I read the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle every day, because I am interested in Texas. For those of you who have never been to Texas, it is a country on our southern border. Techically, Texas is an American state, but it has never really just been an American state. It is its own place. I worked there for several months four years ago on a project for the Chronicle, and so I got a chance to see Texas up close and get interested in it.
The continuing narrative in Texas is the fight between the vast rural areas of the state and a handful of cities. The rural areas are very conservative, and mostly not growing. And the cities are liberal and prosperous. The cities like to do things their own way, and these things usually are things that rural areas don’t like. And so the Texas state government and legislature are always tryiing to put the cities in their place. Conservative politicians from the rural areas are always running against the cities.
Now someday, the cities may grow to the point where they gain the ability to control state government. It will probably happen, because they are growing and the rest of the state isn’t, so demographics are kind of destiny. When that happens, they will remember the years of hell that the rural legislators and politicians put them through, and they will not be sympathetic to the rural areas.
It would be better if urban and rural areas in states could reach an accommodation and not fight all the time. This is true throughout the South, where urban areas are growing and rural areas aren’t. But as long as rural politicians see political advantage in fighting the cities, it will be difficult to reach such an accommodation. Over time, this is not going to benefit rural areas.