{"id":14914,"date":"2015-08-23T21:31:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T04:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14914"},"modified":"2015-08-24T17:17:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T00:17:08","slug":"the-republic-of-texas-tv-evangelists-and-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=14914","title":{"rendered":"The Republic of Texas, TV Evangelists and Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY RAUL HERNANDEZ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Notebookventura@gmail.com\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"FILE--Republic<\/a>
FILE–Republic of Texas leader Richard McLaren stands beneath the group’s flag at the Republic’s “embassy” near Fort Davis, Texas, in this Dec.1996, file photo. An appeals court overturned the state kidnapping conviction of McLaren Thursday, Aug. 26, 1999, saying it found insufficient evidence against him. The Texas 8th Court of Appeals, rendered a judgment of acquittal for McLaren, who is serving a 99-year prison sentence in the kidnapping that sparked an armed standoff with state police in April 1997. (AP Photo\/El Paso Times, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Richard McLaren<\/strong> , the self-professed ambassador of the Republic of Texas, would have been a great orator and gifted politician today with a humongous following.<\/p>\n

Richard was a folksy kind of guy with a sense of humor and miles of country charm, the kind that could sell video games to the blind, and he was way ahead of this time, some would argue. But Crazy Land USA was not yet open for business.<\/p>\n

Still, McLaren spent a lot of time at the courthouse in Fort Davis slapping costly liens on people’s property.<\/p>\n

The Republic of Texas’s Leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1997, however, McLaren wanted Texas to succeed from the Union and waved courthouse documents to shore up his strong beliefs. This Republic would print his own money, and make its own rules. The town folks at Fort Davis, a community of more than 1,200 residents sits in the West Texas desert, had written McLaren\u00a0off as one of the local crazies with a lot of time on his hands.<\/p>\n

Nobody took Richard seriously until McLaren, his wife and five of his Republic of Texas followers took hostages. McLaren took the hostages to his remote mountain hideout “embassy” that was quickly surrounded by dozens of local, state and federal law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n

The now-closed El Paso Herald-Post sent Photographer Billy Calzada<\/strong> and me to cover the story. Billy and I got on I-10 drove nearly 200 miles east to Fort Davis.<\/p>\n

Soon, we were among the hundreds of reporters, dozens of cameras and large trucks with gigantic satellite dishes, who were also assigned to cover the “Texas Standoff.” \u00a0All the big names were there including the New York Times and CNN.<\/p>\n

The Italian Reporter Covers the “new Alamo”<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Italian newspaper sent Massimo Loche<\/strong> and a French AP reporter Francis Temman<\/strong> was there along with other foreign journalists.<\/p>\n

Massimo told me that he didn’t know that there was a Texas separatist movement.<\/p>\n

“I know now and so do millions of Italians,” he said, adding that his newspaper dubbed the Texas Standoff as “the new Alamo.”<\/p>\n

“All my generation, we grew up with John Wayne and Western movies,” said Loche.<\/p>\n

Richard McLaren claimed that Texas was illegally annexed by the United States in 1845, and that the federal government owed the Lone Star State $93 trillion.<\/p>\n

“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!,” McLaren was heard to say over a shortwave radio when his group saw police moving in. “We have hostiles in the woods. This is a Mayday call for any nation in the world! We are being invaded!”<\/p>\n

In Texas, McLaren Would Have Thrived Politically<\/strong><\/p>\n

In today’s political climate, McLaren would have thrived.<\/p>\n

He could have lead a small army of armed crazies in a squabble in the desert with the federal government over cattle or with the right words make a congressional run and climb to the top of a political tracking poll.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Republic of Texas story\u00a0came to mind when I watched an interesting segment on HBO’s show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver<\/strong> about another group of scoundrels and BS artists.<\/span><\/p>\n

The segment was about TV evangelists, who convinced those who love Jesus to buy them private jets.<\/span><\/p>\n