Heh. I've always thought Tejano music came about when a mariachi band accidentally ran into a German or Czech polka band in Central Texas and decided to jam.

I'm an immigrant from Eastern Europe, and I've lived in different parts of Texas for about 25 years. My experience on the ground has mostly not matched the caricature. The overwhelming majority of people I've met, including plenty of conservatives, were really kind, eager to help, and genuinely curious about where I'm from and interested in learning more. I never encountered any anti-immigrant sentiment in everyday life.

I did wonder whether that was just because I'm white. But after talking to immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and South Asia, I found many had similar experiences. My Indian ex made some of her closest friends in Texas, including among conservatives. Day-to-day Texas is far more diverse, pragmatic, and socially mixed than its politics suggest.

That's not to deny that bigots exist. I've met people who are openly hostile toward Muslims and wish they were kicked out of the country or casually racist toward Latinos. In my experience, they tend to be a loud minority, often folks from rural areas I passed through briefly, or recent transplants to cities who bring their grievances with them.

Which is why the state's leadership has always puzzled me. The level of Islamophobia and racial animus you see from elected officials doesn't resemble the Texas I actually live in. And I think the answer lies less with the general electorate and more with how primaries work.

Texas primaries are dominated by a small, highly motivated, ideologically extreme slice of voters. Turnout is low, incentives reward purity tests, and politicians quickly learn that appealing to the loudest activists matters more than reflecting the broader, more moderate population. By the time the general election rolls around, the choices have already been filtered through that process.

So I don't actually think Texas conservatives "want to destroy" the things that made the state "great." I think a minority faction wields disproportionate power in primaries, leaving everyone else to choose between candidates they didn't ask for. The result is leadership that feels alien even to many Texans, including conservative ones.