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Once again, TexasReb is right on the money! Texas (other than El Paso and possibly the Big Bend region) is not the southwest in its contemporary definition. The "Southwest" that matters today, in 2008, is the Desert Southwest. The desert southwest is a real, definable region with certain characteristics most of the region shares. When you look at what the southwest is really about, which, contrary to the stereotypes of wide open spaces, cowboys and Indians, you'll see it's actually the most urbanized region of the country. Big cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, and El Paso, and small cities like St George, UT, Yuma, AZ, Kingman, AZ, Sierra Vista, AZ, El Centro, CA, Bullhead City, AZ/ Needles, CA, and Las Cruces, NM, are where the majority of southwestern residents actually live-- not farms and ranches. What you'll see if you study any of these cities on mapquest.com is a relatively packed in, gridded out city, surrounded by hundreds of miles of wide open desert wilderness. And Las Vegas and Phoenix in particular, and increasingly Tucson, actually have a LOT in common with southern California cities-- especially inland areas of Los Angeles and San Diego. People forget that a HUGE portion of southern California is pure desert-- some of the driest, harshest desert on the continent. Death Valley, anyone? I'd say California actually is more southwestern than Texas, when you look at what "southwest" means in this day and age. Californians are basically (re)colonizing the southwest, since they're being pushed out of their home state due to sky-high real estate prices and the desert southwest is practically in their backyard.
Texas is not Southwestern nor is it Southeastern. Texas is Texas with characteristics of both in the big state. You simply cannot say Texas is either or.
I don't disagree with a lot of -- even MOST of -- what you say, Louisiana neighbor!
BUT...I will insist until I either croak, go senile, or pass out from drinking beer on Sunday afternoon -- that, other than than the transpecos and very upper panhandle ... that even most of western Texas is not *truly* "Southwestern" if it means being grouped with New Mexico and Arizona. The former, for all its distinction and differences with what were the settled parts of the Old Confederate States, because of being settled largely by the latter, have basically Southern characteristics about it. Something not found at all much passed the New Mexico border. The accent/speech and dominance of the Southern Baptist Church are a couple that come to mind....
I like and appreciate this comment and astute observation! A qualification being that like the larger definition of "the South" itself, maybe even "southeastern" is subjective definition.
To better explain this, I am a fourth generation Texan whose ancestors -- Confederate veterans all -- migrated "west" from the Deep South after "The War". They made their living by staking out a claim on the new lands of Texas, and living was usually something involving cotton. They picked, chopped or worked in a gin...and the life was more like the movie Places in the Heart than Lonesome Dove! LOL
Anyway, processing all this over the years and memories, I guess I just came to deliniate the South as the "old" or "southeast"..,as that from which from most of my kin migrated...started in East Texas and continued to Alabama...
Southwest? Well, that just meant the part of Texas they settled, and made into something! Which is why I always think of west Texas as "Western South"...not Southwest.
Bottom line is, I confess I never really considered that someone from Louisiana might actually consider themselves part of the "western" South...as obviously my definition is not going to be the same.
Ok...time for a cold beer! LOL
Yes Texreb, all this regionalizing does seem to be a subjective matter. I must look like some kind of snob to many of my fellow southerners-I don't mean to be; just my life experiences have helped form my conclusions. Didn't realize all that about New Mexico. Speaking of ...beer; I could use one right nowLOL.
I don't see the southeast running out of water like the southwest. One good snow season and a high river does not been plentiful water resources for the dry west. Drought cycles have caused the predicament in Atlanta and yes they underbuilt their reservoir capacity.
How smart is watering the desert for farming? Especially those crops like sugarcane which Cali is supposed to start producing. That is a thirsty crop just like rice, corn and soybeans. I know there are some special crops which grow best in those dry climates such as wine grapes and the like. Grow those. If a crop can be produced east of the plains without irrigation then that is where it should be grown. The Feds have spent billions on irrigation projects for places that aren't meant to be farmed in the first place.
Yes Texreb, all this regionalizing does seem to be a subjective matter. I must look like some kind of snob to many of my fellow southerners-I don't mean to be; just my life experiences have helped form my conclusions. Didn't realize all that about New Mexico. Speaking of ...beer; I could use one right nowLOL.
Here ya go, HD *cracks open a couple of cans*...
...lets have a couple together, and with Vegas, Spade and all the rest of the SE, SW, and all us western South boys!
Belly up to the bar, my friends...TexasReb is buying...!
Not quite...............
There was a "redneckization" that took place in the 90's, with country music and NASCAR becoming unnessisarily popular. We had our very first white-trash president: Billy Bob Clinton. I'm surprised there weren't engines hanging from tree-limbs in the Rose Garden... not to my knowledge, anyway. Pickup trucks and SUV's became the norm.
Now it seems that all that stuff is waning, and people are coming to their senses again. It will take a little while, though....
Gonna have to say negative on that one. 34% of American's live in the South, making it the most populous region, and while the other regions are growing, they simply are not growing at nearly the same rate as the South. Though one might be living in the South reluctantly, there is always some compulsory cultural assimilation.
In Rome you gotta do as the Romans do!
The Southwest as a whole sucks! It is really nothing more than an unsustainable parched desert with crappy cities, unfriendly people, and overrated mtns. The Southeast, on the otherhand is booming with the cities of Texas all the way through N Carolina leading the way. Proximity to REAL getaways like the Bahamas and other greatislands in the Caribbean are a plus too. I guess the closeminded backwards Southwesterners are too busy thinking that the South is still fighting the civil war, because we have outgrown that long long ago!
Even though eastern Texas is different from western Texas, it is not remotely like the southeast. Places like Charleston, Savannah, North Carolina, Florida are not at all like anything in Texas.
But neither is Maine anything like New Jersey yet they are both Northeastern. And, for future reference, places like Charleston are nothing like Florida.
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Texas (other than El Paso and possibly the Big Bend region) is not the southwest in its contemporary definition. The "Southwest" that matters today, in 2008, is the Desert Southwest. The desert southwest is a real, definable region with certain characteristics most of the region shares. When you look at what the southwest is really about, which, contrary to the stereotypes of wide open spaces, cowboys and Indians, you'll see it's actually the most urbanized region of the country. Big cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, and El Paso, and small cities like St George, UT, Yuma, AZ, Kingman, AZ, Sierra Vista, AZ, El Centro, CA, Bullhead City, AZ/ Needles, CA, and Las Cruces, NM, are where the majority of southwestern residents actually live-- not farms and ranches. What you'll see if you study any of these cities on mapquest.com is a relatively packed in, gridded out city, surrounded by hundreds of miles of wide open desert wilderness. And Las Vegas and Phoenix in particular, and increasingly Tucson, actually have a LOT in common with southern California cities-- especially inland areas of Los Angeles and San Diego. People forget that a HUGE portion of southern California is pure desert-- some of the driest, harshest desert on the continent. Death Valley, anyone? 
I'd say California actually is more southwestern than Texas, when you look at what "southwest" means in this day and age. Californians are basically (re)colonizing the southwest, since they're being pushed out of their home state due to sky-high real estate prices and the desert southwest is practically in their backyard.
