We’ve had enough of the bureaucrats in the capital They keep our taxpayers’ money. We want to make our own laws, be an independent country that begins and ends at our borders, and become the sole owners of our lives and our destiny.
The manifesto, which Carles Puigdemont or any Catalan or Basque independent could sign with their eyes closed from the first word to the last, is on the website of the Texas Nationalist Movement. And we could add a new proclamation that seems strangely familiar these days: We want the transfers of the Immigration powers to control the entry of immigrants, regardless of what is decided across the country.
For now, the TNM has done it include the term “Texit” in the public debate, a play on words similar to Brexit or the unborn Greek Grexit that longs for Texas to leave the Union, something absolutely unthinkable a country as proud of itself as the United States.
Should Texas independence activists really be taken seriously or is it just a tantrum from a state in the American Deep West that feels abandoned by the capital? Although there are no reliable polls, supporters of this movement assure this Popular support has increased from 20% to 80% in just a few years who, according to the Texas Tribune, currently supports independence “to some degree.”
For now, yes They collected 620,000 signatures to “make Texas independent again,” a not insignificant number.
Glorious past, “independent” leader and a legend
Like any self-respecting nationalist movement, Texit did this glorious past (a fleeting independence of nine years), Legends (a line drawn in the sand) and of course an “independent” hero became a martyr for the cause at the famous Battle of the Alamo.
Indeed, to find the roots of Texas pride, one must go back to the cinematic Battle of the Alamo in 1836, a two-week siege that pitted the Mexican army against a group of rebellious Texan soldiers who dreamed of an independent Texas.
According to legend, the colonel still commands the troops today Hero and martyr of Texas nationalism, William Barret Travisgathered his men before battle, drew his sword and drew a line in the sand, inviting those willing to defend the fortress to cross it. Everyone who remained, including Travis, died, but they were avenged. in the subsequent Battle of San Jacinto, which ended the revolutionary movement.
From that year on, Texas became an independent country (not recognized by Mexico) until 1945, when it decided to join the United States.
The leader of the nationalist movement in Texas
The current leader of the Texas nationalist movement, Daniel Miller, holds on to these epic stories and tells them, like on Saturday, August 24, 1996, in the lobby of a hotel in the Texas town of Tyler He realized his current state, Texas, should follow the same pathfinding your hero (yourself, for example), your line in the sand, and your Alamo.
Then a battle began on several fronts, with conferences, campaigns, collecting signatures and the initially failed attempt to call for an independence referendum. It’s a long-distance race in light rain for the “Texiters,” identified by their Texan hats, high boots and highly critical speech toward Washington bureaucrats.
One of Texit’s drivers is, as almost always in these cases, money. The movement claims this every year between $103,000 and $160,000 from Texas taxpayers They take a detour to Washington.
But the separatist fuse has been lit a little more strongly these days due to a bitter immigration controversy that was ignited after a decision by the United States Supreme Court Dismantling the barbed wire barrier erected by Texas Governor Greg Abbotalong the border with Mexico to curb immigration.
The measure has outraged the governor of Texas and an important segment of the population, especially the most conservative, who value decisions on immigration They are taken over by wealthy officials who are thousands of miles away and do not have to deal with this issue.. And of course Donald Trump also took advantage of this, as he insisted on letting such a ball bounce around in the middle of the election campaign.
“Texas barbed wire is an effective deterrent Stop the illegal border crossings that President Biden’s policies encourage. “I will continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden administration from destroying our property,” Abbott said.
“All Americans must support the sensible actions of the Texas authorities to protect the security and sovereignty of Texas and the American people,” said Trump, who has even called on neighboring states to station troops on the Texas border to stop the “invasion.” stop “immigrants.
“The federal system is broken and Texans are paying the price. “It makes more sense for Texans to govern Texas,” Miller explained in a recent Newsweek interview, in which he blamed the federal government for rising gasoline and food prices as well as the increase in the national debt.
The currency of an independent Texas
What would an independent Texas look like? The TNM roadmap includes the dollar as national currency, would give way in the medium term to a monetary union with Washington, which would also include its own currency. Additionally, Texas would not be required to pay off any portion of the debt “accumulated by the federal system,” according to Miller.
After independence, Texas would be constituted as a “unitary nation-state,” which would then be divided into smaller provinces. Of course, there would also be an independent army, among other things have their own army and of course control their own barbed wire on the Mexican border.
However, the path to independence does not seem to be easy, among other things because the Supreme Court ruled in 1869, precisely based on a Texas lawsuit, that leaving the Union was unconstitutional. Texas nationalists are not so clear, saying they have found a loophole: “Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution lists all acts prohibited by the States. Retreat is not on this list. Therefore, according to the Tenth Amendment, “The absence of an express constitutional prohibition means that it is a right reserved in the Constitution to the States and the people,” explains Miller.
And Texas is, as political scientist and lawyer Matt Qvortrup, who has studied independence movements around the world, told Newswek “Probably the only place in America that has this sense of identity.” typically associated with an independent state.
For a referendum to take place, the scholar argued, “a political shift would likely be necessary within the Republican Party,” followed by a legal battle that could well end up in the Supreme Court. Qvortrup admitted that this would be very difficult, but added: “100 years ago, I think there were about 35 countries in the world. Now there are 195. In reality it is not entirely impossible to see how countries could be created.”
Before co-founding the TNM in 2005, its leader, Daniel Miller, spent two years studying secessionist movements around the world, including those in Scotland, Catalonia and Quebec. And he came to the same conclusion as the independents of these areas. “Texas is a nation without a state,” he has stated repeatedly. It has a culture, a history and a different philosophy of life. “It is a nation in the truest sense of the word.”