor of economics at George Mason University, Tyler Cowen, who identifies himself as a libertarian. So perhaps there’s some wishful thinking when he says the whole country will follow the Texas model of low taxes, low services and low regulation. A few tidbits are surprising, even to those of us who have never lived anywhere else. We think of Texas as a low-wage state. But it says Texans enjoy the third-highest average income in the country — when you adjust for taxes and the cost of living. (Behind Virginia and Washington state.)
So bang for the buck is a big reason people come. Time says $300,000 will buy you a 210-square-foot apartment in San Francisco or a 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath house in Austin.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
That would be like Texas passing a law requiring all households to have air.
Yup. Texas gave Willie Brown to California, which used to be Republican. Crooked Willie upended politics, gerrymandering voting boundaries and inserting his cronies everywhere to turn California liberal. Did that at the state level, as well as local in SF. I've seen him up close several times. Crowded elevator doors would open at City Hall, he'd be standing there with an evil gaze and the crowd would part like it was Moses, as people feared him. Respected his political smarts but hated his evil.
BTTT
This is from the comments:
“I’m a native Texan, love it here, but think the coo-coo’s nest was opened around the time of the Twin Towers disaster in 2001. The myth is that the majority here are ultra conservative, right wing people, when they probably account for about a third of the people in Texas with the rest being divided between moderate democrats and republicans. Most of us are sick of road rage, pollution and government run amok ( yes the party of no government is a huge machine in our face at all times). The moderates here in Texas will eventually make things right and then be a proper model for the rest of the US.”
This isn't about regions, its about a worldview.
I'd go for at least on firearm of every caliber.
Texas is transitioning to purple and somewhere in the distant future it may actually turn blue. The demographics and the influx of liberals leaves no other outcome.
” Time says $300,000 will buy you a 210-square-foot apartment in San Francisco or a 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath house in Austin.”
and that is why Texas will fall from the inside. Godless Kalifornians and fascist North Easterners coming in to Texas with pockets full of money and buying up my great state. Then contaminating our state with crap ideas that turned their states to $h!t
The time story is complete crap. Best thing we could do is to Secede and close all borders...especially from Kalifornia
We already have the 2nd so don't need anymore stinkin' laws. Besides, we pretty much all have AT LEAST one firearm, well, except for the CA transplants in Austin.
At one time it could have happened as 1/2 the USAF operated out of there plus a large contingent of the Army. Navy, not so much.
San Antonio is ok. Just make sure you buy outside of Bexar Contry which is, for intents and purposes, now becoming San Antonio city proper.
I gotta get me one of those T-shirts! LOL!
TX should pass a law requiring 5 years of residence before one can vote.
Governor Sam Houston once said: “Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States can’t make it without Texas”
Sam had his hat on too tight. There were a lot of Southerns that made that Texas thing work.
The cited cities are dem-controlled; suburbs are still heavily GOP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Texas#Current_situation
Quite correct. The balance of power is still held by the suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas of Texas. These areas are mostly white and/or middle class hispanic. Whites in Texas vote 70+ plus republican vs nationally where whites vote 60/40 repub/dem.
Hispanics in Texas vote slightly more republican than the US average, 35-40% in Texas (GW got 45%), 25-30% in the USA as a whole. So, basically whites vote more reliably conservative in Texas as do a greater percentage of hispanics as compared to their respective demographic groups in national elections.
The black population in Texas does not factor in very strongly in an electoral sense except in Dallas and Houston.
This situation may change in the future with changing demographics, but if repubs continue to nominate conservative hispanics in areas where this matters, I don’t see the balance changing for at least a decade. Texas is not California. It’s culture, history, and pugnacity comes from a blended Anglo-Tejano culture. People in Texas, irrespective to demographic group, take in pride in their state. This is much different from the go-along to get-along, mellow culture in California which does not lend itself to defending tradition and the status quo.
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