What we stand for
The 12 Principles of Texas Nationalism
These are the foundational principles of the Texas Nationalist Movement. They have been the framework of our work since 2005. Read them. They explain everything else.
The Texas Nationalist Movement was founded on a set of twelve principles that have guided every piece of work we have done in the two decades since. The principles are not platitudes. They are operational commitments: the bedrock against which we test every position, every campaign, every decision.
Read them in order. Each builds on the previous. Together they form the complete framework of modern Texas nationalism.
Nationhood
Texas is a nation with a distinct culture, economy, and government.
We are not a region. We are not a province. We are a nation, defined by shared identity, shared history, shared institutions, and shared geographic and cultural integrity. Texas was a nation before she was a state, and she remains a nation now.
Independence
Texas should always be politically, culturally, and economically independent.
Independence is not a tactical preference or a partisan position. It is the natural condition of a nation. Texas already holds substantial cultural and economic independence today, and the project of full sovereignty completes what the nation already is in large measure.
Individualism
The basic political building block of Texas is the individual.
Not the family, not the community, not the state, not the political party: the individual Texan. Every Texan possesses inherent rights, individual moral agency, and individual responsibility. The political order is built up from the individual, not down from the state.
Entrepreneurialism
The basic economic building block of Texas is the entrepreneur.
The Texan who starts a business, takes a risk, employs others, and creates wealth is the foundational economic actor in the Texas economy. Texas's economic policies are designed to enable, protect, and reward entrepreneurial activity. The tax structure, the regulatory structure, and the labor structure all derive from this principle.
Family
The basic cultural building block of Texas is the family.
The Texan family, multigenerational, religiously formed, economically integrated, geographically rooted, is the foundational unit of Texas culture. Texas's social policies are designed to protect, strengthen, and enable the family as the central institution of Texas life.
Inherent Rights
Texas is the embodiment of natural rights.
The rights of Texans, to life, liberty, property, conscience, self-defense, free association, free speech, and democratic self-government, are not granted by the state. They are inherent to the human condition and are protected by the institutions of Texas under the foundational principle of natural-rights jurisprudence.
Value
Texas adheres to the values of fortitude, loyalty, righteousness, prudence, and broadmindedness.
These are not abstract ideals. They are the operational virtues of the Texan character: the qualities a Texan possesses, exemplifies, and seeks to develop. Fortitude in adversity. Loyalty to family, community, and nation. Righteousness in personal conduct. Prudence in decision. Broadmindedness in encounter with the unfamiliar.
Primacy of Cause
Texas Nationalism is the primary secular cause of all Texans and is distinct and superior to all other secular causes.
This principle is non-trivial. It says that Texas independence, as a political project, supersedes party affiliation, ideological preference, and policy preference on any other question. A Texan can be a Republican or a Democrat, conservative or progressive, and still be a Texas nationalist. The cause comes first.
Primacy of Nation
The interests of Texas supersede the interests of all other nations and states.
In every decision a Texan citizen, business, official, or institution makes about questions involving foreign powers, the test is: what serves Texas? Texas operates in the international system with full attention to its own interest, in full recognition that all other nations do the same.
Nature of Government
All political power is inherent in the Texan people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The Texan people have, at all times, the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.
This is the foundational principle. It is the basis of Texas's constitutional order, and it is the basis of the project of Texas independence. Government answers to the people; the people do not answer to the government.
Historical Foundation
The unique history of Texas serves as the foundation for our current and future greatness.
Texas is not a generic state. Texas has a specific historical inheritance, the Republic, the Revolution, the Texas Rangers, the cattle frontier, the oil boom, the space program, the tech revolution, that constitutes the cultural foundation of who Texans are. The future is built on this foundation, not in repudiation of it.
Indomitability
There is no challenge that cannot be overcome by the individual initiative and collective will of Texans.
Indomitability is not a slogan. It is the operational disposition of a Texan in the face of difficulty. Texas independence is one of those challenges. The work is hard. The work is long. The work will be done.
The Principles state what we hold to be true. The Mission states the destination; the Texian Manifesto names the road.