Hey, I love Austin. But the rest of Texas doesn't.
Dallas had a pretty progressive vibe too when I was there on certain things.
...and as noted earlier, 40% of the people in the state are democrats, over 40% of the people in the state voted for Obama. I think the "rest of Texas doesn't" is a bit of an exaggeration.
Often times people fall in the trap of projecting the attributes of east Texas onto the entire state.
You seem to find these notions that "In Texas, everyone's packing a gun, and there's a bunch of racists down there".
I think it would surprise many to learn that notion is a bit misplaced.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/u..._offense_type_by_participating_state_2013.xls
Texas has one of the lower hate crime rates in the nation.
...and the one that will surprise a lot of people I'm sure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state
Texas is only 30th (didn't even make the top half) for gun ownership rate, and are one of only 4 states that explicitly forbid the open carry of handguns believe it or not
(only 17th in terms of gun homicides).
And according to NARAL (a pro-choice org), Texas is only ranked 14th in terms of states with the strictest abortion laws.
So, while I can understand people disliking certain states based on certain policies and social cultures, it seems like for all of the reasons given for why people dislike Texas, there are other states they should be targeting first when it comes to each of those reasons.