How Texas became a third world country
Texas has always acted like an independent nation within the United States. Texas is nation-sized: about as large as France. Texas thinks it controls its own destiny. It declared its independence from Mexico and broke those shackles in 1835 so they could keep the shackles on their slaves.
Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy in 1861 to continue as a slave state. Even after the Civil War, Texans constantly boasted how they were a leader in oil, gas, beef cattle, agriculture, and obscenely rich bastards. They didn’t need any outside help because they had it all.
So what happened? Texans are now on their knees groveling to the Federal Government for basic needs like water, food, and fuel. How did Texas become the butt of jokes and scorn from China of all places, as a failed state?
The answer is really quite simple: Republican Party governance. Under various Republican administrations over the last several decades, Texas declared independence from federal energy regulations, and except for border towns like El Paso, broke away from the national power grid. Texas was going to have its own power show. Their attitude was: “Hell, we’ve got all the oil, gas, and money we need! We don’t need no damn Yankees telling us how to run our power system!”
And so in the great tradition of Republican voodoo economics, Texas let the “free market” decide how and where the power lines would go. And they would be built with maximum profit for the power barons. Who needs extra funds wasted on winterization in sunny Texas? Let’s pocket those savings into our own pockets. Public safety be damned!
Welcome to climate change in the real world, Texas! Welcome to the world of $17,000 homeowner power bills! Only in Texas can such opportunities for obscene utility profit be possible. How can China criticize that?
