If “Brexit” why not “Texit”?

Of course nearly every post has been covering the possible Brexit and the upcoming referendum on Thursday. There have been many people speaking out on the possible close run on whether the UK will stay or leave the EU. Moreover, many of you have focused on questioning the arguments and tactics that both sides evince and in how far the death of Jo Cox will be influencing the outcome of the referendum. That is why I decided to find a topic that is related to the Brexit, but still something nobody has stated his or her opinion about so far.

I will be spending a year abroad in Texas and therefore became quite interested when I read about nationalists in Texas following the impending referendum very closely. Apparently people in Texas see the Brexit referendum as an inspiration to break away from the USA. Especially Daniel Miller, the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, hopes to take the “Brexit” movement as a role model to secede from the United States. He is in regular contact with people from the leave campaign in the UK. Miller is also of the opinion that the relationship between the UK and the EU is similar to the one between Texas and the USA. He says Brussels can be replaced by Washington D.C. But what makes him think this way? I must say that I don’t think the relations are comparable because for Texas it is enshrined that it is not allowed to withdrawal from the United States. This decision was made by the Supreme Court in 1867. But I could still imagine a possible recall from the United States if there were enough people wanting to secede from the United States. One of the arguments the Republicans that want to leave mention is that Texas once claimed to be its own nation before the United States absorbed it. I still believe that there would be more people voting against leaving the US because too many Texans feel to be part of the USA for a reason and do not believe that Texas has the potential to “survive” independently from the US. Furthermore, Texas has not that many inhabitants in comparison to its size. Texas has 36 inhabitants per square kilometer on a land surface of 695.621 km² so an overall population of 25.145.561 (in 2010). If Texas was to secede from the US, I could imagine an increase of the urbanization which is already a problem nowadays. Most people live near the bigger cities in the metropolitan areas like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or Austin.

Overall I have to say that I don’t believe Texas will secede from the United States in the near future just like Great Britain will not leave the European Union hopefully. I think I could understand why Texans would want to become independent, but on the other hand I think there would be a need of a real concept in how Texas would want to persist without being led by the government of the United States in Washington D.C. To be honest I am not quite sure why Texans would want to leave one of the countries with the greatest economic power in the world. Other than that I am hoping that the British make the right decision and do not try to leave the European Union! We will see in how far this hope will be fulfilled… What we know already from what we saw the last few weeks is that the vote will be a head-to-head race.