The State Of Texas (American Culture Documentary) | Real Stories

[Music] the great John Steinbeck once described Texas as a state of mind and obsession as well as a nation in every other sense of the word Texas is a huge compound of power and wealth and force and attitude - it's a frontier state with a frontier history of mentality it's one of the home states of the American military-industrial complex and it's the home base of Mission Control for the American space program those of you who remember the Apollo missions will remember the most famous line houston we have a problem [Music] it's also the home of the most powerful man in the world a man for whom I've been developing a reluctant admiration a man to whom the word cowboy is no insult so here at global mission control HQ we thought we'd take a long look not just into the heart of Texas but into its mind as well is Texas really the state that we're all in and should we have a problem with that [Music] Texans can't very well deny that the Cowboys of the root of their identity and this ethic is at the heart of their character I'm going in search of some genuine Texans to discover what it really means to be a covering and where better to start than at Fort Worth's annual rally and rodeo Texans save Fort Worth is where the true West begins [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my first task is getting kitted up in Texas it's better to be a drugstore cowboy than no cowboy at all Jean Lee when we take a look at your foot and we'll see what we can find it might work for you elephant mm-hmm in the front of it that makes me sad we love these I feel twice the man I did when I came in here but you're supposed to make the man who's the best about well hope that's true of you it's kangaroo knee and either [Music] ridiculous its beauty it also has to conform to my wallet size right to say yes sir well I'm beginning to feel ya here Western due to Western very masculine alright that's kind of the cowboy I'm young you need to feel my oats later I open come one say that well I've got the cowboy starter kit but now I need to get inside the hearts and minds so I'm off for some advice from a well loved and rather unusual cowboy a checksum Jew who's now running for governor the singer and writer Kinky Friedman [Music] we don't swap our wives with our day and we'll keep our kids away from Mexico and I'm proud to be an asshole life's worse sweet young virgins are deflowered am I being rude mom you walk down a street need a financial Otto's enchiladas hella wetback still get 20 cents mo and back still hit 20 cents [Music] [Applause] thank you very much the inner Texan is what I may need some work well you're not an attractive young man okay let's start with that you make a damn good Texan your clothes already but these people trying to tarnish the image of the cowboy really bothers me very much because of cowboy the cowboy spirit is what the world is all about these are the people that are these people who did everything while the other people were participant observers of life it was the cowboy you know that went that one extra mile you know do you care that in the rest of the world it's used as a synonym for someone who kind of talks other side oh it's not that's Cowboys a great word cowboys no no race or no color and you know they live close to the land they're like Gandhi was a cowboy Jesus was a cowboy Mandela was a cowboy and George Bush is a cowboy they probably don't even like each other and probably Lord of the Flies situation if you got the four of them together but they all have a cowboy spirit the notion of Gandhi and Bush sharing the cowboy culture seems weird it still seems weird when you go to the Fort Worth gathering and find out that the cowboy life has been assimilated by the Texas tourist industry nice to watch a lot of cowboy films when I was a kid and all the Cowboys were white yeah I'll come whoever just the way they were portrayed we were cut out yeah mm-hmm it was the Spanish that brought the horses and cattle to the Americans they came through Central America into Mexico and on up into Texas so really the the Hispanics were Cowboys first yes they were the ones that work the cattle what does the cowboy ethic would you say Fair Play know the difference between right and wrong try to help your fellow man stay believing God leaving our country probably that's the cowboy tradition at least it's my traditions but not looking for a five no but maybe get one win that damn thing and you'll think that Texas is especially now with a Texan president I think Texas is kind of shoot-from-the-hip quick on the draw sass me see what happens kind of attitude let me tell you most all the press says that bush Blair and all of them have tabloid mentality you know something being a Texan I'm sure glad they got the cowboy mentality because they're my kind of course what do you think about having a Texan in the White House you can tell me [Laughter] you know you know throwing your hat in the air or anything I can see that ya know even his critics concede that Bush has adopted the cowboy appeal to great political effect one of those critics is the famous Czechs and liberal Molly Ivins you can see in his personality