I'm of two minds about these secession petitions. Texas could probably survive, what with its oil and crops and large population. And that's fine with me. They could then deal with the Mexican border all on their own, without our federal marshalls and troops.
The Blue states whose occasional citizen is petitioning don't need to secede, and probably won't. But it's those other Red states (other than Texas) whose petitioning citizens I think really have their heads up their butts. They are net takers of financial assistance from the feds, not net contributors to the fed. If we let them secede (and, no, I'm not fully serious; just don't push too hard--it wouldn't take much for me to become serious with these particular states), we could likely come close to balancing the federal budget just from the savings from not financing their reactionary craziness. But then we'd need to build a fence around what is basically most of the old Confederacy, to avoid illegal immigration from Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the like. I find it "funny" that Georgia has petitioned twice: they never could get things right the first time.
"Hell, No. Let 'em Go!" I can already hear the chant at SEC football games. And the cheers from the rest of us. Enjoy the article. It's probably not the last we'll hear of secession.
"Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government" indeed.
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Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo! News:
In the wake of last week's presidential election, thousands of Americans have signed petitions seeking permission for their states to peacefully secede from the United States. The petitions were filed on We the People, a government website.
States with citizens filing include Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Oddly, folks from Georgia have filed twice. Even stranger, several of the petitions come from states that went for President Barack Obama.
Of course, this is mostly a symbolic gesture. The odds of the American government granting any state permission to go its own way are on par with winning the lottery while getting hit by a meteor while seeing Bigfoot while finding gluten-free pizza that tastes like the real thing.
An article from WKRC quotes a University of Louisville political science professor who explained that these petitions aren't uncommon. Similar petitions were filed following the 2004 and 2008 elections. Still, should the petitions garner 25,000 signatures in a month, they will require an official response from the Obama administration.
From the We the People site:
The right to petition your government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. We the People provides a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. We created We the People because we want to hear from you. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it's sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.
Not everybody who wants to secede is polite enough to write a petition. Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County (Texas) Republican Party, wrote a post-election newsletter in which he urges the Lone Star State to leave the Union.
"We must contest every single inch of ground and delay the baby-murdering, tax-raising socialists at every opportunity. But in due time, the maggots will have eaten every morsel of flesh off of the rotting corpse of the Republic, and therein lies our opportunity... Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government? Let each go her own way in peace, sign a free trade agreement among the states and we can avoid this gut-wrenching spectacle every four years."
