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Sure, of course. The problem we have in the U.S. is that white people won't support anything "public" if it benefits Black and Brown people. https://twitter.com/SchlFinance101/status/1362400427267026945
Further, white people are willing to suffer & die if it means withholding "public goods" from Black and Brown people.
That statement from the clownish Rick Perry about people in Texas "would rather suffer" than rely on the federal government... is about white people. I say all this as someone who was born + raised in Texas.
I grew up going to the Texas public school system where it is the LAW that children get TWO years of TX history + ONE year of U.S. history, to emphasize the importance of TX over the federal gov't.
Among the many lessons this education offered was the orthodoxy of Texas nationalism. The fact that the TX electrical grid is SEPARATE from the rest of the US is a perfect illustration of this kind of TX nationalism.
One of the great ironies of the current situation (to me), is that my father, who worked in oil & gas, was very fond of the bumper sticker popular in Texas during the 1970s oil crisis: "let the bastards freeze in the dark" https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/20/archives/us-energy-crisis-stirs-selfinterest-of-regions-us-energy-crisis.html
The sentiment in that bumper sticker was directed at the Northeast U.S. and meant to be a kind of cheer for Texas nationalism, self-sufficiency and.... I guess, warm weather.
So now, the refusal of people like Rick Perry / Greg Abbott of any kind of federal help for the people truly suffering in Texas is rooted in that stick-it-to-the-man ethos of the state.
Another thing it's hard to grasp if you haven't been to Texas, or (like I did) driven across or visited all 256 counties in the state, is the VASTNESS of the geography.
It's very possible to DRIVE all day (north to south, east to west), and still be in Texas.
It has (at least) FIVE distinct geographic/climate areas that could be their own state.
Given the geographic + cultural distinctions across Texas, it is remarkable, really, that anyone figured out a way to adversely affect ALL the people of the state at once.
But the m-f'ers of ERCOT figured it out. Congratulations, you played yourself. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-power-outage-ercot/