three distinct strains of Texas culture religiosity anti intellectualism and machismo and the machismo comes both from the Latin culture and from the cowboy culture and from the football culture and there's just a lot of it around here and all three of those strains are very attractive to large groups of voters for all his video synchronous Kinky Friedman is a descendant of an often overlooked Texan tradition the tradition of liberalism populism even radicalism what would your main planks be well against capital punishment I'm also for gun control I do not personally I do not carry a weapon so if anybody plans to shoot me they better remember to bring their own gun the governor can't do anything I can commute one man's death sentence if I like him you know or I can declare a County a disaster area beyond that the governor can't do anything so to pretend that he can is ridiculous no you know this has been a disaster personally this might be an amusing interview but it's been just a sea anchor to my campaign lost one interview it's not the campaign into a spiraling into the profit although the capital building in Austin was deliberately built higher than its model in Washington Texans generally prefer their government small in Texas the role of governor is limited by law there's no state income tax and there are probably more guns than voters the Constitution mandates that the legislature meet here for a paltry 140 days every two years [Music] when george w bush ran for the presidency in the year 2000 he hoped to replicate this idea for the united states make it into a country of no taxation and limited administration of course it hasn't worked out that way so now he's had to evolve a new attitude for the era of big government and nation rolling and that attitude is partly derived from a martial spirit which justifies 21st century warfare but looks back to the early 19th century [Music] good morning ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the daughters republic Texans who like to welcome you to the Alamo the cradle of Texas Liberty the Alamo is the essential limit in Texan history when Texas was a province of Mexico a war broke out between a small group of colonists and the Mexican Empire though the texicans were annihilated at the Alamo they won the white war and Texas became an independent republic for a decade in 1836 some things in Texas are small including this little building that symbolizes the fighting spirit fundamental to Texan values today as children in San Antonio where we grew up everybody goes and they visited the Alamo and at that age you're taught that that was a great battle of Texas and about a hundred and some-odd Texans stood up there until they died and stood up for their principles and for independence these men truly made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom if you went out and you went into the street in Austin or San Antonio and you took a survey of people and you asked him the question who won the Battle of the Alamo I would put a hundred dollars on the fact that most people would say Texas Texas won the Battle of the Alamo even in in my head now it's hard to separate the idea that at the time of the battle it was actually part of Mexico and later became independent I think we tend to think that it was already Texas and we were fighting another country and they were invading Texas well really they were just coming to another part of their country to try to stop an insurgency but all of that kind of gets lost and that old myth today the Alamo is a shrine to the men who died here these humble plaques list the names some of the Mexican and the home lands of the 179 martyrs you have to come here yourself to understand the continuing emotion the Texans feel for the story of their nationhood [Music] describing what it means to take care of the Alamo is difficult it's something we feel in our heart and in our soul it's taking care of the past for future generations we love the Alamo we love Texas [Music] the daughters of the Republic of Texas are the custodians of the Alamo they take their job very seriously as a smoke cleared and a Sun rose each and every defender now lay dead it was truly out of the ashes of a defeat a victory began to emerge even the brass plaque at this shrine describes what happens as something of a legend but those who like to believe in heroes like to believe that on this spot Colonel William Travis drew a line with his sword in the sand and said anyone willing to die for the feem of Texas should cross that line and be with him and out of 180 men 179 took that decision and paid for it with their lives some revisionists like to say now that it was just a white settler revolt against a Spanish Empire others say it was a constitutional revolt by proud anglo-saxon and Scottish yeoman against an oppressive regime you can take your pick about the legend but it will continue to prove that the Texan attitude will always be defiant and it will always say that it doesn't care about public opinion or power or anything else bush Boras effortlessly from this reservoir of Texan spirit he's not gonna back down and that's where he comes from and that's a Texas way we drew a line in the dirt at the Alamo we got