Daniel Miller opens this Late Night Coffee Talk on a recurring frustration: nearly every policy fight in Texas, from foreign land ownership to school curriculum to property taxes, keeps running into the same wall. He calls it the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Lawmakers water down good bills, or kill them outright, because they fear a federal judge, a hostile Congress, or the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will strike the law down anyway. His answer is blunt. Stop asking permission. Do what is right for Texas and Texans, and if Washington does not like it, let it go kick rocks.
He is equally hard on the Texas Legislature itself, and not just the House. Miller explains again why the Movement made the strategic call not to file the independence referendum bill this session: with the House as dysfunctional as it is, there was no viable path, and resources have to go where they advance the cause. But he refuses to give the Senate a pass either, contrasting Feelgood wins and Dan Patrick selfie videos at the lottery and weed stores against the bills that actually matter, like Andy Hopper’s financial-risk measure and proposals to fully militarize the Texas State Guard. The recurring theme: Texans already hold the power to fix this, right now, through the primaries and through getting in the game rather than watching from the tailgate.
Along the way he points to Alberta’s surging independence movement as a parallel to Texas, defends the Alamo Defenders against an attempt to strip their hero status from state curriculum, and lays out his view of the three pillars of independence: political, cultural, and economic. Lose your grip on any one, he warns, and eventually you lose them all.
Questions answered in this episode
- How can Texans preserve the Republic and its values against wokeism, globalism, and other forces, and can the damage already done be fixed?
- Do we have to commit fully to leaving the Union, or can we just use the threat of secession as leverage and keep actual independence as a last resort?
- Why are Chinese companies allowed to gain a foothold in Texas land and the power grid, and after independence how do we keep Texas farms and ranches out of the hands of hostile foreign owners?
- What is taking Texas independence so long?
- When will the Movement release new informational handouts that reflect the current political situation instead of material that is years old?
- With the federal Department of Education being dismantled and authority returning to the states, will Texas put more emphasis on Texas history versus American history?
- What about a neutral Texas Republic with a limited defense force, structured to keep a military-industrial complex from dragging the new nation into foreign wars?
- Is there anywhere to see which Texas counties and towns lean most heavily toward supporting TEXIT?
- In the future Republic, what would the qualifications be for people from other states to apply for citizenship, and what would the voting qualifications look like?
Comments have moved. The real debate about Texas independence now happens with thousands of Texians in the app.
Get the TEXIAN app
