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Who Stands in the Way of ?The Great Wall of Bush?? Rootin?-Tootin? Cowboys from Tejas!

The Associated Press is reporting that the Department of Justice is readying 102 lawsuits against property owners in border states who refuse to grant access to Department of Homeland Security officials selecting sites to build border fences. The Bush administration hopes to erect approximately 370 miles of fence and 300 miles of car barriers along the Mexican border before the end of 2008.

Many property owners refusing access were given a deadline by which to comply. That deadline has passed for most of them and the DOJ will file suit against 11 property owners in Arizona, 20 in California and . . . Good Government, Batman!!! Seventy-one in Texas?!

God love those Texans! They hate the federal government with a passion so absolute that, Bushes? state-wide approval rating notwithstanding (with a national average of just 32% (American Research Group poll, January 6, 2008), more than 50% of Texans approve of the job Bush is doing as president), they would rather go down fighting than give their favored son his wall.

It is no secret that the political culture of Texas is in many ways a Tory Democracy (emphasis on Tory, not so much on democracy) characterized by a codependent relationship between average Texans and the elites they elect to hate government for them. The average Texan is not so much apathetic as he is . . . hell, he thinks he's Shane from the movie of that name! Generally, Texans believe that any effort to improve the functions of government (state or federal) will only end in a worse situation than before, with power shifting toward those elite ruling families that already dominate Texas power politics. After all, folks, this is the state that, recognizing how ridiculous is its present constitution, held a convention in the 1970s, crafted a really fine document that everyone at the convention agreed on, and then failed to vote it out of the convention! Some of its staunchest supporters fled the convention It?s a Wild, Wild, Wild, Wild World-style before the vote was taken! (I get this image of men in suits and Stetson hats running pell-mell for their steer horn-adorned burnt orange and maroon Cadillacs. ?Yee-haw!! Let?s get the hell outa here, Billy Bob!")

The prevalence of Traditionalistic Political Culture in Texas is such that certain families have ruled, are ruling and will rule in the future. But, only so long as they encourage the kind of hate for government that appeals to the average Texan, and only so long as they do not try to use government for any purpose other than to reaffirm Texan's can-do, up-by-the-bootstraps individualism. Otherwise, when government acts (even and especially that big, impersonal, Washington machine run by their big-government conservative ex-governor, George) its actions are intrusive and erode the Texas pioneer spirit.

And this is why George has picked exactly the wrong thing belonging to property owners at the border with which to tamper?their property.While he?s at it, he might consider collecting a few rifles, too. Who knows, if the DOJ successfully prosecutes these property owners, they might decide to revive that Republic of Texas thing they had going in the 1990s!

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on January 10, 2008 (boomark / email).