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Presents a portrait of the state of Texas, with an emphasis on political structures and the origins of the attitudes of former Texas governor George W. Bush. I don't know whether to warn you that because George Dubya Bush is President the whole damn country is about to be turned into Texas, or if I should try to stand up for us and convince the rest of the country we're not all that insane. So, how come trying to explode myths about Texas always winds up reinforcing them? Here's the deal on Texas. It's big. So big there's about five distinct and different places here, separated from one another geologically, topographically, botanically, ethnically, culturally and climatically. Hence our boring habit of specifying East, West and South Texas, plus the Panhandle and the Hill Country. But what still makes Texas Texas is that it's ignorant, cantankerous and ridiculously friendly. Texas is still resistant to Howard Johnsons, Interstate highways and some forms of phoniness. It is the place least likely to become a replica of everyplace else. It's authentically awful, comic and weirdly charming, all at the same time. Culturally, Texans rather resemble both Alaskans (hunt, fish, hate government) and Australians (drink beer, hate snobs). If you want to understand George W. Bush--unlike his daddy, an unfortunate example of a truly Texas-identified citizen--you have to stretch your imagination around a weird Texas amalgam: religion, anti-intellectualism and machismo. The politics are probably the weirdest thing about Texas. The state has gone from one-party Democrat to one-party Republican in thirty years. We like to think we're "past race" in Texas, but of course East Texas remains an ugly, glaring exception. The myth of rugged individualism continues to afflict a generation raised entirely in suburbs with names like "Flowering Forest Hills of Lubbock.".
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