Okay, Texans are arrogant

And insular. It's not just the fact that we were our own nation for 9 years, though that doesn't hurt. It's an attitude that arises when it's a more than a day's driving to get out of the state. This is a pretty good article on Texas and its political influence in Salon, but as is typical with these articles about Texas, they put all the junk about drawls and cowboy hats and the Alamo at the front and mention that half of D.C. now is Texan towards the end.

Look, Bush's arrogance has little to do with his being a Texan and everything to do with being a spoiled brat from a family that positions itself as the royal family of America. As this article points out, he's no Lyndon Johnson. Johnson's attitude was less "Fuck you!" and more "Listen to me, I'm the boss here." More importantly, Bush isn't what Johnson was--a born and bred Texan. The article won't come out and say it, but I will. Bush is a fake. His accent is fake. Cowboy hats look stupid on him. The big belt buckles are an affectation that I guarantee he'll drop the second he's out of office. He doesn't politic like a Texan, but just hides behind people who do. Good Texas politicians know everything that is going on--Bush tries to know nothing. Good Texas politicians stand up to their critics, but Bush just comes off as whining when he addresses the few criticisms that penetrate the force field his handlers have built around him.