our asses kicked but we sure do the line we will smoke them out of their holes we will get him running and we'll bring him to justice dead or alive either way on 9/11 I knew the Kathleen Carter my sister was here my concern is for my sister my other concern is for the Alamo I didn't know what they were going to do it was a horrible horrible day I asked Kathleen and she said the Alamo will not close she kept it open that day we had more visitors than the usual 13,000 she said people came from everywhere and they would just sit on the grounds or they would be in the shrine because it made them feel that everything can be okay and that's the way the Alamo is for Texans whatever you choose to leave here today we ask only that you take the Alamo with you in your hearts I don't think the forces of jihad know enough about America to target the enemy but it was sufficiently revered to have Ozzy Osbourne banned from San Antonio for urinating on it this chap seems to be risking arrest just for looking like an extraordinary feature of today's Texas is the manner in which it domesticates and contains with the proud frontier attitude in an ordered and sterile suburban environment where have all the Cowboy's gone here is where they've gone well this is the manicured bliss of Plano so the new town development on the outskirts of Dallas Texas when you look at them you can see the emerging potential Republican majority the SOI dariya of white conservative christian clean neat respectable professional people appear that could be very happy here you think the spirit of the new frontier in Texas comes from the fact that it is such a new state neighborhoods just mushroom and grow overnight and everyone is here from someplace else I would say 80% of my constituency is Republican so I feel that I probably mirror a lot of their thoughts and their ideas less government is better government there shouldn't be government handouts for those who can who can take care of themselves and then in order for business to thrive and prosper government should stay out of their way harass the country is being exercised at a very rapid rate here you know our state is a classic case of low tax low service you know pay much in taxes and you don't get hardly anything good roads for most Texans this is a road that at any rate leads to the football stadium the main weekly ritual for all self-respecting citizens and these are senator Shapiro's constituents for Texans highschool football there's another name for community where families can be in every Friday night [Music] tonight is special it's the homecoming game where the homecoming queen is around it's a kind of cross between a popularity and a beauty contest [Music] let the 2003 homecoming queen is Lauren vinegar [Music] I detest it all sport at school and I still do but even the non sporty type can find some consolation football is important because it's a story of life it's getting knocked down and getting back up the University of Texas the largest schools in the country they closed down the film program because it lost thirty thousand dollars one year the same year they spent a hundred million renovating the football stadium so that tells you a lot about sports and priorities versus the arts Texan football looks like the moral equivalent of American beef party and pumped up and with a hint of steroids but actually from the college level down to high school and up to the big leagues gladiatorial combat when a Texan team used to play out of state said one famous writer it leaves like an army with banners [Applause] [Music] still in all there's a sexual subtext to this as well with the homecoming Queens and the Rangerettes no Texas candle is really complete without a violent computer behavior on the part of a male player or an outbreak of pregnancy among the cheerleaders which means well be why the most famous pornography film in modern America is Debbie Does Dallas football in Texas was so ruthless that in Houston the mother of one cheerleader recently attempted to butcher Arrivals month [Applause] I think football is king in Texas because we like to compete fundamentally it is a competitive state and if you look at all the sports out there it's the one that combines competition and a little headbutt those two things Texans life they like to compete and they like to butt heads as I came close to finding out this competitive strain in sport mirrors that of business just down the road from here Bush made his business reputation and 15 million dollars from his investment in a baseball team the Texas Rangers this led many to forgive him for three calamitous failures in oil drilling in Texas the myth of an individualist business spirit is based on the old traditions of ranching and oil the truth is that government exists to serve business here in downtown Dallas the multi millionaire oilman boone Pickens is proud of his political connections even this notorious wildcatter disproves the legend that Texas business is risky or raw Texans do have that image of you know shoot-from-the-hip you know and it's it's fast-moving and you know yeah it's that's I think that's the way we appear sometimes I'm not sure that's exactly how it is I think there is that wildcatting