Maybe this is why some Texans think the state doesn't suck

Denial is not just a river in Egypt and it has many tributaries in Texas.

Why?

Maybe in part, due to Texas' neighbors.

Let's start with looking across the Red River. Per this Guardian piece, the Sooner State is sooner going to be a failed state than anything. Governed by Mary Fallin, a cross between between a prayer warrior and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, when you have four-day school weeks and teachers panhandling for supplies, you have a problem.

Fallin et al believe that trickle-down applies to the oil patch. Except when she, per followers of Joel Osteen, called on the residents of the state to pray away low oil prices. And failed just as surely as they did, and as Rick Perry did on rain six years ago. (Will bleeding-spirit Religious Right governors ever learn?)

Let's look west, next, across the 103rd meridian and the Permian.

For the past six years, New Mexico has been led by a kleptocratic Brownback wannabe, who got some comeuppance in her party nationally when she was even slower than Ted Cruz to jump on the Trump Train.

That said, the Land of (Dis) Enchantment and home of Fanta Se has had bipartisanly bad leadership. Big Bill Richardson dodged criminal charges, but a fair amount of his New Mexico Miracle was smoke and mirrors. And, before him, Gary Johnson, a governor who vetoed a bill backed, in its original version, by his own wife, and who was a "law and order Republican," not a Libertarian, back in the day.

East? If you live in East Texas and cross the state line, even without having to cross water, you can tell with your eyes closed when you're in Louisiana by how crappy the roads usually are.

It, even more than the other three states, is a petro-state. Funny that the likes of Sarah Palin point the finger at the Nigerias of the world while never looking at the Louisianas, or their own Alaskas.

The Pelican State has emerged from eight years of governance by Jenga (Bobby Jindal), whose overblown pretentiousness makes even New Mexico's Oh Susana Martinez look tame. Jon Bel Edwards is now stuck with cleaning up his mess, and with fighting wingnuts who want to pretend there is no mess and want to make absolutely sure LSU football is inviolate. Geaux Tigers!

And ...

Arkansas.

It does border Texas on a corner. It avoids some of its problems, and those of the three bordering states, by not really being a petro-state.

On the other hand, it IS the home of both Bill Clinton AND Mike Huckabee, among others.

So, for the everything's better in Texas crowd? Well, in the Pointy Abandoned Object State™,  everything's relative.