83 Billion and Counting: The Poll That Cracked the Establishment Line

Daniel Miller came home for this one, off the road after a West Texas and Panhandle swing through Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, and Abilene, and he opened with the number everyone sent him that week. A new poll put support for seceding from the union at 66 percent among Southern Republicans and 47 percent among West Coast Democrats. Miller noted the survey grouped states and averaged them the way the 2014 Reuters/Ipsos poll did, and his read is that Texas almost certainly dragged that Southern figure upward. For an establishment that spent the legislative session insisting nobody wanted this, the headline landed hard. His takeaway for circulators was blunt: support is so broad you can throw a rock and hit a TEXIT supporter, so go fill full petition pages instead of hunting for one or two signatures.

From there he turned to the governor’s race. The Movement has not endorsed, and Miller has been pointed about Greg Abbott, whom he calls a political climber with his eye on Washington. He played a pandemic-era clip of Abbott citing Fauci, Birx, and the CDC as his guide, then argued the governor only gets serious about the border once primary challengers appear. On those challengers he played fresh video of Allen West, Chad Prather, and Don Huffines. All three, in his reading, now back letting Texans vote on independence. Better than the incumbent, he said, though he expects them to sharpen their positions as the referendum campaign gains ground.

The segment that got him worked up was Rep. Jared Patterson’s poster-board stunt tallying the roughly 390,000 dollars the quorum-breaking Democrats cost taxpayers in per diem. Miller answered with his own tally: by his math, Patterson’s refusal to give constituents a vote has cost Texans more than 83 billion dollars in overpayments into the federal system since the session began. Staying in the union, he argued, carries a price measured every second, not just when Democrats fly to D.C.

Questions answered in this episode

• Will the federal government let Texas leave even if the votes are there? Miller pointed viewers to the detailed answer at texitnow.org.
• What is the name of the show’s intro song? It is “Texian Arise,” written and performed by the Movement’s executive director, Nate Smith.
• For petition circulators, how many notarized signatures should be sent in per batch? Send full pages, and at a minimum turn them in every two weeks.
• Does the website list legislators who voted against or stayed silent on TEXIT? Yes, a full legislative directory tracks every member’s stance on House Bill 1359.
• What about the Republic of Texas using a cryptocurrency? Miller is open to the conversation but not sold on crypto as the whole answer to replacing the dollar.
• Do you support a gold or silver standard? He has thoughts but is unconvinced on the path, and stressed the discussion only becomes real after Texas withdraws.
• If California secedes, and will Oklahoma join Texas? California has its own independence movement on a harder road, and Texas needs no union with any other state.