This post by Mickey Kaus, on how the Texan mindset colors Texan attitudes towards certain aspect of illegal immigration? From what I’ve seen from working with and talking to Texans, there is indeed a certain point there. While I consider actual secession fears to be insanely overblown monster-under-the-bed walking nightmares at best and cynical attempts to go after conservatives at worst, the truth is that Texans have an extremely strong regional self-identity.
It’s also kind of infectious, which possibly Mickey should have gotten into more. Although I don’t know how easy it is to get other Texans to agree that you’ve become one…
Moe Lane
Being Texan is an attitude, Moe. It’s hard to explain, but most folks who move here either absorb it, or end up moving on somewhere else.
I’m not a notorious pro-amnesty squish like you, but I do think that there needs to be a distinction made between a few different types.
The first type is the American at heart who just happened to be born somewhere else. He comes over here, learns the language, does his best to assimilate i the culture.
The second type is the person who wants to come here for a few years, help his family back home, maybe earn enough to start a family, then go back.
The third type has no intention for any of that. He wants to come over here, hole up in a cultural enclave, and rather than assimilating to our culture, he wants us to bend over backwards for his. He’s probably on welfare, with no intention of ever getting a job.
Personally I want type 1s over here, there needs to be some orderly program for type 2s, and type 3s need to be discouraged, because they’re destructive. And it’s my opinion that discouraging the type 3s is more important than encouraging the type 1s and 2s, as right now they’ll mostly find a way, eventually, even if it’s not legal.
No argument with Skip. As far as “being Texan” is concerned, one of the most common bumper stickers you see round these parts says “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!” And speaking for myself as a native, I’m happy to have them here and count them as Texans.
What Skip and Phil said.
In addition: In the specific case of Mexicans, Texas did go through a period of disrespecting its Hispanic population, but never quite forgot (as California did) that many of them couldn’t be told to go home where they came from, because they were home where they came from. I have a new co-worker with a Hispanic surname and Mexican ancestry; he hates mariachi music, and I speak more Spanish than he does. Texas’s Mexican heritage population has relatives and friends across the border, and is a force to be reckoned with politically. We’re about to elect a Senator named Cruz, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we elected a Governor with a Hispanic surname in the reasonably near future.
All of which means that no Texas politician with anything like statewide recognition is going to have much truck with sealing the borders against the Brown Menace. It also means that if Republican politicians would shut the f* up on the subject and listen to us for a bit, Skip’s type 1s are in the bag and many if not most of the type 2s are at least willing to listen. This does not mean shutting down the INS and putting up “Bienvenidos!” signs at the border crossings. It does mean something a good bit more nuanced than searching Eisenach and Leipzig for people willing to come out of retirement to consult on setting up a really secure border.
Regards,
Ric
4th generation native Texan here.
The basic pitch for instate tuition was this, they are here and SCOTUS says we have to educate them K-12 cause we lost that case. Their parents pay taxes just like everybody else so we let them go to college and pay instate tuition or we will be up to our asses in more law suits. If they are educated they will contribute to Texas – Conservatives
These kids are our neighbors & we can’t split up families. – liberals
Both arguments made sense.
The clincher was do we really want to be like California with California’s problems?
That united Texans because Texans will do just about anything to avoid having California’s liberal problems.
Texans want immigration enforcement and border security but we won’t go all Tancredo either because Tancredo is anti-hispanic and a bigoted ass. We want solutions that make sense and blaming it on wanting cheap labor confuses Texas with California. We have always been different from them and so has our history with Mexico….Mexicans did at the Alamo too wanting Texas independence. You couldn’t find to more different people than your average LA Chicano and your average Tejano.
One difference is this. Tejano means Texan in spanish.
I can tell you this…Tejanos asked Perry to run because of national economic concerns & Texas pro-business policies and border security. The Hispanic caucus in the state legislature endorsed him before he announced as a means to encourage him to run. I doubt these Tejanos will campaign for Romney….and I doubt they will vote for him either.
@Ric Locke
Ted Cruz’s family comes from Cuba. He’s a good conservative.
After they publicly endorsed Perry he pushed the anti-sanctuary city bill again…Perry didn’t care.
The story down here is that Perry,Dewhurst & Strauss had a deal..but Strauss tabled the bill. (maybe under pressure from a donor) but the spin blames Perry.
Strauss tabled it. It will come up again and the in-state tuition bill is supposed to come up for review in the next session.
The bill has saved Texas money in education costs & our Tejanos score higher than other Latino kids in the nation.
“…our Tejanos score higher…”
That’s important. Texas students’ average scores are fairly low — but that’s because we have lots of minorities including Hispanics. Minorities in Texas score higher than minorities in most other States, but lower than whites, and the sheer number of them drags the average down.
As for the tuition thing — if you’re a minor you don’t have a huge voice in where your parents drag you. If they bring you to Texas and you live here three years, you get in-state tuition rates. Whether your parents came from Oregon or Oaxaca is irrelevant. I support this concept without reservation — the parents may be due sanctions, but it isn’t the kids’ fault.
Regards,
Ric