Don't Mess With Texas

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]What is it about Texas? I mean, the the the whole idea or at least in part the of the uh utility of burying this type of history by conservatives is to simply say like, you know, keep Texas.

[00:00:16]>> Yeah.

[00:00:17]>> Well, what is it about Texas that is so um there there's like this Well, let me put it this way. I grew up in Massachusetts.

[00:00:29]Massachusetts has been around for a long time in this country, longer than Texas.

[00:00:34]And um I don't think I ever heard, let's keep Massachusetts, Massachusetts.

[00:00:41]Like there there was certainly like a very deep parochialism that existed in Massachusetts. I mean, from town to town.

[00:00:52]>> Like, you know, that dude's from LOL.

[00:00:53]Well, I don't know what the hell's going on over there. It's exactly like the same place as where you grew up, but it's But what is it about Texas that is like got this um attitude?

[00:01:06]I don't know what what better like like the that the idea that it's important to uh uh uh hide this history so that we can employ the idea of like >> Texas, you know, keep Texas. It's not that old of a place.

[00:01:21]>> And it's and and I mean and it's changed like a lot too. I mean you know the the the population you know today is is significantly different than like the population at at this period of the book as well. Um you know I mean it is fascinating thing. I mean >> and you think also I should just add like based upon the names of a lot of the cities there that the keeping Texas Texas would be like let's keep it sort of like Mexico.

[00:01:48]No, I mean I I think 100% and I I think that you know Sam, one of the things that you're getting at here is that like there has been, you know, a longtime right-wing project I think here uh again of like associating certain kind of values and perspectives and maybe even a racial idea of like what a true Texan is versus what a fake Texan is. Um and I mean like as to like why is the case, I mean, you know, I could talk romantically. It's a big state. It's it's beautiful. It it feels very wild. I mean, if you've ever been here, you know, I'm from Austin and and the way that the weather can change here, you understand why so many people were Baptist because it can feel like God hates you, uh, you know, just so quickly is kind of coming down on you. Um, and, uh, the the the utility of it for the right, I think, has been the fact that as Texas becomes a m more of a kind of economic powerhouse and the changes that have happened here, not just culturally, but also economically, are so felt. I mean, I'm I'm in Austin and like this town feels completely different than it did when I was a kid, right? And there's a lot of anxiety about what that means.

[00:02:50]Just thinking culturally, uh, you know, I don't think there is the same sense of a of a shared uh, culture that we used to have. And if the right can kind of speak to that anxiety and say that like, oh, it's because these Californians have been moving here and they're bringing their California ideals to Texas. Um, that's more effective than them having to make the pitch that they should have to make, which is that we've run this state for 30 years. And, you know, we lead the country in humiliating statistics like childhood poverty, uh, maternal morbid morbidity, uh, you know, gun deaths, uh, you know, hunger. Um, and that's a direct connection to the Republican party's rule over this state.

[00:03:27]Um, so they need to play uh on this kind of mythic level because that allows you to tell stories and and uh um and myths and uh you know fantasies and sell that instead of having to actually stand on your own two feet about what you've been providing for everyday people.

[00:03:41]>> And how much of that was oil too that like cemented that myth? I mean, when it's that much private capital and that much kind of corruption flowing, like it kind of incentivizes more mythology.

[00:03:55]>> I think that that's probably true. I mean, you know, Texas and I think especially how Texas kind of got introduced to the rest of the country as well, right? You know, because for a long time, Texas was just a kind of backwards agrarian state, right? Um, and you know, it really was the kind of oil boom. Um, and then obviously our introduction to the to the country through LBJ, uh, that really kind of promoted a certain view of of the Texan as a kind of new money individual. They don't have that kind of northeastern uh, you know, waspy culture. Um, and also kind of very gruff, aggressive, uneducated, shoot from the hip kind of figure. And I think we've always kind of been struggling uh you know with with this myth and image of oursel both on one hand of maybe trying to disassociate with it and also in many ways trying to associate with it as well.

[00:04:41]>> There there's like a there is an you know and I guess I think about this I I I'm I'm somewhat prejudiced by um George W. Bush >> going back to Midland, Texas and clearing brush and that was the way that he was, you know, going to >> um when his family came from uh Connecticut and uh her his grandpa's name was Prescott and like like there like there was a quality of um there's a self-consciousness >> and sort of like a uh there's a there's an esteem issue.

[00:05:19]And so you compensate by I mean I just remember I a buddy who was a comedian back like would had this bit about Texas like don't mess with Texas and like you know just going up and picking a fight with the state or something like um that just seems like um you know instead of like welcome to Massachusetts it's don't mess with Texas. Hey folks don't forget to hit the subscribe button and check out our daily show. We do it every day at 12:00 p.m.

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