It's unclear whether or not Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) wants to be an American.
Earlier this month Perry signed a bill declaring Texas sovereignty. More recently, Perry told a crowd at a "tea-bagging" party in Austin that he felt Texas has a right to secede from the union if oppression by Washington continues, though he failed to explain what oppression he had experienced.
When pressed further, Perry retreated and said the "union" is good and "there's absolutely no reason to dissolve it." But then he added, "But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that."
Real oppression may be grounds for secession, but "nose-thumbing" is a good reason to destroy the country?
Perry faces a strong primary challenge for his job from popular Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) in next year's gubernatorial election. As weird as it might be to say, Hutchison has a lock on the Texas GOP's moderate voters. She voted for major national legislation like the S-CHIP expansion and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act this year, which the GOP hard right denounced as socialist and a gift to trial lawyers respectively.
So Perry's motives for making talking up secession and "dissolving" the union are motivated by the ins and outs of right-wing politics in Texas. In his effort to keep his job and lay a path for higher office, Perry is appealing to the farthest right-wing of his party and the crackpots and Confederacy lovers he thinks will support his reelection.
Perry's comments are symptoms of the Republican Party's sharp rightward turn since the 2008 election. Much of it is fueled by a hatred for President Obama and his successes and overwhelming popularity. Some of it results from lack of leadership and the floundering that often follows a major electoral loss.
At Political Affairs we see the Republican Party's embrace of its extremist elements as the uncovering of its true colors. It is the party of white supremacy and hate. It is the party of corporations, war and reaction. Indeed, the politics of the Republican Party have devolved so rapidly that many like Rick Perry have resorted to agitating and aligning with extremists with talk of secession and violent opposition to President Obama, the Democrats and the majority that supports them.
This is the extremism that Perry has embraced to satiate his political ambitions.
It's ironic. The Lee Greenwood song, "God Bless the USA," became the anthem of the GOP after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. It's famous line "I'm proud to be an American/where at least I know I'm free," was a repeated refrain for the McCain campaign in 2008, with Greenwood, a California native, making many appearances for McCain and Palin. Now it seems like Perry and some of his supporters are no longer proud to be Americans. It's an example of the right-wing slogan "America: love it or leave it" put to the test.
Maybe Greenwood should work on a new song for Perry called "God Bless Texas."