tradition of the Texas millionaire who did kind of strike out on his own he did get lucky maybe with one oil strike and you know that kind of myth still survives but I think the modern version of that is very is very opposite of that you know these people I'm just a good old boy you got lucky they're using the same tactics kind of hard business tactics that any corporation is using they're just still wearing boots and a hat just like our president is it's ridiculous it's just a veneer but the truth is they're predatory really mean anti-competitive I mean just like they will kill you you know to get what they what they want [Music] the rancher may remain symbolic of Texas but symbolic is the right word for a group that now makes up a mere 3% of the population [Music] now everybody's migrated to cities that's where the money is likes it could be when he got out of college he could have went to work for the meat sales outfit or agriculture probably made thirty forty fifty thousand dollars but he chose to go into ranching the Smith's represent three generations of a running family the first came to Texas in 1858 to promote one so be a hundred longevity runs in the family I guess what do you remember from your days of ranching mostly hard times we're proud of the hard times that my dad and his father went through for us so we can live about our lives the rancher nowadays leases more land than he has of his own it's just because the cost of land is so high there's just no way to pay for it with the ranching occupation but it's so tough that you have to find other ways of diversification to make a living you know you don't try not to gripe about it and on time get hard to just go on with it even old oil milliner's can no longer make their money in oil boone pickens now makes his fortune in stocks and shares and in new 21st century ventures like water while commitment to the land keeps families like the Smiths away from the action in the big city boone pickens can make a living without getting his hands dirty while we've been sitting here the commodity fund has made about its probably twenty forty five million dollars so that's pretty good but this doesn't discourage the Smiths from their belief in the American Dream or their belief in their Texan in the white house George Bush I think he's the most honest president and dedicated to the country that we've had in a long time it's good to have George W Bush in the White House because he knows what the ranching industry is about you know he hadn't had probably the hard times that we have had but he knows you know that the trial and errors and the tough times that we have faced it makes a good background for politics of the ranch now you get into politics but it used to be a Democrat and it hurts me it to be a Republican because the Democrats give the farmers more money but what I think is right is right and that's what we got to do is do what the country needs main thing is education that's the main thing is growing you know grow with the times you know I stand still improve every year to prove every day I saw just be positive [Music] while the old order passes newcomers want the Texan and the American dream to come true for them for the first time [Music] the tex-mex border stretches over a distance of 1254 miles this is Laredo a border town between Mexico and South Texas [Music] even during the colonial times Loretta was a frontier and it still is today we're having a continuous stream of immigrants replacing those that are blending into the culture so when you go into the downtown Laredo you'll find people like myself whose ancestors go back to the Spaniards and you'll also find people who we just got to this country two weeks ago and and they'll be working at the same store here are two examples of precisely that julio a Czech Sandborn Hispanic and Jose a former Mexican citizen their border patrol guards for as a potter county an 80 mile stretch of the texas border they're part of America's Homeland Security and they're on the watch for illegal aliens wetbacks as Texans call them because they splash across the Rio Grande [Music] so what we call it cold right they come in from the Mexican side on their little boats they drive into here and this is how they get as far inland as possible to either have a vehicle waiting or something like that and then that's where they do their alien smuggling their drugs money so it's people and narcotics that they yes what was your last to fall in this area few months back what do you get honey an honorable job because we ever we have a lot of prestige in our job you know we take our job very seriously I've got a sneaking suspicion that I'm part of a Border Patrol PR job it seems that this Patrol is seriously under-resourced you don't seem very heavily armed we have no side off sidearms yeah the long long rifle and we have backhoe oh you have better cover is this the fastest boat in the business is there anything you can outrun you oh they're definitely outrun us do I look over to the Mexican side I don't see any patrols no there's nothing out there why do you think that is they just leave it to you they don't have the means to have to do the operations that we do well maybe the motive