Real-life secessionists call hit movie Civil War '100% plausible,' as a ... trends now
For Texas secessionist Daniel Miller, the hit movie Civil War is something of a how-to guide.
Miller has since 1996 pushed for the Lone Star state to exit the union, in what's known as 'Texit.'
A movie about exactly that has proven an unexpected box office hit this month, pulling in $45.7 million across North America.
Miller says writer and director Alex Garland's ominous dystopia has tapped a nerve.
'Texas independence, or the breakup of the union, keeps occurring in popular culture,' says Miller.
Civil War depicts a near-future America in which several states are at war with a dictatorial president in Washington, DC
Breakaway California and Texas have aligned as the Western Forces against the loyalist states
'The release of the movie is pouring gasoline on the fire of the conversation around Texit.'
Civil War turns the 'conscious or subconscious' desires of viewers into 109 minutes of fun, he says.
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The tense thriller sees a US that has collapsed into full-blown armed conflict.
The military powers of Texas and California have united as Western Forces, which are descending on Washington, DC.
They seek to overthrow an authoritarian US president, played by Nick Offerman.
Meanwhile, fictional Reuters photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and reporter Joel (Wagner Moura) take to the road with the aim of reaching the capital before it falls to rebels.
The movie is vague about how America descended into a second civil conflict.
The president has ripped up the rule book — bombing civilians, cancelling elections and granting himself a third term.
The fictional commander-in-chief is not too far from modern-day reality, says Miller.
He calls the movie a '100 percent plausible' account of America tearing itself apart.
Kirsten Dunst, center left, plays a news photographer trying to reach the capital before it falls to rebels
Daniel Miller, center right, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, says the movie is '100 percent plausible'
'The federal government has clearly shown that it finds the Constitution is absolutely no obstacle to its consolidation of power,' says Miller.
Politicians in the capital always find a 'loophole or wiggle room or some ridiculous Supreme Court precedent' to justify their actions, he added.
Californians and Texans are among the most pro-independence Americans, with nearly a third in each state wanting to split, YouGov polling shows.
California and Texas may
