Many Texans fear that immigrants from California will vote for politicians who support the same policies that are destroying the Golden State. Their solution is to discourage such immigration.
But Texas, like America, was founded by immigrants. Stephen Austin and Sam Houston, the brave men who died at Goliad and the Alamo, those who settled Texas were immigrants. We should not forget these facts.
Texans are proud of our heritage, and rightfully so. For many of us, our ancestors endured great hardship to make a better life for themselves and their family by moving to Texas. For many of us, we took risks to leave what was comfortable and known in the hope of making a better life for ourselves and our family by moving to Texas. Virtually everyone who lives in Texas is either an immigrant or has ancestors who were. Immigrants aren’t the problem. The ideas that dominate our politics are.
Many Texans believe that the way to combat bad ideas is by discouraging or preventing immigration. But ideas know no boundaries. Bad ideas haven’t been injected into the culture by immigrants. Bad ideas have been injected into the culture by professors, journalists, authors, and other intellectuals. These intellectuals have embraced a litany of bad ideas, and they have spread those ideas to others through their teaching, writing, and lectures.
Certainly, many immigrants bring bad ideas with them. But many, many Texans have embraced the same bad ideas and have done so for generations. It isn’t Californians (or any other immigrants) who pose a threat to Texas. The threat is the ideas that most Texans have long accepted and embraced.
Most Texans support the idea of democracy, that the majority should be able to impose its values on the minority. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, anti-sodomy laws are three historical examples. More recent examples are restrictions on short-rentals and preservation ordinances. In each of these examples, the values of the majority were/are imposed on individuals. These laws and ordinances weren’t passed because of a sudden influx of immigrants. They were passed because they had the support of those already living in Texas, many from families that have lived in the state for generations. They were passed because of the belief that the majority can and should impose its values upon individuals. The fundamental problem is bad ideas. The solution is good ideas, namely, the defense and protection of individual rights, including property rights.