in letting me out on this Patrol the Department of Homeland Security forgot one thing if this film is transmitted in Mexico and wannabe Texans see just how lapse the security here is they'll soon be mustering in Zapata County every year half a million illegals crossed the US border and the government appears powerless to stop them hang about I think we've got one [Music] [Music] [Music] it turns out our quarry isn't a wetback just an Anglo angler looking to hook the big one and demonstrating just how easy it is to outrun America's frontline defense most checks ins are reconciled to the growing Hispanic population but there remains a small vociferous anti-immigration faction they love guns as much as they hate the government I'm here at the public firing range with Jimmy Ritter the frustration can be great like at the border where they we don't seem to do anything to stop illegal immigrants Jimmy's a member of Roger sq the group of vigilantes who offer voluntary protection to ranchers at the border they've recently been in trouble with the law for allegedly menacing illegals rescue while back you know here in Texas not along the border there's there's just large numbers of illegal immigrants coming across the border well I have some friends down there and and the immigrants we've come across it's just massive waves they just crawl over your fence to ranch his fence and so I started going down there to help repair fences and things like that yeah the whole idea wasn't about stopping immigrants it's merely about private property rights and helping these ranchers repair their fences because their cows get out I mean I love that hair obviously because I married my husband and he's a Texan and as you can tell I have a New Zealand accent I migrated here many years ago and right in the middle of our ranch in Deep South Texas and this is a pretty dangerous situation we're in at the moment because you know at any moment you could have illegals coming across we carry weapons at all times as you can see I have my pistol on me at the moment it's a 45 it's chambered with talons and what talons are is there a special type of bullet that will penetrate a bulletproof vest so that when I come across illegals that do have bulletproof vests on I'm capable of neutralizing them what about the forces of law and order do they welcome your efforts they think of us mostly they don't because they know if they do they'll become politically how would you say attacked tainted by association tainted by associations beer-guzzling redneck beer guzzling right next white boys from Arkansas they'll call us you seem like a political kind of guy somehow maybe the t-shirt is tipping me off I don't know we don't much care for the United Nations as a matter of fact we're usually covering a United Nations flag out here and shoot at it just for fun because you know we like to enjoy life we may all laugh at them but ranch rescue arms these people and puts them in in places where they can cause some serious harm [Music] we also have pump-action shotguns we have many four teams we have eight millimeters we have 22 rifles and we've got a sniper rifle with with a scope and we normally have we have several of each through distributed throughout our house on our person and in our vehicles you find a lot of dead people yes I feel angry that they're putting foreign citizens rights and welfare and all the rest of it above United States citizens I think that's not fear let's face it we're the ones who pay taxes here's what I think about government taking guns communists in Washington DC they want to disarm the population I know why they want to disarm the population they don't take enough of my taxes and they can't take any more till they take my god I guess I don't know but they're not nice people Smith & Wesson 45 caliber ACP don't you know there's a lot of bumper stickers in Texas that say insured by Smith & Wesson now don't don't honk at those people don't run them off the road you know I mean if they're insured by Smith & Wesson they're probably packing a heater is we had say in Texas they're carrying an iron they got a big iron as you can see this weapon I have here defense weapons some people call this a soul weapon it's a defense weapon and with this I can serve my community my community can be protected but of course nowadays they want to tell you that I'm some kind of nut ball with a gun people who Texas have our own judgment on what's right and what's wrong and when I was a young lawyer I was asked a judge appointed me to try a murder case I was representing the guy that murdered somebody else and so I represented and they paid $50 a day and when the case was over they found my guy not guilty and one of the reasons they found him not guilty the local sheriff the law enforcement officer testified that the deceased Frank Robledo was the sorriest man the county any should have been shot and the judge when it was over gave me and I've kept this for 30 years gave me the gun it was a Saturday night special and gave me this gun and this shot old Frank Robledo and killed him who the sheriff said needed killing and the sheriff later told me that he had never seen an object that needed stealing but he had seen a lot