Don't Mess With Texas

About 11:45 AM, 05 March 2024, I rode up Deer Valley's Viking lift with a sixty-five something guy. Here's my recollection of the dialogue:

Mwah (sic): Good morning.

Texas: Good morning. Wow, these ski conditions are great. What a great day.

Mwah (sic): Local?

Texas: No. I'm here on a ski vacation. I was born in Louisiana, but I moved to Texas thirty years ago.

Mwah (sic): I like your governor. He has cojones on the border crisis.

Texas: Texas is hot, hot, hot! Texas is firing on all eight cylinders. I love living in Texas. People are trying to figure out a way for Abbott to get a fourth term. He's fantastic. Look. I'm about ready to become the person the left accuses me of being. I'm ready to lock and load. Let them come after me and find out the mistake they made.

Mwah (sic): Well, we've only been on this lift for two minutes, but I have the sense that we share a lot in common in terms of our political views.

After separating from Texas at the top of the Viking lift, I smiled to myself about the guy's comment about how the left stereotypes Trump supporters: gun totting, redneck cultists etc. The best work I've seen to disabuse of this absurd stereotype is Salena Zito and Brad Todd's book, "The Great Revolt."

The authors categorized 2016 Trump supporters into six categories:

Red-Blooded and Blue Collared
Perot-istas
Rough Rebounders
Girl Gun Power
Rotary Reliables
King Cyrus Christians

My fellow lift rider from Texas seemed well heeled and was likely in the college educated (more likely petroleum engineering than English Lit) Rotary Reliables category. Texas was not a redneck cultist by any stretch of imagination. But he was so angry at being mischaracterized by the left, that he said he was thinking about becoming one. Funny!