On my more recent longish drives around the Spanish Moss hinterlands of rural Brazoria and Matagorda counties, I’ve started to notice an apparent, if long-delayed, trend toward removal of Trump banners and yard signs. (Though my favorite, one reading “Trump 2020” over the outline of an assault rifle which in turn is above the words “Social Distance This,” still proudly faces the Hug-the-Coast Highway between Old Ocean and Bay City.)
Which is a relief, albeit one tempered by the fact that at several of these backwoods Trumpist lairs, new banners and signs have been unfurled, political advertising that recalls Townes Van Zandt’s old recommendation that was all “Cheer up — it only gets worse.” Because it does — on just a few miles of sparsely populated Brazoria County highway a couple of days ago, I counted no fewer than three signs urging on the Texit.
Just a few yayhoos on a country road? Maybe. But halfway across the state, the secessionist movement has an elected official championing the glorious cause: state rep Kyle Biedermann, Republican of Comal, Kendall, and Gillespie counties, each better known by their respective seats (and the gorgeous terrain over which they sprawl): running from the SE to the NW, those seats are New Braunfels, Boerne, and Biedermann’s hometown of Fredericksburg, where he owns a hardware store. Much of German Texas, in other words.
Given the heritage apparent in his surname and his Teutonic appearance, you’d think Biedermann would have known better to attend a Halloween soiree dressed as “Gay Hitler” a few years back, but that would be to overestimate Biedermann’s good sense. Or maybe his give-a-fuckness, because he certainly does lack the latter.
Anyway, in late January Der Führer von Fredericksburg filed a bill in hopes of bringing about a referendum on secession.
“For decades, the promises of America and our individual liberties have been eroding,” Biedermann said in a statement. “It is now time that the People of Texas are allowed the right to decide their own future. This is not a left or right political issue. Let Texans Vote!”
Biedermann has set up a petition page that has now garnered about 19,000 signatures, short of the 20,000 he hoped to reach weeks ago. His proposal has been pooh-poohed by the media as a publicity stunt and some fellow Texas Republicans denounced it in no uncertain terms.
One such was Jeff Leach, rep for the whackadoodle northern Dallas suburbs.
While that’s comforting to read, given the source, I have to wonder if Leach is as aligned with his constituents as he seems to believe he is. As we pointed out here yesterday, 19 of them (and possibly counting) have been arrested in connection with the Trump Riot of January 6. Note: not 19 Texans — 19 people from Leach’s district.
Oh and as it happens, Der Führer von Fredericksburg was also in attendance, though whether or not he breached the Capitol is still under investigation. Per the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, Biedermann was spotted close, very close, to the portals to felonious behavior, and in prior interviews, he’s been ornery about answering questions regarding his whereabouts that day.
On January 14, eight days after the riot, he had this to say:
“That’s old news — why don’t you ask about the Legislature? That’s a shame — you guys are a shame … If you want to know about old news, then just go to the TV where you can watch all the old stuff you want. It’s just unfortunate — it’s old news.”
In the same article, Herald-Zeitung reporter Will Wright noted the then-upcoming appearance of Daniel Miller, leader of the Texas Nationalist Movement. Miller was to speak at an event hosted by the Comal County Republican Party. In a pre-speech interview, he said sour grapes over Biden’s defeat of Trump had nothing, nothing at all to do with a rice in secessionist sentiment.
“Is there some driving force here that suddenly has made it about Trump? Absolutely not. People don’t just wake up one day and say, ‘Well, because I didn’t get my way in these elections, suddenly I want Texas to withdraw from the union.’ Those issues didn’t just show up on the first Tuesday of November.”
Nothing, he continued, could be more American than wanting to withdraw from America: “Having this conversation is very fundamental to the American character. Any attempt to squash having this conversation, or to deny the people the right to vote on it, is in and of itself very un-American.”
Biedermann, who has somewhat recently, and ominously, sprouted the goatee requisite of the Tacticool Right Wing Revolutionary Cadres, wholeheartedly agreed:
“As I watch how out-of-touch the elite politicians are in Washington D.C. to the voices of God-fearing Americans and the radical nature of the Democratic Party, it only renews my resolve to fight to give Texans the right to vote on Texit.”
So yeah. Like Townes said, “Cheer up, it only gets worse.” Because they can’t have Trump, they want to take their ball and go home, and drag all the rest of us with them toward Third World status. (Yes, we have a lot of oil. So does Nigeria. And Mexico. And Venezuela.)
For now, the movement is small, but in a country where Q Anon politicians can get elected to Congress, no crazy idea, no matter how stupid, can safely be said to be off the table.
An independent Texas would lean towards theocracy.
The last time Texas tried this nation-thing, it was no huge success. Read your history.