Heads Swimming, Toes Up

Everyone I talk to these days seems to be a little (or a lot) out of sorts since the reelection of our peerless leader, George Walker Bush. It's as if all people left of the ideological center have been cut from their moorings and are drifting in the deep, dark waters of confusion, self-doubt and ineffectuality. I suppose we are now experiencing a little of what it feels like to live as one of the racial minorities in our country. America's leaders don't represent us and we are forced to carve out a life in a world that is hostile to us and our ideals. It's a refugee's life.

Well that's precisely how I felt last week in Texas while spending Thanksgiving with my brother and his new fiance in the suburbs of San Antonio. Dizzied by dodging big honking 4x4s, I found myself often stumbling into giant chain restaurants and spending most of my time lost in sprawling superstripmalls. No amount of Shiner Bock could dull the feelings of resentment I had for Texas and its whole 'biggest of everything' ethos. Especially troublesome for me were the ubiquitous American flags and ribbon decals sporting the message 'Texas supports our troops'.

Texans like to believe that they are the most American of Americans -- which may be the case, but not in a way that should make one proud. The decals (one of which adorns the bumper of my brother's enormous pickup truck) seem to me to send the message that while Texas supports our troops, certain other states may not. I imagine that if you polled Texans that a significant number would hold the belief that states like California and Massachusetts do not support our troops -- or at least don't support them as much as Texas.

It seems to me that most Texans support the Bush administration first and our troops second. I would argue that California's protestors, activists and progressive pundits are more actively backing our troops than the bumper-sticker patriots of Texas who vote for hawks, keep us dependent on foreign oil by driving gas-guzzling behemoths, alienate our former allies by renaming french fries and the such, and ignore the fact that their beloved GWB cuts funding for veterans and first responders and can't adequately outfit our military (though he seems to find money for private contractors to give their workers the best of everything). They do all this while accumulating bumper stickers, plastic flags and decals like high schoolers at a pep rally.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of things I like about Texas, especially Austin, like great BBQ, South by Southwest, good Mexican food, some quality publications like the Texas Observer, and of course that story about Ozzy Osbourne pissing on the Alamo. And I don't count my brother as part of what's wrong with Texas -- he's going to Iraq next month to be a hospital administrator and before that he'll mercifully sell that pickup. I also quite liked my brother's fiance and her family -- often Texans are among the most personable people you'll meet. But as a state, they have to meet the rest of the country halfway. I'm tired of people letting them get away with everything saying 'Oh, that's just how Texas is'.

Texas needs a little more Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins and a little less Tom DeLay and Ken Lay. They need to first realize that they aren't even the biggest state. Then they need to realize that going big isn't always the best way. Then they need to realize that people in other parts of the country, and yes, other parts of the world are a lot like them and want many of the same things that they do, though they express it in a different way.

But before I get too uppity about Texas I should remember that 2.8 million Texans voted for Kerry. Two of the most interesting images of my trip to Texas were a teenage boy wearing a 'Not My President' t-shirt in front of the Alamo and a middle-aged single mother in a business suit panhandling by the entrance to the San Antonio airport. Clearly Texas has big problems too, just like the rest of us.