Twenty-Nine Years to the Line: Daniel Miller on the Founding of the TNM and the Long Road to TEXIT

Four days out from August 24th, the anniversary of what Daniel Miller calls his line in the sand day, this edition of Late Night Coffee Talk turned personal. Miller opened the floor to questions about the early days, the decision he made in 1996 to work for Texas independence or die trying, and the founding of the Texas Nationalist Movement in November 2005. His point throughout was that the line in the sand is never one issue. It is the steady accumulation, the death by a thousand cuts, the moment a person stops trying to redeem an irredeemable federal system and commits to something real.

From there the conversation ran through the history almost no one asks about. Miller named the people who built the TNM and are no longer here to see it grow, including Charlie Doreck and Warren Savage, and remembered Doreck driving from Cuero to Longview just to enter data into a spreadsheet. He traced how reception on independence has shifted: in 1996 the Republic of Texas movement had over a million signups and flamed out on personal agendas, in 2005 the constant question was whether Texas could even do it, and today the naysayers have quietly moved from “it can never happen” to “it is just too difficult.” That shift, he argued, is the most underrated win the movement has.

He took the practical questions head on. To the supporter frustrated that the TNM does not text its 600,000 backers, Miller laid out the arithmetic: a single 140-character blast to that list runs about 20,400 dollars, which is why big tech censorship has pushed the movement toward TNM Social and county-level organizing that survives even when every digital channel is choked off. To the combat veteran wrestling with an oath to the Constitution, he argued the federal government broke that oath first, and that supporting Texas independence is how those principles get preserved.

Questions answered in this episode

• What actually caused Daniel Miller to draw his line in the sand, and was it ever just one issue?
• What is the TNM doing to reach young men and disenfranchised youth, and should there be a dedicated space for them on TNM Social?
• Has the movement abandoned the petition route to a referendum, and why doesn’t it just text its 600,000 supporters?
• When will there be enough support among the people and in the legislature to force a referendum?
• Who was Miller’s first convert to Texas independence, and how should you approach the people in your own circle?
• Which TNM founders are still active, and who besides Miller shaped the organization the most?
• How has Texans’ reception of independence changed from 1996 to 2005 to now?
• How do you answer someone who says they took an oath to the Constitution and therefore cannot support independence?
• How does the TNM envision preserving Texas cultural identity given the diversity of the population?
• Will Texas have a different governor than Abbott after independence?
• Does the Texas Constitution limit the legislature to enumerated powers, in light of Article 1, Section 29?
• Has the TNM reached out to Elon Musk, and could a Texian token figure into the proposed sovereign wealth fund?