The matter of whether Rick Perry has advocated secession arose on Fox News last night. He insisted that he has never used the s-word, except to refer to signs at tea party rallies that say “SECEDE.” As far as I know, he is right.

Here is what Perry did say back on April 15, 2009, during a raucous aftermath of an Austin tea party rally, when a reporter shouted out:

“Some have associated you with the idea of secession or sovereignty for your state.…”

Perry replied, “Texas is a unique place. When we came in the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that.”

Not true, and it’s rather amazing that Perry made such an egregious historical error. He didn’t use the s-word, but what he did say was incorrect. Texas did not enter the union with the right “to be able to leave if we decided to do that.” It’s pretty much American History 101 that states don’t have the right to leave the Union. Hundreds of thousand of Americans gave their lives to preserve that principle. (more…)

Tagged: American History 101, rick perry, s-word, secede, secession

America could have two governors who favor secession after the November elections. The other would be congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee, who is trailing Bill Haslam by 36% to 25% in the latest Mason-Dixon poll.

The Hotline quotes Wamp as saying that Tennessee and other states “may have to consider seceding from the union if the federal government does not change its ways regarding mandates.”

“Said Wamp: ‘I hope that the American people will go to the ballot box in 2010 and 2012 so that states are not forced to consider separation from this government.”

The Hotline goes on to say, “He went on to praise Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) who suggested the same remedy last year.”

Tagged: secession

A writer for the online Texas Republic News (“Dios, Libertad, y Tejas”) has discovered that Texas Monthly once advocated that the state secede from the Union. It’s true. The cover story (“Is Texas Too Big for its Britches?”) ran in January 1975, and we sold a lot of magazines. We knew that secession sells 34 years before Rick Perry did.

“I thought it kind of amusing that among those weighing in on the matter was Texas Monthly’s Paul Burka,’ writes author James Aalan Bernsen, ‘who loudly proclaimed that bringing up secession and independence made Perry look like a kook. It’s like the “S” word was somehow poisonous, racist or hate-filled.” (No, just, well, kooky.)

Editorial by James Aalan Bernsen – Texas Republic News

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Tagged: secession, texas monthly, texas republic news

John Sharp has a spot on YouTube criticizing his former, or perhaps current, and possibly even future friend Rick Perry for his remarks about secession. Here is the text of “The Greatest Country on Earth,” in which Sharp does not mention Perry by name:

During World War II my father was shot in defense of the greatest country on Earth, and I proudly wore the uniform of a United States Army reserve officer. So I’m offended when it becomes acceptable for anybody to talk about Texas leaving the Union. I’m running for the United States Senate because we need mainstream, common-sense leadership to clean up the mess in Washington, D.C., not a bunch of radical, anti-American rhetoric. I’m John Sharp and you bet I approve this message.

The words “mainstream,” “common-sense,” and “leadership” appear on screen as Sharp utters them.

Sharp looks, well, sharp in the spot, but it struck me as weird that, as a candidate for the Senate, he attacked the governor. Sharp has a problem with some Democrats who are less than thrilled that he bailed Perry out of a tight spot by agreeing to lead the campaign for a reformed business tax in 2006, giving Perry cover for passing a tax that was identified more with Sharp than with Perry. I hear reports that Perry and Sharp remain close and talk frequently; this makes me think more of both of them, but I doubt that Democrats would have the same reaction. The YouTube video allows Sharp to try to distance himself from Perry.

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Tagged: John Sharp, rick perry, secession, texas senate

The secession controversy generated by Rick Perry has a long history in Texas politics, going all the way back to Sam Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar, the first and second presidents of the Republic of Texas. The two presidents had totally different visions of Texas, which persist today. Houston recognized that Texas did not have the economic resources to succeed as an independent nation. Following the victory at San Jacinto, he immediately sought annexation with the United States. President Andrew Jackson, Houston’s longtime friend, favored annexation, but could not overcome opposition to the spread of slavery. The best that Houston could achieve was Jackson’s recognition of the Republic on the president’s last day in office.

Lamar had no interest in annexation. He was a reckless adventurer who sent an expedition to Santa Fe to bring that trading center under Texas’s control–it failed–and dispatched privateers to harass Mexican shipping. Like Perry, he reveled in Texas’s separateness, but Lamar brought the state to near ruin. Houston returned to the presidency to find the state saddled with a $5 million debt and on the verge of hostilities with Mexico. “[Lamar],” historian David McComb has written, “had released demons which proved hard to recapture.” Indeed.

The two Texases continue to exist today, one grounded in myth, one grounded in reality, one resisting change and suspicious of modernity, the other embracing them. They have waged intense political battles over the years. Mythic Texas fiercely resisted the change to daylight savings time, the legalization of liquor by the drink, and the end of blue laws that restricted commercial activity on Sundays, but all became law. Conflicts between the two Texases often appear to be battles between rural and urban Texas, but this is an oversimplification: The cities are filled with people whose roots and sympathies are rural.

I am writing about the two Texases because of the widely disparite reactions to Rick Perry’s “threat” of secession. Our magazine has made a good living out of celebrating the state’s myths, but secession was not, shall we say, a positive event. Most of the people I talk to about Perry’s remarks are appalled by them. But those I know who inhabit Mythic Texas think that he struck a chord with a certain segment of the state’s population. I disagree. The political races that most clearly exemplified the split between the two Texases were the 1948 U.S. Senate race between Lyndon Johnson and Coke Stevenson, and the 1990 governor’s race between Ann Richards and Clayton Williams. These were explicitly races between the new and the old, and the forces of change and modernity won both races (although Johnson’s victory was tainted). I think Perry’s remarks will do far more to hurt him than to help him.

Tagged: republic of texas, rick perry, sam houston, secession