The state of dusty delusions
"When I grew up I learned the "heroes" of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didn't belong to them. I can truly state that I hate the place and everything it stands for." -- Rosie Castro, mother of the mayor of San Antonio, Texas
Along with our fondness for allusions to purple mountain majesties and eagles and apple pie, Americans cling tightly to the notion that bigger is better. No state in the union is a more vocal proponent of that axiom than Texas. Not even Rick Perry's disastrous run for the Republican presidential nomination has dampened the ardor of Texas for itself. Mr. Perry's short-lived campaign casts some serious doubts upon whether the rest of the country buys into the mystique.
Gail Collins certainly doesn't buy into it if her new book, As Texas Goes..., is any indication. Not for a minute or a paragraph.
Collins is my favorite columnist. Any person who can maintain a sense of humor throughout a long career of writing about American politics deserves a very special place in our collective hearts whether you tend to agree with her or not. Texas' hot air expansion of its own glories, past and present, is a perfect subject for Ms. Collins' gentle form of deflation. The state hardly needs a string of klieg lights to illuminate the fallacies of its claims to being a template for the rest of the nation. A simple flashlight on a page of cold statistics would serve just as well.
If the word "worst" is a sort of inverted superlative, then Texas is a virtual Paradise lost. Among the fifty states in the union, it maintains the lowest ranking in both air and water quality, two factors that alone should deter a decision to move there unless a death wish is a motivating factor.
Texas loves to dangle the prospect of employment like a carrot in front of a horse, but, the job will be strictly on Texas terms. Thirty-seven percent of the workforce toils away for minimum wage or less.
But it is a great place to live if you are wealthy and have their remarkable capacity for withdrawing from unpleasant realities or if you buy into the hard sell myths about rugged individualism that flourish in the state like the Prickly Pear Cactus.
If you are part of a minority group, work for a living, are employed in a job that is potentially dangerous, would like to be paid a living wage, want your children to receive an adequate education, or enjoy taking a deep breath every once in a while, you should probably look for another place to call home.
Collins talks about Texas in terms of "wide open" with her unique brand of finely-honed skepticism. The term is vital to the state's inordinately high opinion of itself even though nothing gets decided in Austin that is the least bit detrimental to the special interest groups that really call the shots. The boundless opportunities that exist in the Lone Star State have been trumpeted by a string of slicker-than-oil politicians, mostly on behalf of the industry that produces that particular product.
A prime example of the monstrous detach that characterizes Texas politics can be seen in the storied career of Phil Gramm, who might be singled out as the architect of the mess that America finds itself in today. Gramm had a PhD in economics that, as Collins wryly notes, he waved like a kid at a flag day parade. He was, like many of his ilk, death on government interference unless it directly benefited him and among the pearls of wisdom he imparted was the admonition to let America eat cake and only give the recipe to the rest of the world. It was an opportunity for a clever sound bite that failed to take into account the fact the much of the world couldn't afford the ingrediants, It was a small matter to fiercely independent people like Gramm, who went on to the green, green fields of lobbying after carving his poisonous notch on the country during his Senate career.
"Poisonous" is a good word to describe Texas' impact on the rest of the country. The state's health care system is so bad that people wait until their illnesses are far advanced to seek help in more humane surroundings. The eduction system is so fractured from the interference from prehistoric, right wing meddling that the high school dropout rate is among the highest in the nation.
If what Texas wrought stayed in Texas, to be tolerated by the people who choose to live there, that would be one thing. But the subtitle of Collins' book is (ominously) How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. At first glance, you might think that a group of partisan flacks for the wealthy could hardly determine the direction of the entire nation. But that is exactly what has happened, despite Perry's spectacular crash and burn.
After finishing As Texas Goes..., the reader might logically conclude that there has not been a single step forward for the United States that has originated in the Lone Star State. Throughout the entire disreputable history, Ms. Collins maintains the sense of humor that is her style, her signature, and, quite possibly, the mainstay of her sanity.
