The General Political Thread

[TheBoberton]

To classify Texas as a nation that is different from the US is somewhat laughable considering pretty much its entire Republican government, including all its presidents and fifty-seven of the sixty signers of its declaration of independence were Americans.

The United States is easily made up of several nations, both culturally and ethnically. The only thing we share collectively is a language, and barely at that.

[DaMonkey]

@Duuring
Texas can't really be 'different than the US' because the US has no standard identity or sense of nationhood. It is however different from other regions of the US, but not the US itself - again because the only common identity the U.S. as a whole can try to claim is baseless corporate consumerism. Rather people admit it or not, the United States is not a nation, it is a country with many nations within it.

You can try to convince me that Texas isn't different from different parts of the U.S., say California for example. But you may as well plan on also telling me how the South doesn't possess its own identity from the Midwest or New England.

The United States is easily made up of several nations, both culturally and ethnically. The only thing we share collectively is a language, and barely at that.

And political citizenship. At least most of us...

[Duuring]

So, just for the sake of the argument, then what was the Texas nation when it was founded in 1836? Because its founders had no common chararistics except being white, English-speaking and American. And slaveholders for the most part, I guess.

[MrTiki]

While we're at it we could make the same argument about many countries, especially ones with very polarised politics and high income inequality, including the UK.

[Duuring]

I was going to make the same argument about the Netherlands and our regional cultures but I don't think people who spend little to no time in the Netherlands would take that argument serious.

[Riddlez]

Well the Dutch was most likely to have a Balkan like crisis.

That said, even Dutch people don't really take it seriously.

[StevenChilton]

While we're at it we could make the same argument about many countries, especially ones with very polarised politics and high income inequality, including the UK.

Polarised politics? Not really. The British Social Attitudes survey consistently shows that political opinions on things like homosexuality, immigration, environment (etc) is fairly uniform throughout the UK. That's not the case in the USA. As to the EU issue I wouldn't take a small but very vocal group of hardcore Europhiles as representative of all those who voted to remain.

Also high income inequality? UK is only slightly above the European average according to the latest Eurostat data.

[MrTiki]

I mean I was more refering to the economic divide between the North and South rather than the Gini coefficient across the entire population, as we were talking about regional differences.
Regional differences were present in the Brexit referendum, also of note being Scotland and London, vastly different to the majority of England, particularly the North. I don't get what you're on about with the small vocal europhiles. You're just as much of an idiot for dismissing 48% (at the time) of the British population who voted as others were for trying to dismiss 52%.

Also in other Brexit news, those "easy to grandfather trade deals" aren't doing too great. 7/69 so far, with several of the ones done so far being with practically irrelevant nations.

[StevenChilton]

Okay, well you did say income inequality. Even in terms of regional inequality the UK is still very average. Almost all countries have geographic economic divides (West Germany vs East Germany, Sun Belt vs Rust Belt, Wallonia vs Flanders etc).

Most of the 48% accept the result and just want to get on with Brexit. Parties that supported the Brexit result got c.90% of the vote at the last general election. If there was some kind of 'culture war' backlash then why didn't the Lib Dems/Greens/SNP do better than they did?

The difficulty with grandfathering is uncertainty over future UK-EU trading arrangements, since much of it hinges on that. Sure some already completed have been done with irrelevant countries, but others (USA, Aus, NZ, Swiss) are our biggest partners after the EU27.

[DaMonkey]

So, just for the sake of the argument, then what was the Texas nation when it was founded in 1836? Because its founders had no common chararistics except being white, English-speaking and American. And slaveholders for the most part, I guess.

Most whites that moved to Texas in the 1830s would have had a Southern identity, since most would have been immigrants from that region. At Texas' founding, I would probably agree with you that there was no unique Texan identity or sense of nationhood in the literal meaning, though its white founders shared identity, both by culture and ethnicity, to the Deep and Upland South. Notwithstanding, Texans today are their own people; having forged their own ethnic and cultural being through the amalgamation - through proximity - of Southern and Mexican influences. A Texans' being are more than just a regional peculiarity, as would be the case between the Upland and Deep South to one another.

[Svensson]

Stop article 13!!!

[Riddlez]

Thank the media industry's lobby for this. This will become a fucking joke. I really hope this will turn into some internet insurgency

[StevenChilton]

Thank the media industry's lobby for this. This will become a fucking joke. I really hope this will turn into some internet insurgency

It's utterly outrageous. The EU Commission won't get re-elected if it carries on like this.

[HaroldW]

Who could have seen this coming

[William]

I, for one, hope that India bloodies Pakistan once again