One is the suggestion that Texas could secede from the Union.Now, supposedly, this is something that was suggested by Gov. Rick Perry during a "tea party" rally in Austin on Wednesday.
Austin is about a three–hour drive from my apartment. I was here in Dallas that day, and I confess I did not watch the news that night. I've only heard accounts of what Perry allegedly said.
I don't know who first began reporting that Perry made that suggestion. The Huffington Post apparently wrote about it Wednesday evening, a few hours after the rally.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti–tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag–waving audience shouted, "Secede!"
An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall — one of three tea parties he was attending across the state — that officials in Washington have abandoned the country's founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.
Perry repeated his running theme that Texas' economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the "federal budget mess." Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.
Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.
"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."
He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.
That seems to tell you everything you need to know.
Whether Perry was the one who brought up the subject of secession, the fact is that it was not part of Texas' negotiation for statehood.
And, even if it had been, didn't the experience with secession during the Civil War sort of invalidate it?
It seems to me that Perry said things that he hoped would keep his supporters on his side, but he doesn't appear to have endorsed the idea of secession. Nevertheless, that's how it has been interpreted, and the Austin American–Statesman's Jason Embry reported on late–night jokes that were spawned by the misunderstanding.
Perry, it seems to me, is feeling some pressure these days. He only received 39% of the vote when he won a four–way race for re–election in 2006, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is likely to be Perry's chief rival for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year in a race that currently looks like it could draw several candidates, has been leading by a wide margin in recent polls.In fact, if those polls are correct, she would win the nomination without being forced into a runoff.
Perry appears to be backpedaling away from any suggestion that he recommends secession, which is probably a good approach since a Rasmussen poll reports that 75% of Texans don't like the idea.
I mentioned this matter to my father when we had dinner together last night. And he dismissed it as rhetoric designed to appeal to Perry's political base — which my father described as "pretty base."
Actually, if I happened to be a member of Perry's campaign staff, I'd be a lot more concerned about his use of the phrase "states' rights" — which has a fairly recent history as a racial code word.
True, there might not be much concern about the black vote here, since only about 11% of Texas' residents are black — and I would expect relatively few blacks in Texas to participate in a Republican primary. Nor, for that matter, would I expect many blacks to support a Republican nominee here. Some probably will, but not many.
But, when you combine that phrase with the hysteria over immigration, I could see it being a problem in the Hispanic community. About one–third of Texans are Hispanic, and many Hispanics have been known to vote in Republican primaries in Texas.
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