Microcosm of GOP’s future

Texas Governor Rick Perry is looking for a third term, but he faces some stiff opposition from within his own party in Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is also running. The race is shaping up to be a microcosm of the national debate over the GOP’s future, with the ultraconservative Perry taking on the more moderate Hutchison. “This is a civil war,” Perry said in an interview with The New York Times, “brother against brother.” Perry drew jeers from critics for flirting with secessionists this year and Hutchison has argued that the governor has shrunk the state’s Republican Party with his antics. “I do not want a governor who is going to narrow our base, make it dwindle,” Hutchison said in a speech this week. “That is what has happened at the national level, and that is not going to happen in Texas.”

Read more at The New York Times

fnord

The Great Country of Texas

Apparently, 18% of the inhabitants of Texas want to secede from the United States. Other than opening the door for other states to follow, which I’m sure, even if voters reached a majority the federal government would quash in no uncertain terms.

But let’s look a the consequences of such a move; should it be allowed to take place, and indeed passes. Texas has no personal income tax, but it does impose 60 other taxes ranging from tobacco to retaliatory taxes. Texas would lose any tax money it receives from the federal government, so the imposition of higher taxes to pay for basic infrastructure would surly follow such a move. They could also require any visitors to obtain travel visas, and the federal government could impose the same on anybody leaving the state. I could go on and on, but it seems to me any state wanting to secede from the union would be creating more problems than the ones they are trying to get away from.

Readers thoughts?

jammer5