While Fox News points a finger at Al Gore for selling current TV to “anti-American” Al Jazeera, the "we like America" network offered up a friendly platform to a Texas secessionist to discuss why, as host Uma Pemmaraju put it, “you think it’s time for Texas to secede from the union.” (H/T Crooks and Liars)
Pemmaraju set the tone early by telling her guest “Great to have you here.” Instead of making it clear that he’s part of the right-wing fringe, Pemmaraju said, “So you folks see this as a serious effort underway and you are getting lots of folks to sign (the secessionist) petitions.” She did point out that Texas Governor Rick Perry does not support secession. But she quickly added, “But you say that doesn’t matter, you guys are gonna move forward and continue with your efforts.”
She closed the interview with, “We’ll keep posted on your activities in the days and months ahead.”
Memo to Fox News: No amount of flag waving and patriotic chest-pounding can take away from the fact that very few things are more anti-American than promoting secession.
Kevin: Which Confederacy? I’ll defend each of them.
As we’ve discussed, the current situation has to do with a small number of people in Texas, certainly nowhere near a number that could speak for a signifcant part of the state, who are unhappy with the GOP losses in the 2012 election and are acting out. The fit will only last for a little while, and then they’ll go back to their regular activities, as do most tantrum throwers after they’ve exhausted themselves. This is certainly not a case of a group really fighting for independence or defending anything other than their own misunderstanding of the current political situation and their own anger at their inability to unseat the current President.
CIVIL WAR? Where would that have been?
I am not interested in what a majority thinks on any subject. Majority rule is mob rule. Fewer than a third of the colonists supported the American secession from the British Empire.
By the way, I have no more interest in either of the Bushes than I have in Bill Clinton or Obama. They are all political animals in my view. I don’t care what they do as long as they leave me alone.
The facts we have discussed here are that the people promoting secession in Texas are a small group that is unhappy with how the election turned out. Their recourse has been to lash out in public, even though they know their attempt has no hope of succeeding. It’s the same level of irrationality as celebrities announcing they would move to Canada if Bush was elected in the last decade.
You’re free to disagree with the facts, and to speak your opinions about them. But readers can decide for themselves, and it’s clear that the majority of Americans, including in the state of Texas, are not in agreement with the group petitioning for secession.
B. The North agressively invaded the CSA at Fort
Sumter (a CSA port and fort)
Ergo: The canard is a Yankee one.
So their solution is to pick up their bat and ball and go home. They don’t address the serious problems Texas would face in the event that their idea succeeded, because they know their group has no chance of doing so. They just want to have the tantrum in public, where outlets like Fox News and right wing radio can give them publicity.
I agree that we’re looking at a polarized country, and it’s been one for many years now. Fox News has exacerbated this situation in a big way, starting with their drumbeat against the Clinton presidency, followed by their about-face reversal to support the George W. Bush presidency and now their second about-face reversal to drumbeat against President Obama. Years of Fox News and right wing radio constantly trying to ridicule and oppose anything and everything President Obama has done shows a clear pattern.
And if you’re actually trying to advocate that the Confederate States of America during the Civil War were really just fighting “The War Against Northern Aggression”, that canard can only hurt a reasonable argument.
Patrick Henry refused to attend the Constitutional Convention: “I smell a rat,” he said. He smelled nationalism not federalism.
It’s one thing to announce the holding of higher ideals, or to strive for something better. These guys just don’t like how the elections went so they want to take their bat and ball and go home. They also have not thought about what the actual consequences for their state would be – in terms of a crippling loss of funding and a sudden loss of benefits and conditions that Texans, like all Americans, reasonably expect.
But even if we were to follow this logic, what would these Texans be trying to do? Do they believe they could set up an independent nation within their borders? Seriously?
ANTI-AMERICAN? REALLY!
ANTI-AMERICAN? REALLY!
“All we’re witnessing is a bunch of poor pouting losers needing a pacifier. Try holding your breath that usually works.”
Yes doors17 — it certainly worked for Baby Finster in that classic Bugs Bunny short “Baby Buggy Bunny” which is still on YouTube.
:^)
*Federal law set the House of Representatives membership at 435 back in the early 1960s.
**From the 435 HR component, the 98 Senate-seat component plus DC’s 3.
One was to do a parallel petition for all those signing onto the secession idea to have their citizenship revoked on the basis that they are announcing that they no longer wish to be part of the United States.
Another would be for a petition to terminate all federal aid, as noted below. This would also include withdrawing the entire Border Patrol from the area, which I don’t believe would sit well with Texans.
But the idea that really caught my attention was to simply bar Texas from participating in NCAA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and any other United States sports organizations. Because, again, if they don’t want to be citizens of this country then they must also no longer wish to have their teams play anyone from any other state. If these guys lost their football, I guarantee you’d hear them singing a very different song.
72 hours could be given Texans a lot of credit.
It’ll never happen since they’ll never want to surrender their federal dollars from the government that they supposedly like to pretend to hate so much. In fact they can begin by refusing any federal aid. Start there, then come back and tell us about your desire to secede from the union. All we’re witnessing is a bunch of poor pouting losers needing a pacifier. Try holding your breath that usually works. Otherwise I’m enjoying the show listening to their bitterness.
If Texas secedes from the US, I give it no more than 72 hours before it becomes Mexico’s property — again.
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