T-rex Arms

by Secret Lion

(one in an intermittent series of very quick thoughts about possible futures)

One star, shining in the sky for freedom, yes? Or no? This future assumes that Texas decides to secede from the Union, and, rather than kill off the rebels, for some reason the U.S. Government comes to an arrangement with them. Immediately, of course, a number of other U.S. states begin to talk about the same thing, and it seems like the United States is going to fall apart.

Except… immediately after that, cut off from the U.S. and unwilling to accept aid from Mexico, the newly free citizens of Texas find that they are forced to accept corporate help in order to keep their budget together… and make other deals in order to keep goods flowing so that the people don’t immediately want to go back to the States. But that isn’t even the biggest problem — the biggest problem is the jackals, agents of the drug cartels who decide that a weak state between two North American powers would be very useful to them. And so they come, and no fat white militia sprinkled with ex-soldiers is going to be able to stand up to the brutal fuckers who regularly murder police officials and mayors back home and have spent decades fighting multiple governments.  The massacre is brutal — not only the militias, but in many cases their families are murdered, tortured to death, burned out of their homes, made examples of.

Mexico does nothing — after all, the Texans didn’t want them in their country, and kicked some Mexican and Mexican-American families across the border.  The United States does nothing — it’s only too happy to show other would-be secessionists what happens when you wander from Daddy’s secure embrace. By the end of the week, Texas is a hollow-state, controlled by drug cartels wherever it isn’t being run by transnational corporations who want what limited resources the state has left in exchange for basic services.

Between privatized resources, and security guarantees from the jackals, Texas’ officials are puppets who are allowed to mouth the empty pieties of new independence while being able to do little. This unfortunate situation sends a chill through the American Secession movement, which reverts to passing bills through Congress to limit the federal government’s power.

Three years later, the emboldened cartels take over a privately-owned water company and hold its employees hostage.  The German parent company complains to the UN.  In a unanimous vote, the Security Council approves military action. Led by the US and Mexico, the cartels are deposed, and Texans are vote in a referendum to return to being part of the United States rather than allow their territory to be split by US and Mexico or remaining a poor underdeveloped country. The referendum is by no means unanimous.

A small but vocal group of Texans continue to talk about succession, but no one seriously listens to them.