Texas Nationalist Movement: Q&A transcript from tonight (2/4/21)

February 4, 2021
7:30pm Texas time
Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM)
Q&A with TNM President, Daniel Miller
Zoom Meeting

**Per the norm, I only jotted down big ideas. My notes are a hot mess**

Also, I fully recognize most of you aren’t interested in TEXIT topics.
But many LSU folks live in The Great State; and this affects them.
I always try to be very clear in my thread titles when TEXIT is the topic, so you can skip the thread if it isn’t your jam.
I totally get that many of you DGAF.


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Housekeeping
What an eventful week it’s been ....

If you haven’t seen, we just posted the news on the website that LTC. Allen West, Chairman of the Texas GOP, has indicated he’s “all for” the people of Texas having a vote on TEXIT.
Same with Andrew Murr; and he was never on my BINGO card.

The first run of yard signs (n = 10,000) will hit the TNM store ASAP.
We’ll continue producing ‘em in waves.
No charge, but please make a donation. Those suckers aren’t cheap to ship.
The TNM store is restocked with campaign materials as well.

The media is asking constantly about Social Security, Medicare, and transition/post-TEXIT policies. it’s not time to talk about what we’ll do after the referendum; right now the issue is whether or not we’ll even have a vote this session. We’ve got legislation filed, but we’ve got to push it across the finish line. While we’ve touched on those topics at length, we’ll do so a little more tonight.

The fear mongering is off and running in full force. They’re (specific politicians) opposed to TEXIT. Because THEY would vote to stay, they don’t want you to have a voice in an election. They’re in essence saying, “if you go to the polls to be heard, TEXIT will pass, and we’re scared. We’ll lose our sweet, establishment, government gigs.” They want to scare people into submission and are focusing their efforts on senior citizens. Their number one strategy: An independent Texas will let Grandma die in a ditch. That dog don’t hunt, folks. Not in Texas, anyway.

We knew it (fear-mongering) was coming. It’s their only angle of attack right now—Social Security and Medicare. They feel like they have something on the federal side to lose, and they’re lying. Because when TEXIT goes to the polls, they lose.

Re: Social Security: Texas taxpayers send more $ into the federal system than we ever get back--to the tune of $103-160 billion dollars extra a year. It’s the equivalent of Hurricane Harvey hitting Texas every nine months. We’re already paying for military contracts, payroll for federal employees in Texas, matching payrolls, Social Security, national border security, etc.

If you are a federal pension benefit collector, you’ll still collect that pension post TEXIT.

Medicare will likely go away in a free Texas, but Texas will replace it with something better. We pay $27 billion annually to fedgov for Medicare. It is, in effect, a Ponzi scheme. It’s requiring all of us to put money in just to sustain it (the Medicare system). So we will do something better and far more efficient. Less waste, less fraud, and less abuse. Texas can do it better. We already do, if you look at the Galveston Plan. Three counties: Galveston, Fort Bend, and Brazoria opted out of Medicare for their employees and have outperformed the federal government alternative.


Questions from the audience

How many state reps do we have on board now?
Impossible to tell right now. They started the lege session around the second week of January, met for a few days, then gaveled out until Feb. 9th. They don’t return again until next week. We’ll have a better feeling about TEXIT support then. Don’t let up, folks. Get into their offices right now. Schedule an appointment. The vast majority are in district, and the expectation must be that they sign on in support of TEXIT.

We’re rapidly approaching the point where we’ll have to shift our focus from the Texas House to the Texas Senate. We’ve done a crazy intense, bang-up job with the Texas House. Their secretaries are answering phones like mad.

Have we sent a copy of the TEXIT book and TEXIT policies to all legislators?
Yes (except maybe the brand new ones).

Why doesn’t Gov. Abbott come out in support of HB1359?
We’re in the process of organizing a mass call into the Governor’s office.
There’s a very specific time to place a maximum amount of pressure and at the most appropriate places. The Governor is certainly high on the list, and the focus on him is coming. To date, our focus needed to be on the Texas House.

The TEXIT bus is coming and about to hit the road; look for a location near you soon.

Up to date numbers to quantify support?
Pre-January 20th (Victory Insights polling) we used a third party outfit/pollster.
The challenge: We’ve found that third-party pollsters use methodology so far off reality that we have to break down and disaggregate data sets to translate those numbers into how Texans actually vote.

Ex: they polled Texas 1/3 to 1/3 to 1/3 (by political party) ... and that’s not how Texas votes. The sample needs to be weighted differently.
Beyond our internal polling—and it’s very internal [lacks reliability]—there hasn’t been any recent third-party polling to which we’ve been made privy.

How much pressure are Representatives feeling? Word on the street?
It’s high. Crazily enough the thing that’s making them the most nervous (behind the scenes)—the reps are obsessed with the membership counter on the website! We have no clue why. Of all the things they could focus on, it’s that dang counter.