of people that needed killing the ranch rescue forces of design and they cut against the Texan grain this state has always been Anglo Mexico [Music] [Music] the reputation of Texas perhaps derived from the success of Dallas the soap opera is of a rich vulgar state in fact it's poverty and the whiteness of its poverty was legendary at least until the days of LBJ who brought water and power to many parts of the state for the very first time the reality of Laredo is that it's a very poor town because it's an immigrant talent 92% of people in Laredo speak Spanish at hall's by the same token Loretto is part of the American dream our kids go to school they have good schools our kids go off to college whether you're a migrant kid or you're a rich kid if you want to go to college you can go so Laredo is an engine of the growth in Texas and the u.s. these shanty towns look like scenes from the past but they represent an important part of the Texan future [Music] you'll find them all along the border and on the edge of almost all towns usually by the roadside they're called colonias improvised Mexican and Hispanic immigrant communities sometimes where the haphazard connection to electricity usually waiting for an upgrade to the water mains nobody really knows how many people have Spanish to said there are in Texas today at any rate it's estimated that by the year 2008 Spanish speakers will be the majority no one's quite puzzled out the implications of a state where white and black Texans will be large minorities instead of a majority but we're going to find out soon the relationship between the demography and politics Hispanic Texans are becoming more politically engaged many of them are educated professionals with deep roots these two Julian and Joaquin Castro are fourth-generation Texans educated in the law schools of Harvard and Yale today I'm a state representative I represented part of San Antonio Texas and we on represents San Antonio and the City Council down there politically I think the Hispanic community is is very powerful and growing in power economically I think that it still has a way that ways to go and really that's going to be in the next decade or two the true measure of the success of Hispanics when I graduated from high school my high school graduating class was 90 percent Anglo five percent Hispanic in five percent african-american now when you go back it's 70 percent Hispanic 25 percent Anglo and 5 percent african-american today if you sent all the illegal aliens back to Mexico and Central America you would shut down the restaurant industry the hotel industry the construction industry the maintenance industry in the state of Texas Texas needs its immigrants and they're all potential voters [Music] George Bush was early and shrewd in recognizing his Texan fact I'm a young Latino in the US and very proud of my bloodline in many ways I'm like any other American I believe an opportunity the level playing field for everyone and the achievement of the American dream I have an uncle that is running for president because he believes in the same thing opportunity for every American for every Latino his name same as mine George Bush I'm proud of the Latino blood that flows in the Bush family [Music] I think that then Governor Bush and now President Bush the court of the Hispanic vote through both substantive means and some gimmicks for example he'll speak a few words to garbled Spanish and it's very symbolic I'll swing you I'm Atacama about our teeth and I think it worked partly well because Hispanics didn't expect that from a Republican a lot of folks think that President Bush has made incredible inroads with the Hispanic community and I think that for a Republican candidate he did he won a larger percentage of the Hispanic vote than any Republican had in the past and I think one of the reasons is that he spent the most money more money than anybody's ever spent to court Hispanics but the other thing is that they didn't move over to the right they didn't become more conservative so to speak to support him he had to moderate to get their vote Texas reflects this dual identity in part by insisting that it's school children pledge allegiance every day to the flag of Texas as well as to the flag of the USA this unique policy reconfirms Texas as a state with an individual character like no other but there remains the question how stable and how durable is this identity [Music] if you were driving through California or Virginia so you might see a bumper sticker saying I brake for animals or even practice random acts of beauty but if you're driving through Texas this is what you're gonna get as a concession to people from out of state I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could American by birth Texan by the grace of God is extremely open to think you'll have to agree and don't mess with Texas often associated with the state's fondness for capital punishment is actually originally an anti litter slogan but in Texas even a green slogan for keeping the country beautiful can become an occasion to be brash and macho and then when you get to a license plate not just the lone Horseman and the oil rigs but also the Magnificent figure of the Space Shuttle still