'America's future is Texas,' says New Yorker essay ... but that's a bad thing?

The Texas Capitol in Austin. The Texas Capitol in Austin. Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty Images Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close 'America's future is Texas,' says New Yorker essay ... but that's a bad thing? 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

In its July 10 magazine, the New Yorker dedicates a 19,000-word essay to the Lone Star State. "America's future is Texas," the title proclaims.

Huzzah!

But wait.

The magazine, known for big-city sophistication and literary journalism, doesn't seem to think that's a good thing.

The author warns that national politics seem destined to follow the trajectory of Texas politics in recent decades: extremist electoral politics that reward the most partisan, leading to shouting matches and physical confrontations between legislators.

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"With right-wing zealots taking over the legislature even as the state's demographics shift leftward, Texas has become the nation's bellwether," the essay's subtitle warns.

Photo: Tom Reel, Staff Joe Straus accepts congratulations from Governor elect Greg Abbott...

Of course, this is not a piece that cultural conservatives will like. Its heroes are a few Democratic legislators and Joe Straus, the business-friendly Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Its villain is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, head honcho in the Texas Senate and a former conservative talk-radio host.

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The piece already made news by quoting Straus's response to Patrick's so-called bathroom bill, which would require people to use bathrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates.

"I'm disgusted by all this," Straus recalled telling Patrick's emissaries. "Tell the lieutenant governor I don't want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands."

The writer is Lawrence Wright, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2006 book on the history of al-Qaeda, "The Looming Tower." He also has won two National Magazine Awards.

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However, the most important bona fide that Wright presents is his long Lone Star residency, which he says gives him a window on the state's soul:

"I've lived in Texas for most of my life, and I've come to appreciate what the state symbolizes, both to people who live here and to those who view it from afar. Texans see themselves as a distillation of the best qualities of America: friendly, confident, hardworking, patriotic, neurosis-free. Outsiders see us as the nation's id, a place where rambunctious and disavowed impulses run wild. Texans, it is thought, mindlessly celebrate individualism, and view government as a kind of kryptonite that weakens the entrepreneurial muscles. We're reputed to be braggarts; careless with money and our personal lives; a little gullible, but dangerous if crossed; insecure, but obsessed with power and prestige."

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You can read the full New Yorker essay here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/10/americas-future-is-texas.

You probably shouldn't try to read this at work, though. Nineteen-thousand words makes for a Texas-size essay.

Comment and let us know what you think of the New Yorker piece. What was most interesting? What does it get right? Where was it off the mark?