Perhaps the Senator from Texas ought to spend more time educating his state’s Republican Party members that they can’t secede from the United States (unfortunately for the rest of us in many ways). In fact, I don’t blame them, but actually blame President Polk for the current situation. I know, President Polk did reform the national banking system (that was ultimately replaced by the Federal Reserve Bank), did secure the Oregon Territory from the British, as well as deal with some important tariff issues, but he really blew it with the Texas thing. And we’re still paying for it. LBJ was an important Senator and President, but his actions drove the conservative Southern Democrats into the Republican Party and started the trajectory of their current implosion against rational thought and humanistic governance for anyone but “their type”. So on balance, meh.