it sometimes makes me wonder if the Texans are so all-fired confident in themselves why do they keep on having to prove it all the time this kind of assertiveness reminds me of bible-thumping another well known cure for self-doubt to test my suspicions I turned to a veteran Texas author John graves his memoir goodbye to a river is a classic of Lone Star melancholy I mean a lot of people fall in love with the idea of being a Texan and they act like they think it Texan or act like which is unfortunately often loud mouthed and crude this anglo-scottish pioneering conquest of Texas would not have been possible since we unless it had a lot of religion in it the driving force is still there but then ain't no place to go now they brought a Calvinist form of religion down here which sustained them and enabled them to believe as hard as they did it it is Wayne now accept that its crystallized of course in the extreme right-wing Protestantism I think relating that one kind of the other is still holding people together wish I lived in a world where it was possible to be religious and think at the same time I pressed on to see another of Texas intellectual skeptics in Archer City a West Texas town of 1500 Souls Larry McMurtry has created an improbable book town with four major outlets and perhaps half a million warehouse volumes they used to be bookshops larger than us in just about every American city you know in Boston New York all the way across LA McMurtry is most celebrated outside the state for his Western epic novel learned some dove and for the screen adaptation over the last picture show an elegy for the expiring Texas small-town a lot he was surprised to find how many great literary holdings are possessed by the University of Texas dr. Harry Ransom was a very farsighted professor and he began to buy the archives of English writers particularly 20th century English writers you know as much choice as much Lawrence as Miss Virginia Woolf that's a source of pride you are sort of us some people is a writer about the cowboy yeah I've thought of as a writer although I've been denouncing Cowboys and calling them fascists and doing everything that I can to get away from being a writer about the cowboy but somehow it draws me back because it's such a central American image essential American Western type callaghan you got a deal with the cowboy in one way or another Larry once wrote I now think a lot of my right about the cowboy was an attempt to understand my father's essentially tragic take on his own human experience he detached his heart to a hopeless I did a nineteenth-century vision cowboy the sense of that crack in reality between what is and what might be my father passed on to me it may be the crack or books and songs are born we went to vanishing bull on cheery thoughts the Republican ladies auxilary gets together to brandish pictures of their latest favorite president it can be surprising to remember how recently Texas was a state which more or less belonged to the Democrats at this and other fiestas the grand old party hopes to complete the republican ization of texan politics in society [Music] underneath this bravado there is as so often in Texas and no to uncertainty [Music] going for cheap has its own tone of sadness and even if desperation Texas has traded on the cowboy ethic was so long that even a visiting Englishman can impersonate a cowboy for a day the president and his advisors may hope to extend their conquest of Texas to create a national Republican majority but to most Americans the word cowboy is just as incongruous as it is to most Europeans you though it may seem that cowboy ism has been exported globally here in Texas it is facing extinction perhaps that explains its everlasting and partly tragic appeal the wilderness may have been suburban eyes but there is no conquering the wasteland within [Music] you

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 131,760

Rating: 4.4533763 out of 5

Keywords: christopher hitchens, BBC Three, only human, Documentaries, Extraordinary people, Amazing Stories, TV Shows - Topic, america, Full Documentary, Full length Documentaries, Amazing Documentaries, texas, BBC Three documentary, hitchens documentary, BBC 3, Documentary, lone star, BBC documentary, timeline, Real Stories, Channel 4 documentary, tlc, 2017 documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic

Id: qpzH8Lo-98o

Length: 48min 36sec (2916 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 09 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/theaccurateone]

I miss him.

[u/poop_flavored_pee]

Great man visiting a great place making a great documentary.

[u/flannelflaps]

We need him now more than ever

[u/RochelleH]

Without fail, whenever I see any video of Hitch... What a loss of one of the great intellects of our time. What a loss that his voice isn't being heard in the current state of affairs.

[u/Cybercommie]

Great? Is that right?

[u/[deleted]]

He is with god now...oh wait never mind!

[u/fried_eggs_and_ham]

As a Texan and a Hitch fan whose never seen this before, thanks for posting. Can't wait to watch it later!

[u/malvin77]

Kinky Friedman is such a fucking tool.

[u/uazaa]

Loved this. Anyone have anything similar?