The Texas Republican Party concluded its holy mission yesterday. By voice vote the party adopted the following as integral to its official platform:
(1) "We believe that the 2020 election violated Article 1 and 2 of the US Constitution," the Texas Republicans said in their new platform. They accuse several secretaries of state of illegal actions, alleging that "substantial election fraud in key metropolitan areas" distorted the results in Biden's favor.
"We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States," the GOP platform stated.
(2) "All gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God given rights."
(3) The need to repeal the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the most successful piece civil rights legislation ever adopted by Congress.
(4) Declares that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifetime choice” and would define marriage as a “covenant only between one biological man and one biological woman.”
(5) It would aboliish abortions.
(6) It would fill schools with “prayer, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments.”
(7) Saying the U.S. government has impaired Texas' right of self-government, the platform calls for rejecting any legislation that conflicts with the state's rights — and it suggests leaving the union might be the answer.
"Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto," the platform stated.
Deeper in the document, the GOP delegates urge state lawmakers to put a referendum on the agenda for the 2023 election, "for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation."
And of course that’s unimaginable. Much as I lament what’s happened in Texas lately—banning abortions, Uvalde shooting, open carry, etc, I know that the GOP in Texas represents only a part of the state, that there are Democrats who live there, that there are pockets of sanity, that the official line of the GOP fails to take into account members who disagree with such a platform, and that following through with such a plan—secession—would bring countless problems to a state that can’t survive the myriad crises it faces without federal assistance.
Besides, I like the chili.