Civil War Film Should Be Required for GOP
Candidates Who Signed Secession Pledge
Capitol Inside
April 14, 2024
The epic new movie Civil War gives Texas nationalists and countless Republican politicians who pander to them in overt or passive fashion a terrifying glimpse of the catastrophe they could be inviting if their visions of the Lone Star State as an independent nation ever came true.
The chilling dystopian thriller that A24 released on Friday would be a five-alarm wake-up call about the wages of historical divisiveness and polarization in a country that's been destroyed by secessionist revolutionaries who are trying to take down a fascist president.
The film that reaped $26 million at the box office on opening weekend features a pair of strong and relatively fearless females in the lead roles as photo journalists who are played by actors Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny. The women are on a team of war correspondents who work for the news agency Reuters and end up embedded with a blood-thirsty squad of insurrectionist warriors as they descend on the nation's capital with the killing of the president as the ultimate goal.
Director Alex Garland insists that the filmmakers were not taking side in the current brawling between red and blue states. Nick Offerman, who played the president, has denied that the character was patterned after Donald Trump, saying that the former president's name never came up in the project. The president, who isn't identified by name in the movie, has abolished the FBI, ordered air strikes against fellow Americans and decided to stay on for a third term.
With British auteur Alex Garland as the director, the movie is terrifying, taut and far-fetched in some respects. Polar political opposites Texas and California - for example - are partners in one of three secessionist alliances doing battle with the federal government and loyalist states. The revolutionaries somehow have tanks and sophisticated war planes that no state or group of states could afford. Nineteen states are part of the insurrection that's destroyed American cities while leaving rural areas in denial of its existence. The front lines are in Charlottesville, Virginia - the college town that was rocked by a white supremacist demonstration in 2017. Washington D.C. is ground zero - the ultimate destination.
The movie is or should be a must-see for three dozen Republicans who signed a Texas Nationalist Movement pledge to fight for a vote on secession if elected as candidates for state House and Senate seats on the primary ballot here in March.
Four Republicans - Janet Holt of Silsbee, Mitch Little of Lewisville, Shelley Luther of Sherman and Wes Virdell of Brady - won nominations last month in Texas House races after adding their signatures to the Take Texas Back pledge. GOP State Rep. Steve Toth of The Woodlands is the only incumbent lawmaker in Texas to signed the TNM pledge up to now.
Three Republicans - David Covey of Orange, Andy Hopper of Decatur and David Lowe of Fort Worth - also have vowed in writing to fight for a referendum on secession as challengers in primary runoff duels with Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont and State Reps. Stephanie Klick of Fort Worth and Lynn Stucky of Sanger respectively.
GOP primary voters rejected eight out of every 10 secessionists in House races last month. But Abbott, Patrick and Paxton have yet to take a position for or against the move for a vote on the departure of Texas from the U.S. even though support House contenders who claim that they do.
Holt has been the most popular of the incoming secessionists among the state's three highest-ranking statewide officials - scoring endorsements from Abbott, Patrick and Paxton for a bid that culminated in her unseating State Rep. Ernest Bailes of Shepherd in round one this year. All three endorsed Toth for re-election as well in 2024.
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is the only statewide leader who's signed the Take Texas Back promise. Abbott, Patrick and Paxton may have chosen to stay mum on secession in light of the fact that they would lose the powerful posts they have now if Texas seceded. Miller might have a shot at the presidency of an independent Texas - and that could be an incentive to sacrifice his current job in such an event.
Abbott threw his support before the first primary vote behind Holt, Toth and Stormy Bradley for a race that she lost in round one to State Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo. Patrick has issued endorsements to a trio of secessionists in Covey, Toth and Holt. Paxton supported 25 secession referendum advocates including Toth, Holt, Covey, Bradley, Lowe, Hopper and Luther in the first round.
The nationalist group promise roll includes Abraham George - a candidate for Texas GOP chair after an unsuccessful bid to unseat State Rep. Candy Noble of Lucas at the polls last month. Paxton backed George against Noble.
more to come ... |
