Friday, November 03, 2017

How real is the Texas Nationalist movement.

The Texas Nationalist movement has a Facebook page with 224,133 likes and 215,304 following it as of this morning 11/3/2017.

https://www.facebook.com/texasnatmov/

That is fairly impressive. There are web pages with a lot of content. The link below is to one page and you can then view a lot of material and other online pages from there.

https://texasnationalist.com/

However, exactly what is the extent of the Texas Nationalist Movement in terms of people.

I haven't found a board of directors or similar grouping for the organization. Is there an executive committee? Is there an editorial committee for their publications?

Has there been a statewide convention of members and delegates?

When did the head of the Texas Nationalist movement get elected? When is the term of office up? How are elections for the leadership conducted? More broadly how is the leadership selected? Is there a body that appoints the leaders?

The organization is still worth tracking. Even if it is largely a one person show it is still getting out to the public a secessionist message. It appears from reports that there is support for this organization by foreign powers.

If a real Texas secession movement gets underway it is likely that this organization will be pushed aside, but it will have performed a function of paving the way for a Texas secessionist movement. If there is a real movement, and I mean a movement of a significant number of people, I suspect that they will want to elect their leadership.

So far, Texas secession seems to be nothing more than online gripping. Despite all the Facebook likes the Texas nationalist movement was unable to get enough signatures to get a secession measure on the ballot in Texas.  The number of required signatures were 68 thousand some. Roughly a quarter of their Facebook likes.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2015/12/texas-nationalist-movement-petition.html#.WfxmoWhSyiM

On the other hand, Boys State in Texas decided to vote for the secession of Texas.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/26/in-a-first-texas-boys-state-votes-to-secede-from-the-union/?utm_term=.9423d43de525

As I reported earlier pressure applied to the Texas Republican Party nearly got secession in their 2016 platform. It lost by only 16 to 14.

These are some blog postings with more details.



With Donald Trump being president and his slogan being about making America great again, the Texas Nationalist movement seems to be stalled.

However, it would be wrong to dismiss the Texas Nationalist movement. They are putting out arguments for secession and they are building up a body of narratives of grievance. They are establishing awareness of their efforts and have people in various degrees of contact with them.

The future is opaque. It could happen in the course of events that there will be some sudden real interest in secession by reactionaries in Texas. For example the election of a Democrat to the presidency. These potential secessionists will find a ready made set of narratives to use for their efforts and a number of individuals who have given it some thought and are educated in the arguments for secession.

Secessionism in the body politic is like a herpes virus. It is there and usually unnoticed until the body politic is stressed and then there are sores. In 2016 it seemed that Texas secession might erupt.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/election/article/Poll-Three-out-of-five-Texans-support-secession-9146807.php

One big question avoided by the Texas Nationalist movement is what about the regions, counties, cities, etc. that don't want to secede from the United States. I have raised this before.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2016/06/some-considerations-about-texas.html#.WfxoD2hSyiM

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/posts/1748950508659231

They also think that you can break up the nation with a 50.1% majority. A constitutional amendment takes 3/4 vote of states. I would think that you would want a super majority to make sure you don't make decisions based on transitory passions.

If it is all about determination I say that each county and city can have a say also. Secessionists are always localists for their particular national project but nationalists against any secessionists in their proposed nation. I wrote up a "Forever American Declaration." I am sure someone might write up something better.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/photos/a.1734954363392179.1073741827.1686197881601161/1740219879532294/?type=3&theater

If there is a vote for secession the urban regions of Texas will likely be against it and expect their U.S. government to protect them and the U.S. government will be more than willing to do so. Similarly reprisals against American citizens in other parts of Texas.

The Texas nationalist movement is a right wing movement in a state that is increasingly not right wing, but has a right wing government sustained by gerrymandering. Texas nationalism is really a reactionary project by those who don't see a future political success in the United States for their reactionary agenda. There isn't a Texas nationalism as the Texas nationalist movement defines it across the general public.

Texas is changing. I think that a lot of Republicans are not willing to face that they might be a minority party in the future, so there are all these voter restriction laws being struck down by the courts. So I think when the change starts coming there might be a panicked irrational response that would provide an opening for Texas secessionists. The objective would be to have an independent state with likely voter qualifications that would maintain reactionary control. I wouldn't be surprised that a poll tax might be proposed, even property qualifications.

As of this time the Texas nationalist movement is fairly dormant, but it is there and there is a lot of potential for trouble in the future.

By the way there is a Facebook page against Texas secession.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/

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