Resolved: Texas would best serve its interest by seceding from the Union

The Resolution asks us to evaluate secession in light of Texas’ interests. A cost benefit analysis of the points in the round to see which world offers the strongest hope of a bright Texas future. Culture This point doesn’t even register in the cost/benefit analysis when compared to issues like terrorism, global economic collapse, and civil war. Additionally, I showed that Texas is quite diverse and Pro offered no evidence that cultural homogeneity is even desirable. Economy of Scale Pro offers meager evidence – he admits he only shows the economy of scale is a “sufficient” criteria for a healthy government without providing evidence that Texas will not become corrupt. His case claims that large countries like China and Russia are corrupt, ignoring the fact that the US is not. The impacts on this point are miniscule, the US is not corrupt so any improvement would be marginal at best. Economy Pro’s advantage is the collapse of the US economy due to deficit spending. Pro admits that this collapse is “decades” off, meaning we have plenty of time to try to fix the problem, which the status quo is by cutting spending by over $2 trillion. The global economy is so interconnected and the post-recession economy so fragile that the collapse of the US economy would cause the collapse of the global economy; whether Texas secedes or not, its economy sinks or swims with the US. We agree that Texas is a massive economic asset to the US; if Texas secedes the US economy WILL collapse- it won’t be a matter of “will the US collapse decades down the road?” but a certain and immediate collapse as federal tax income is lost and interstate trade is disrupted. I have a laundry list of ways secession will wreck the Texas economy- interstate trade will be disrupted, the US will retaliate with a trade war, brain drain will occur as Texas takes time to get its house in order. Defense contractors have contracts with the US, meaning they will have to leave Texas to uphold their contracts, depriving Texas of its largest economic sector. Nothing about Heg collapse stops defense contractors from upholding their contracts. All of these impacts are immediate and they will cripple the Texas economy. Forget waiting around to see if deficit spending gets out of control decades down the road, secession will ruin the Texas economy long before the US economy collapses. Civil War Pro’s only defense is that it won’t occur; conceding that Texas will lose and that Civil War would tank the Texas economy. The magnitude of this impact outweighs all others as a Civil War would mean the destruction of Texas. Civil War is very likely given the massive economic and hegemonic interests in Texas. Historical and legal precedents all emphatically proclaim that the federal government has a right to forcibly preserve the Union and will do so if necessary; this makes it a justifiable war from the US perspective. This impact is immediate, high probability, and high magnitude; Civil War alone outweighs any risk of economy collapse decades down the road. Heg We can quibble about the extent to which US Heg stabilizes, but the dissolution of any world power would destabilize the international system. No other entity exists that could stabilize the globe in the wake of US collapse- NATO is propped up by the US and the EU is on the brink of economic collapse. I have pointed out many examples of how the US stabilizes the globe- from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. Global instability puts Texas at greater risk of war and destabilizes the global economy. Conclusion In evaluating the best interests of Texas, security comes first. The risk of Civil War and global instability put the lives of Texans at risk, and both would disrupt the Texas economy. Texas secession causes many serious, immediate impacts in the hope of avoiding a problem that is decades down the road and is being fixed as we speak. Texas’ best interest is served as part of the Union, working with the Union to solve the Union’s problem.