A native Ohioan, Gail Collins says her fascination with
Texas began when she heard Gov. Rick Perry deliver an Alamo-like speech at a
2009 Tea Party rally. "We didn't like oppression then; we don't like
oppression now," he roared. The problem was, says Collins, "this was
a rally about the stimulus package."
Collins' new book is titled As Texas Goes...: How the Lone
Star State Hijacked the American Agenda (Liveright Publishing/W. W. Norton
& Company). The first woman editor of the New York Times' editorial page,
she is also author of America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges,
Helpmates, and Heroines and When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of
American Women from 1960 to the Present.
Now a columnist at the Times, Collins is known for unshrinking criticism of the gun lobby, small-minded politicians and discrimination against women. While covering the 2012 election, Collins reminded readers that Mitt Romney had crated the family dog and strapped it to the roof of the Romney's car during a family vacation. The reference appeared 68 times.
Rosenberg:
In As Texas Goes you debut the concept
of people who live in "Empty Places" versus "Crowded Places"
and say they don't feel the need for laws to deal with everyday intrusions like
neighbors. How is this different from the rural/urban concept?
Collins :
It is more a mentality
than the actual places people live as Jefferson and Hamilton would argue about--
city versus country . For example,
someone could have an empty place mentality yet be living in a condo in Boca
Raton. Of course, Texas is so huge it really is empty places; people can easily drive a hour and a
half to work every day, so even if they're actually living in the suburbs it
sure feels as if they're in a remote location.
Rosenberg: Is Texas'
size part of the reason for the resistance you cite in the book to
environmentalism and the threat of climate change?
Collins : Certainly
people in empty places feel they have the right to do what they want to their
property and don't necessarily see the effect of their pollution or pesticides
on others. But Texans have an appreciation for water problems and are very
aware of the droughts. I write about how in Midland, the mayor (?) instituted
water conservation measures like restrictions on car washing. He made a point
though that they were only "suggestions" and not government telling
people what to do. But then his constituents got very ticked off at the sight
of their neighbors breaking the rules and demanded that they be made into
actual laws with penalties.
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