"Let's You And Him Fight!"

The spirit of the Alamo…you mean when they ignored all the reports that a huge army was coming because they didn’t trust a report from Mexicans and then were stuck and died protecting a spot of no strategic value?

— ryan (@atdotcomma) July 22, 2021

The simple fact is, the value of the Alamo is rapidly shrinking in Texas consciousness. Texas is a minority majority state, and that's going to be felt sooner rather than later in Texas culture and politics. I don't mean the non-whites are going to turn Texas into California (in the way Michael Anton caricatures California), but Texas doesn't live up to Anton's caricature, either.

If you read the book, you find out Phil Collins fell for the myth of the Alamo and the caricature of Texas it embodies, and he burned millions on crap that he thought had historical significance.  I can't find any evidence the museum he demanded in order to donate his collection to Texas is ever going to be built, though I hope not.  (It's a curiosity of how we pay attention to things that people in Houston still want the Astrodome torn down rather than spend money to renovate it, but the millions it would cost to build the museum Collins wants goes unnoticed by all.  One is as big a waste of money as the other, but at least the Astrodome has some historical significance as the first domed stadium.  Collins' collection isn't even that historically valuable.)  So that myth is fading, rapidly; mostly because the Davy Crockett generation who grew up wearing coonskin caps and knows what "Old Betsy" refers to, are fading.

Anton's comment is redolent with stupidity, but he's entitled to that.  But the "spirit of the Alamo" is precisely what the tweet says:  a quick slaughter in an indefensible position by men (including, especially, Travis) who were too arrogant and stupid to do what Sam Houston told them to do:  blow the place up and leave town.  Houston propagandized it into a rallying cry that led his ragamuffin troops to defeat Santa Ana's far superior forces, but it really was just a bloody useless rout.  If that's the spirit that burns in the hearts of Texans, it's a spirit of stupidity and arrogance that leads to disaster.

And that's not true of Texans, either. 

Now, Texans against the Okies....that's a fight I might pay to watch.