If you want to drive Wisconsin liberals insane, you can do one of two things: (1) mention the words “President Walker,” or (2) talk about Texas.

Hollywood Republican does the latter:

Erica Grieder book, “Big, Hot, Cheap and Right: What America Can Learn From the Strange Genius of Texas”  lays out an interesting case for why the Texas miracle of this young century is worth looking at. …

The first aspect that she discusses is Texas history, in which limited government became ingrained in most Texans DNA. From the beginning of The Texas story most Texans were governed by incompetency.  Griede covers the rule under Mexican dictator Santa Anna, and a brief history with the confederacy and reconstruction after the Civil War, when Texans saw government at its worst.  Ms. Grieder makes the point that many Texans found themselves depending upon each other as opposed to a central government and when given a chance to write their constitution, they restricted the power of their state government. …

The first is that the Texas ideal of limited government works and while many critics view the Texas miracle as a mirage, it is a fact.  For every low wage job earner created, a high pay job earner has been created as well.  The Texas job creation has increase jobs from the top to the bottom.  As workers come to Texas for opportunities, they added to the economic strength of the State.  So the idea that Texas is nothing but McJobs is false as many high paying jobs have been created.  If anything, Texas has done a better job of creating higher paying in the United States than Obamanomics has been doing creating temporary and minimum jobs.  Many of Texas critics have been responsible for promoting an economic theory responsible for the creation of McJobs than Texas.

While many would say that Texas oil is the key to development, they would be right but not for the reason they state. The reason is that oil has played a role into Texas economic development is because Texans love business and they love making money. They have chosen to develop their resources and they don’t feel guilty about it. States like Illinois and California have similar access to energy resource but they have failed to develop those resources for the benefit of their state.

Grieder makes a great point that one key to Texas development is that Texans view business being profitable a good thing and since Texas has limited restraint on their government, they have appreciated the need for a vigorous private sector. Texans don’t expect much from government and there is many private-public cooperation and while Texans do benefit from Federal matching funds, they contributed far more to the Federal government than they take out. …

Texans may be viewed as bunch of right wing extremists but as Grieder noted, there is a pragmatic nature to Texas politics.  On immigration policy, most Texans including many Republicans have taken a more moderate approach toward immigration reform and there were times in the 2012 primary that Perry was attacked by immigration restrictionists.  Texans never viewed the Arizona approach as one that won’t work for them. …

The real lesson that we can learn from Texas is government should be limited and more importantly we should accept that for economic growth to happen, you have to respect the business class, not to mock them.  Grieder observed that one thing that a business operating in Texas knows, government is limited and the rules are consistent year in and year out.  If you love your business class, you will have economic growth.  By limiting government by fiat, Texans forced themselves to depend upon each other through their various civil societies such as Churches or local community organization.  The Texas Rangers started out as an independent force, not really associated with the government but a quasi-paramilitary organization to enforce what laws that existed.  The other aspect is that Texans learned not to depend upon government for their salvation but instead allow their private sector to grow not just in the economic sphere but the civil sphere beyond the government.  For Texans, government is but one actor in a greater society as oppose to being the state.  As the bureaucratic state collapses, the Texas ideals will be the prevalent idea to draw from.

“Love business” and “love making money”? “Business being profitable” as “a good thing”? “Don’t expect much from government”? Yes, Texas is definitely the anti-Wisconsin.