How Bad Should I Feel About Being Texan?

After the recent series of floods here in Texas, and after our some of our politicians flip-flopped from saying the federal government can't be trusted to saying that the federal government should help Texas, there's been a lot of predictable laughter about the deep hypocrisy being shown.

My reaction has been mixed. I'm not that crazy about Texas, and I'm appalled at the low quality of some of the politicians who represent the state. On the other hand, I live here, and I've been talking to people who suffered from the floods.

The mockery I've seen online seems justifiable and despicable at the same time.

It's despicable for a couple of reasons. This might be surprising to some people, but not every Texan thinks the same way. Not everyone here thinks that Operation Jade Helm was an attempt to take over Texas. Not everyone here thinks that Obama is a Muslim tyrant. Not everyone here opposed helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy. (In fact, Texas certainly provided a lot of help after Hurricane Katrina. Did you forget that?)

And a lot of people here don't believe in kicking someone when they're down.

But there's also a certain level of justification to the mockery. After all, when your governor plays to the conspiracy nuts' fears of a federal government invasion and then suddenly swings to welcoming federal aid, the only rational response is "WTF?".

What's the real lesson here, and who is it for? I think there's a lesson for the mockers. Did you really have to go with the predictable response? Did you show any intellectual or moral strength by jumping on that bandwagon?

But there's also a lesson for some Texans. You can't have it both ways. You can't just change your standards at the drop of a cowboy hat and expect other Americans to take you seriously. You can't elect embarrassing politicians and expect other Americans to respect you. You can't trash the federal government one week and then look to it for help the next. The charges of hypocrisy, even though they don't apply to all Texans, apply to the state as a whole, and we need to own it.

If you're Texan, have you learned that lesson? Do you realize that as a group, we've earned some of the mockery?

So how bad should I feel about being Texan? Not at all right now. I've seen too much hard work and bravery from Texans in response to the floods, and I'm feeling proud of these people for that. These are Texans at their best, and I'm not going to look down on them just because we elected some representatives with low character.

But if some of these people, especially those elected representatives, haven't learned a lesson about the price of political hypocrisy, then I'm going to feel very bad indeed.