I am kind of amused, and a little bemused, when I hear Red State white trash--say, Texans--talk about Patriotism and the Fidelity we all owe to the United States of America...

As if Texans (Texans!) had any right to speak of such things; much less as if they knew squat about them.  Let us begin with the iniquity of the Mexican War (We could begin with the genocide and usurpation of the Cherokees, but we won't), by the unjust means of which Texas was wrested from the sovereign country of Mexico and made into the first notable country, that I know of before the modern state of Israel, which had no right to exist.  Remember the Alamo, indeed!  I think you may have forgot what tax it was, and what it was assessed to cover the costs of, that Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail for not paying.