Good for her, but I suspect she must have been as horrified as the rest of us should be.
Along with our fondness for allusions to purple mountain majesties and eagles and apple pie, Americans cling tightly to the notion that bigger is better. No state in the union is a more vocal proponent of that axiom than Texas. Not even Rick Perry's disastrous run for the Republican presidential nomination has dampened the ardor of Texas for itself. Mr. Perry's short-lived campaign casts some serious doubts upon whether the rest of the country buys into the mystique.
Gail Collins certainly doesn't buy into it if her new book, As Texas Goes..., is any indication. Not for a minute or a paragraph.
Collins is my favorite columnist. Any person who can maintain a sense of humor throughout a long career of writing about American politics deserves a very special place in our collective hearts whether you tend to agree with her or not. Texas' hot air expansion of its own glories, past and present, is a perfect subject for Ms. Collins' gentle form of deflation. The state hardly needs a string of klieg lights to illuminate the fallacies of its claims to being a template for the rest of the nation. A simple flashlight on a page of cold statistics would serve just as well.
If the word "worst" is a sort of inverted superlative, then Texas is a virtual Paradise lost. Among the fifty states in the union, it maintains the lowest ranking in both air and water quality, two factors that alone should deter a decision to move there unless a death wish is a motivating factor.
Texas loves to dangle the prospect of employment like a carrot in front of a horse, but, the job will be strictly on Texas terms. Thirty-seven percent of the workforce toils away for minimum wage or less.
But it is a great place to live if you are wealthy and have their remarkable capacity for withdrawing from unpleasant realities or if you buy into the hard sell myths about rugged individualism that flourish in the state like the Prickly Pear Cactus.
If you are part of a minority group, work for a living, are employed in a job that is potentially dangerous, would like to be paid a living wage, want your children to receive an adequate education, or enjoy taking a deep breath every once in a while, you should probably look for another place to call home.
Collins talks about Texas in terms of "wide open" with her unique brand of finely-honed skepticism. The term is vital to the state's inordinately high opinion of itself even though nothing gets decided in Austin that is the least bit detrimental to the special interest groups that really call the shots. The boundless opportunities that exist in the Lone Star State have been trumpeted by a string of slicker-than-oil politicians, mostly on behalf of the industry that produces that particular product.
A prime example of the monstrous detach that characterizes Texas politics can be seen in the storied career of Phil Gramm, who might be singled out as the architect of the mess that America finds itself in today. Gramm had a PhD in economics that, as Collins wryly notes, he waved like a kid at a flag day parade. He was, like many of his ilk, death on government interference unless it directly benefited him and among the pearls of wisdom he imparted was the admonition to let America eat cake and only give the recipe to the rest of the world. It was an opportunity for a clever sound bite that failed to take into account the fact the much of the world couldn't afford the ingrediants, It was a small matter to fiercely independent people like Gramm, who went on to the green, green fields of lobbying after carving his poisonous notch on the country during his Senate career.
"Poisonous" is a good word to describe Texas' impact on the rest of the country. The state's health care system is so bad that people wait until their illnesses are far advanced to seek help in more humane surroundings. The eduction system is so fractured from the interference from prehistoric, right wing meddling that the high school dropout rate is among the highest in the nation.
If what Texas wrought stayed in Texas, to be tolerated by the people who choose to live there, that would be one thing. But the subtitle of Collins' book is (ominously) How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. At first glance, you might think that a group of partisan flacks for the wealthy could hardly determine the direction of the entire nation. But that is exactly what has happened, despite Perry's spectacular crash and burn.
After finishing As Texas Goes..., the reader might logically conclude that there has not been a single step forward for the United States that has originated in the Lone Star State. Throughout the entire disreputable history, Ms. Collins maintains the sense of humor that is her style, her signature, and, quite possibly, the mainstay of her sanity.
Good for her, but I suspect she must have been as horrified as the rest of us should be.
- agraves's blog
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