I am hardly the first person one should expect to stand up in defense of my homeland these days. Texas has earned herself a bad reputation as the howling harlot of the religious right. She wears the Bible Belt cinched across her ample expanses like a Baptist grandmother who knows that's all that holds up her once-proud bosom. Texans have lately elected a pair of real prizewinners to occupy the governor's mansion, not to mention Congressional crabasses like Tom Delay. I didn't vote for any of 'em; one could call our politics colorful, if the color of shit is really all that interesting.
That said, I was born here, and for some reason have that strange unearned cultural phenomenon of native pride. My favorite flower is and will always be our state flower, the incomparable bluebonnet (we actually have six state flowers -- we didn't designate just one species of bluebonnet!), and there is still so much more to this dynamic place.
Texas has contributed many beautiful and colorful characters to history. First on my mind are my heroines, all three of whom we were robbed of in less than a year: LadyBird Johnson, Ann Richards, and the irrepressible Molly Ivins.
Though LadyBird wasn't native-born, that's not at issue; she spearheaded programs that make Texas still one of the most stunning states I've ever traveled. We're big, y'see -- 254 counties. I've been to over a hundred and fifty of 'em, and many of our highways are clothed in wildflowers even now, thanks to LadyBird's efforts. You can drive over 900 miles, from Orange to El Paso, and still wind up inside Texas. I'd be willing to bet almost every mile blooms. I live in Austin, and I have to drive at least 4 hours to leave the state. Most of the time, I bitch about that fact, but I can vouch for the wildflowers making those 4 hours a lot more pleasant than my experiences driving North Dakota lengthwise a few years ago. Hundreds of miles of wildflowers is a hell of a lot of eyefood. Thanks, LadyBird. I wish I could've met you. I admire your strength and your power as a woman of your time.
Ann Richards was a class act from start to finish. I'm still sore at her for just kind of giving up and seemingly letting Dubya win...but no one can erase her dig on his daddy when she showed up at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 and said Poppy Bush was "born with a silver foot in his mouth". Everyone who met her (I know quite a number of folks who have) tells me she was nothing but pure Texan kindness, fun to talk to and funny as hell, with a great sense of comedic timing. I love smart, powerful women (can you tell?!), and she's waaaay up there on that list. She and I shared Austin for a decade and I somehow never managed to run into her, something of which I regret not trying harder to make an arranged accident. Throat cancer took her from us, and I remember feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me when I learned she had died. What a loss for Texas and the U.S.A. See? We can elect classy guvs, not just backwards pandering yahoos like Perry.
Molly Ivins called him "Governor Goodhair", and that name appears to've stuck in some quarters. She also called Texas (rightly, I think), the "National Laboratory for Bad Government". I don't think of government as bad, necessarily, but governance here is often a joke. Molly was an amazing, intelligent, sassy Texan woman who I wish was still around to help us remember what real journalism is, because she practiced it. Of these three wonderful Texan women, I got closest to meeting Molly. Somehow -- I have no idea how -- I was invited to a party at her home on the south side of town. It was a big, loud affair with food and drink and liberals everywhere. And out back, there she was, having some kind of poetic recital -- a comedic one -- with friends. It was hilarious. I actually SAW her -- but never got the nerve to just walk up and say hello. Like many other Austinites, when I found out she had died, I just put my head down and cried. Molly died too young (as a birthday card I was once given says, "Only the good die young; we bitches live forever"). I often find myself wondering what she would've said about the war, about this recent election, about Prop 8 (she was an energetic defender of us gay people), and about this vapid, secession-talking empty-headed caricature my state inexplicably re-elected a few years ago. I also frequently imagine how she would have laughed at Sarah Palin...but only those who knew her well could say for sure. I only had the privilege of reading her writing.
My point here is that Texas can produce some first-rate people. Rick Perry may be a fifth-generation Texan. We can't claim full responsibility for Dubya (he was born in Connecticut, and he went to high school and college up there in New England, so at least throw some of your bile their way, won't you?), but he sure did get elected governor of Texas.
But this big state has a lot of smart, progressive people, and we're honestly working to turn these electoral votes blue. Rick Perry is the death call for red Texas; look closer. We're purple, and that purple is going bluer every year that passes. The nature of our population and our politics is changing, and unlike neighboring Oklahoma, we had blue counties. Lots of 'em. Big ones, too. McCain won here, but Obama performed well in spite of our (somewhat deserved) reputation for racism. Heck, Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley voted 84% for Obama! The best response Democrats and the national party can have to that range-rump in our governor's mansion is to make him a target. Let him sing out the craziest crackpot cacophony of wingnut fantasy -- give the man a megaphone! The louder he gets, the bluer Texas will go. With continued work on the part of Democrats here, Texas won't look as red as a baboon's ass in 2012. It might not go blue, but the Republicans will have to compete for it -- especially if Democrats keep registering voters and getting the message out. And by 2016, Texas will be THE swing state -- and I wouldn't be shocked to see it go blue.
This state is a stunner in the physical department -- I know the prevailing image is one of desert and tumbleweeds, but Texas has a varied geography, from cactus- and yucca-clothed desert to bayou-bathed cypress swamps, from wheat-waved plains to the Guadalupe Mountains, high enough that you'd swear you're in Colorado (I mean that -- I've climbed to our highest point there -- it was a new Texas for me). We've got Big Bend and the Big Piney (and 25 million people) all in one tumultuous package. The people are just as variable as the land, in some cases just as welcoming, in others just as ugly.
We know we're saddled with that smack-talking dumbass Rick Perry. Do us a favor and remember that, given proximity and a pot of chili, most of us would whack him with the ladle, too.