Many Texans have expressed an urgent need to secede from the U.S., since the president handily won reelection in the facial hairs of their electoral desires. Texas sportsmanship seems to be on the wane.
Solve this problem by selling Texas to Mexico for what it's worth, except for the more moderate urban enclave of Austin, which could survive, like an embassy, as sovereign U.S. territory.
Alternately, some of my progressive Vermont friends recommend that Texans would turn over new leaves if their state were simply renamed Southern Vermont. To consecrate this holy alliance, every Yom Kippur the governor of Vermont would exchange a gallon of grade A maple syrup with the governor of Texas, for a galvanized pale of Texas Longhorn bullshit.