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Texan declares own brand of secession

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The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas Daniel Miller’s warm baritone and easy patter peg him for the radio personality he is.

He begins his pitch before the three dozen people in a La Quinta conference room by rolling up his sleeves. He’s not here to discuss the normal topic of succeeding in business but rather, the business of seceding.

Miller heads the Texas Nationalist Movement, a group that lays claim to 250,000 members and seeks to win independence for Texas.

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This summer, he and his group have toured more than 21 cities, sharing ideas, answering skeptics and inviting disenchanted Texans to leave a less-than-perfect union and dream of a country that looks and acts like the Lone Star State.

“I am not the man of La Mancha,” Miller says of his quixotic quest.

No, he is the man from Nederland. And he has a mission and a game plan.

Whether uniting those angry with Washington or tapping into the genetic swagger of Texas exceptionalism, the separatist movement has attracted a following. It threatens to shanghai a part of the Republican primary election and become a political force that feeds off the same revolutionary rhetoric of the tea party.

Part of the power is the 42-year-old Miller, who aims to separate his movement from the litigious and violent iterations secessionism has spawned before.

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He punctuates talk of self-determination with quotes from James Madison and Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He reminisces about the man who raised him his grandfather, an East Texas iron worker who always felt let down by the politicians he worked to elect.

He argues that the opponents of Texas independence are not Congress, the president and the Supreme Court. “It’s fear, doubt and hopelessness,” he said.

Miller brings the conviction of a grass-roots organizer and the sales pitch of a time-share marketer. He makes the absurd seem plausible and the disaffected feel welcome.

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His members have repeatedly gone to Austin to talk with lawmakers. “We’ve bombarded their switchboards. We’ve delivered petitions. We’ve shown up at their offices. Our supporters have just worn those guys to pieces,” he said.

He says he has heard them say, “Show us a movement of the people,” so that’s what he intends to do.

The group has a goal of gathering 75,000 signatures on a petition by Dec. 1 that would force a nonbinding referendum on secession onto the Republican primary ballot in March. It would carry no weight, but Miller believes it would spur a populist surge toward a real and binding election on secession.

On Aug. 29, the group held sign-the-petition gatherings in 30 cities.

As farfetched as it seems and legal scholars largely agree that the Civil War settled the question for good Miller is convinced Texas could peacefully leave the union. He points to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken last year that shows the idea of withdrawing from the United States is strongest in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona 1 in 3 favored the move. Among those who are tea party adherents, 53 percent thought it a good idea.

The Republican Party of Texas is not amused that their primary ballot could be used as the next poll.

They are aware of the petition drive, but aren’t rooting for it.

“Our preference is that Republicans choose what’s on the Republican primary ballot,” said party spokesman Aaron Whitehead.

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University of Texas at Austin political scientist Jim Henson, who conducts regular polls, said he’s aware of the Reuters poll but believes that the question invited a whole mix of attitudes.

“It’s one thing to symbolically drive around with a ‘Secede!’ bumper sticker on your car and it’s another to recommend this as a real thing,” he said.

The notion hits people’s frustration with the federal government and leadership, and so they vent with a pollster, Henson said.

“I have no doubt that attitude exists out there. But people who hold that attitude in a serious way are exceedingly rare,” he said.

Former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he communicated with Miller and the nationalists and understands where they’re coming from.

“Frankly, some of the things that he believes are not that far out there. We all have the right of self-determination. I’m not saying I’m an advocate of this; I’m certainly not. But frankly, he’s not that really far off base,” said Patterson, a Republican.

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James Gillian, wearing a Willie for President T-shirt, is a Fayette County volunteer firefighter and came to Austin to hear Miller and others with the movement explain their organization.

He said he is angered by Supreme Court decisions and presidential executive actions that limit his rights and upend laws passed by Texans, whether on a voter-identification requirement or the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

“We don’t want to overturn the government of Texas or the United States,” Gillian said. “What we want is a divorce.”

The idea of Texas leaving the nation isn’t new. Then-Gov. Rick Perry paid it deference in 2009, saying he understood how frustration with the federal government could lead people to consider it.

A 2012 petition to the White House on allowing “Texas to withdraw” from the union collected 125,746 signatures many from non-Texans, perhaps more motivated by the idea of booting Texas out instead of letting it leave.

And before all that, the separatists calling themselves the Republic of Texas began by threatening elected officials with phony legal summonses, minting their own money and arguing Texas never legally joined the United States. That group became notorious after a 1997 West Texas hostage-taking, standoff and gunbattle. Former leader Richard L. McLaren remains in prison.

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The Republic of Texas is still active and holds monthly “congressional” meetings. The president of the group could not be reached for comment.

The Texas Nationalist Movement is “the antithesis” of the Republic of Texas, Miller said.

“We walk a straight and narrow path,” he said. “We’ve been able to make friends within the Capitol. Influence legislation. Influence elections. Represent the cause of Texas independence on an international stage.”

Indeed, the group made a bit of a splash when it accepted a Russian invitation and air fare last year to attend a conference of separatist organizations, which included some fascist and neo-Nazi groups.

He acknowledged criticism that Russia used the Texas movement for propaganda, “but we can’t be chilled into inaction” when given the opportunity to spread the word, he said.

Miller has been working at this cause for 19 years. He said there was no catalyst, just a realization that Washington was irrevocably broken and that no new president can fix it.

“The greatest disconnect is just trying to elect a new captain of the Titanic,” he said.

What makes him think that governance by Texas politicians would be any better?

“For whatever good or bad comes of that, you have to have faith in the people of Texas to do the right thing,” Miller said.

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He will never concede that it’s impossible, but he does acknowledge that building up a movement will take time.

“The American Revolution did not start July 3, 1776,” Miller said.

And he pointed out that last year’s referendum for Scottish independence from Great Britain was “a quest for 800 years.”

What he didn’t mention was the outcome of the referendum. It failed, 55 percent to 45 percent.

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