In her new book, âBig, Hot, Cheap and Right: What America Can Learn From the Strange Genius of Texas,â Erica Grieder, an editor at Texas Monthly magazine, writes about the forces that shaped the stateâs attitudes as well as its current economic growth in the face of widespread troubles in the rest of the country. In a recent e-mail interview, Ms. Grieder discussed the stateâs economic âmiracle,â whether the future there bodes well for Democrats and more. Below are edited excerpts from the conversation:
Q.
Did you grow up in Texas? Whatâs the biggest change there that youâve felt as a day-to-day resident (as opposed to a journalist) over the years?
A.
I was a military brat, so I grew up all over, but San Antonio, where we lived when I was a child, and where my family has since settled, is home. The growth in every major city, including San Antonio and Austin, has been the biggest day-to-day change. Most of it has been to the good, but there have been some costs, such as the 2008 closure of Las Manitas, a Tex-Mex diner in Austin. I havenât even eaten a refried bean in the past five years. Thereâs no point anymore.
Q.
Could you briefly summarize the facts of the âTexas miracle,â which is a big part of the book? And do you think the word âmiracleâ is appropriate?
A.
Over the past 10 or so years, Texasâs economy has been outperforming those of most states, and the country as a whole, to such a noticeable degree that people have started talking about it in terms our more devout friends reserve for things like transubstantiation. So I can see how calling it a âmiracleâ might be contentious, but Iâm comfortable with the phrase because Texans use strong language.
Q.
Given that the stateâs economy has become increasingly diversified â" beyond oil â" how has that âmiracleâ continued in spite of the national economyâs struggles?
A.
I think the lesson Texans took from the 1980s oil bust is that being counter-cyclical is only good when the cycle isnât counter to you. That bust spurred the stateâs interest in diversification, which has been significant, and it meant that losses in one sector were often offset in another. (For the benefit of the stateâs critics, let me note that parts of Texas that are less diversified havenât been so well-hedged; in much of the Rio Grande Valley, for example, unemployment is once again in the double digits, largely because the global market malaise has triggered layoffs in manufacturing.)
Then, too, you had all the things that we generally summarize as a pro-business climate, and a couple of helpful idiosyncrasies. We have pretty strong lending laws, so we werenât very heavy on subprime mortgages. Oil prices were high, and although the vast majority of Texasâs jobs arenât in oil â" the energy industry is capital-intensive rather than labor-intensive â" itâs still a significant component of state GDP. The result was that although we didnât get through without a scratch, the wheels never fell off the wagon altogether.
Roxanne Rathge Erica Grieder Q.
You write that after the initial oil boom in Texas, the state âcould easily have become a banana republic of the wealthy, industrialized Northeast.â Why didnât it?
A.
By the time oil was discovered in great quantities (at Spindletop, in 1901) the state was already wary of outside interference, for a variety of historical reasons. Some years before, Texas had passed the nationâs second anti-trust law as a way to push back against northeastern industrial interests â" a shrewd, albeit protectionist, thing to do. Thatâs what Texas used to keep Big Oil at bay in those early years. Although Texasâs oil wealth wasnât distributed equally, we were, at least, able to keep a lot of it inside the state.
Q.
You say that Americans outside the state have often mistaken its rhetoric about independence as an echo of the Confederacy, but that theyâre wrong to do so. Why?
A.
After staging a revolution against the young republic of Mexico, Texas was an independent country from 1836 to 1845. The Texas Revolution wasnât as glorious as some accounts suggest, and the Republic of Texas wasnât glamorous, but both are crucial to Texasâs conception of itself; the revolution created a sense of common purpose, and the years as a republic differentiated us from other states. So today, when Texans talk about independence, thatâs the history theyâre evoking. There are pockets of Confederate nostalgia in Texas, but the Civil War has never had the same psychological stranglehold on Texas that it seems to have in some states.
Q.
Thereâs been a lot of talk recently about how Texas is likely to become more favorable to Democratic candidates in coming years. But you say the stateâs electorate has âremained much the same as ever: pragmatic, fiscally conservative, socially moderate, and slightly disengaged.â So to what extent do you believe the predictions about a âbluerâ Texas?
A.
Itâs certainly possible. Texasâs demographics, specifically its youth and its urbanization â" which are correlated with ethnicity, but not the same â" are auspicious for Democrats. And on social issues the people of Texas are more centrist than the stateâs current Republican leadership, although the biggest issue for voters here, as in most places, is the economy. The Democrats have a number of hurdles, though, the primary one being that they need to run more candidates. At the moment, they donât have anyone queued up for next yearâs Senate election. Itâs the soft bigotry of low expectations, perhaps, but I do think John Cornyn is better than âno one.â
Q.
Since your book acknowledges the stateâs strengths and drawbacks in equal measure, I imagine it could be a âcanât winâ scenario with some Texan readers. How has the book been received by readers there?
A.
Itâs been received warmly by most Texans Iâve heard from, although a number have raised points of disagreement, which is fine, of course. Most Texans, including me, are a little tired of the caricatures, but we can handle criticism, especially when itâs fair. Iâm proud of Texas, and I want it to be the best Texas it can be, and thereâs no conflict between those two statements. What a punitive world it would be, if we only loved things that were perfect.
Q.
What are three other books you would recommend people read if they want to get a better sense of the state?
A.
âLone Star,â by T.R. Fehrenbach, is my favorite single-volume history of Texas. Caroâs Lyndon Johnson series â" read the first volume and keep in mind the fact that Johnsonâs hardscrabble Hill Country youth is concurrent with, you know, the Jazz Age. That really helps explain where Texas is coming from. And letâs say Larry McMurtryâs âTerms of Endearmentâ â" a sexy, sprawling mess of a novel that somehow, improbably, totally works.