Lawrence Wright on why Texas matters to America's future
Pulitzer-prize winning author says Lone Star State has 'inordinate presence' in what U.S. is becoming
According to journalist Lawrence Wright, Texas might be considered the most controversial state in America — but it's also a force to be reckoned with.
The Pulitzer prize-winning author digs deep into the past and present of his home state in his new book, God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State. He argues the red state is an economic and demographic powerhouse with an extraordinary amount of influence that stretches right across the U.S., but he also worries about the direction in which it's heading.
"Texas is really the future," he told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
"For one thing, the economy is a little larger than that of Canada," he explained.
"There are 29 million Texans right now and we're expected to double by the year 2050, at which time we will be about the size of California and New York combined, which is kind of awe-inspiring because it's growing so fast already."
Red politics
The growth is good, Wright said, but as people continue to come to the cowboy state for the jobs, an economy he described as extremely robust for decades, there are "vast political implications depending on which direction Texas decides to go."
"It's the largest red state, and California is the largest blue state. California … has 55 electoral votes which is how we determine our presidents, but it will not add any more on the next census, nor has it added any since 2003," he said.
New York, the third-largest state has, been losing population and electoral votes since the Truman administration. Because of this, Wright believes Texas has room to move forward.
"Texas has 39 electoral votes and we'll get four more," he predicted.
There is a saying of Sam Houston. It says: govern wisely and as little as possible. That's a maxim that Texans take very seriously.- Lawrence Wright
Wright compares California and Texas to biological twins. He sees the states as opposites but also similar.
"We have opposite politics. California hasn't got a single Republican elected statewide, and we haven't elected a Democrat in Texas in more than 20 years," he said.
Wright sees the relationship between the two states as one that revolves and evolves around each other, and said "the dynamic of the entire United States is invested in it."
A maxim Texans take to heart
In his book, Wright describes the Texas legislature as "a recurrent crop of crackpots and ideologues [who have] fed the state's reputation for aggressive know-nothingness and proudly retrograde politics."
The legislature only sits every other year, a relative oddity that might be explained by an inscription on the statue of Sam Houston, a revered Texan hero.
"At the base of the statue, there is a saying of Sam Houston. It says: govern wisely and as little as possible. That's a maxim that Texans take very seriously," said Wright.
Wright is perhaps most concerned about the current state of education in Texas, and its potential implications on the rest of the United States.
According to Center for Public Policy Priorities, one in 10 children in the U.S. live in Texas, a statistic that Wright references in his book.
"Texas has this inordinate presence in the future of America. If you have 10 per cent of all the schoolchildren in the U.S. in Texas, the education we give them will have a lot to do with the future of our country — and the education we're giving them, unfortunately it is a poor one," Wright said.
"That is unacceptable, you know these kids are our future."
Hollywood Texas
In God Save Texas, Wright writes, "Texas really is a place that exists more fully in film than in real life."
He explained that Hollywood played a role in creating a mythical Texas that many associate with the state.
"Texas represented this kind of existential-like Samaria or Judea — but without God."
He described the archetypal concepts associated with Texas: man against the elements, good versus evil or the gunslinger protecting the town against raiders, as visions that slipped into the imagination.
Some of those stereotypes were not on screen but written, as was the case in Edna Ferber's book Giant.
Wright said Texans were horrified when the book first came out in 1952. A film adaptation followed in 1956.
"They felt demeaned," he told Tremonti, by the portrayal of the characters that included a rancher with a field the size of several states, underpaid Hispanic workers, and the hired hand who strikes oil and becomes the richest man in Texas.
"But when the movie came out, they couldn't stop watching it."
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This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.