Power Line’s John Hinderaker reprints a tweet from TX Governor Greg Abbott. In it Abbott compares the four largest states: CA, TX, FL, and NY.
Abbot notes TX and FL have no state income taxes, balanced budgets, and lower Covid-19 death rates. CA and NY have substantial state income taxes, large debts, and higher Covid-19 death rates. And he notes that FL and TX have opened businesses while CA and NY have not yet.
It is also true that people are moving from CA and NY to TX and FL in large numbers. I’ve not lived in FL, but the other DrC and I spent a year in TX, near Dallas, as visiting faculty.
In many ways TX is an easy transition for people from CA. One thing that people from CA will find creates culture shock - the pervasive religiosity. Texans don’t really practice the separation of church and state.
Imagine the president of a state university saying a non-perfunctory Christ-centered grace at a dinner welcoming new faculty and their spouses. We sat there wondering how the new faculty with Jewish names felt about that.
Texans are genial people normally, sort of anti-New Yorkers. On the other hand, there is a distinct tendency for Texans to make their real friends at church. If you don’t go to church people will be pleasant to you but don’t hold your breath waiting to be invited to their homes or to do things together.
Close relationships are made at church, among fellow congregants. I could once again live comfortably in TX but as a “none” I wouldn’t expect to make close friends there. I’m okay with that, many would not be.
