Make Hay While the Sun Shines: A Trump Win Is a Reprieve, Not a Rescue

Daniel Miller fires up the camera fresh off the road, having spoken to the Angelina County GOP in Lufkin the night before and to 177 high school seniors in Yoakum that morning, and the question hanging over the whole night is the one everyone wanted answered: now that Trump has won, what happens to TEXIT? His answer is that not a single person he met on that trip treated the election as the end of the road. They treated it as a reason to make hay while the sun shines. Daniel is a realist about it. He watched the same wave of hope crest in 2016 and break against two and a half million unelected federal bureaucrats who do not whine on TikTok, they raise money and obstruct, and he warns that the federal system is immune to reform and repeal. A friendly administration is the friendliest window the movement is likely to get, and the pendulum always swings back hard.

The heart of the episode is a distinction Daniel refuses to let slide. TEXIT is not the goal. It is the process that carries Texans from where they are to full political, cultural, and economic independence. He points to Brexit as the cautionary tale: the UK withdrew and still takes direction from Brussels, because withdrawal alone is not independence. The referendum is one step, not the finish line, and after an affirmative vote come constitutional changes, statutory changes, international treaties, and the negotiated separation from Washington. The gap between a Texas that is a state and a Texas that is a self-governing nation, he argues, is closer to a crack in the sidewalk than a ditch, and everything done now to close it means less work later.

From there it is rapid fire. Daniel reports the pre-filing window is open with more than 1,200 House bills and hundreds in the Senate, more Texas First Pledge signers seated than ever, and 50 of 254 counties organizing. He notes the opposition tried to use the independence pledge as an attack on candidates, failed, and abandoned it, proving the issue is not the lethal third rail it is painted to be. He also pushes the legislative agenda he wants this session: a true Texas border force, an expanded state guard, currency and bullion-depository bills, and decoupling state elections from federal ones. He closes with the housekeeping that a donation to the TNM now finally counts toward membership, and the words he leaves every time, Sam Houston’s promise that Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations.

Questions answered in this episode

• Is it more effective to fire the entrenched FEMA employees who politicize disaster aid, or to fire the federal government entirely?
• Is the return to Waco for TEXON 2024 in December still happening, so people can plan travel and vacation time?
• Will a video of Daniel’s speech at Fairview Baptist Church in Lufkin be uploaded to YouTube?
• Does the launch of the Texas Stock Exchange increase the chances of TEXIT?
• Does Trump’s win set the movement back, or does it buy breathing room to get TEXIT on the ballot, and is independence easier under Republicans or Democrats?
• How do you handle the complacency of the normalcy crowd, the people who say TEXIT is unnecessary now that their candidate won?
• Texas has no electoral college and elects statewide offices by popular vote. How would an independent Texas keep itself from being run by Houston, Austin, and Dallas?
• Are you planning to run for office again, perhaps for governor or against John Cornyn?
• Will there be another meeting for people who want to work in legislative advocacy this session?
• Would an independent Texas keep the two-party Democrat and Republican system?
• How strong is Tejano support for TEXIT?
• If Texas secedes, is someone born and raised in Texas but now living out of state guaranteed they can come home as a citizen?
• Will the TNM keep stressing the long-term costs of staying conjoined to the United States, rather than treating it as a fight that only matters when the other party holds power?