Following last week’s re-election of President Barack Obama, residents in more than forty U.S. states have filed petitions to secede from the country via the government’s “We the People” program on the White House’s official website.
The states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
According to the rules posted on the White House website, in order for a petition to become valid, it must reach 150 signatures within 30 days, and for the petition to receive a response from the Obama administration, it must reach at least 25,000 signatures within 30 days.
The Obama administration explains on the website, “If a petition meets the signature goal within the designated period, the White House will respond to that petition in a timely fashion.”
Thanks to the power of social media and the fact that this is pretty big news, several states — including Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Georgia — have already crossed or are close to crossing the 25,000 threshold.
The first petition for secession was filed last Wednesday (Nov 7), the day after the election, by a Louisiana man who simply called himself “Michael E” who quoted the Declaration of Independence. That petition has over 30,000 signatures. It reads:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
“…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government…”
A petition posted on Nov. 9th from “Micah H.” of Arlington, Texas had nearly 90,000 signatures at the time this article was published. It reads:
The US continues to suffer economic difficulties stemming from the federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending. The citizens of the US suffer from blatant abuses of their rights such as the NDAA, the TSA, etc. Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it’s citizens’ standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.
Conversely, there are several petitions from people who want to distance themselves from the states who want to secede, like this one from “Caleb M.” out of Austin, Texas:
Austin Texas continues to suffer difficulties stemming from the lack of civil, religious, and political freedoms imposed upon the city by less liberally minded Texans. It is entirely feasible for Austin to operate as its own state, within the United States, in the event that Texas is successful in the current bid to secede. It is important for Austin to remain in the union as to do so would protect it’s citizens’ standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers. We would also like to annex Dublin Texas, Lockhart Texas, & Shiner Texas.
Then there’s this one petition, filed on November 12th by “Douglas H.” from California, requesting that the government strip citizenship from and deport those who signed the secession petitions:
Mr. President, please sign an executive order such that each American citizen who signed a petition from any state to secede from the USA shall have their citizenship stripped and be peacefully deported.
Another petition started by “Joshua L.” from Birmingham, Alabama also requesting that the government deport the people who signed petitions for secession has amassed close to 10,000 signatures.
Of course, since unilateral secession was ruled unconstitutional by the Sepreme Court many years ago, these petitions for secession should simply be looked at as nothing more than a collective temper tantrum thrown by a large group of whiny cry babies who are still butt hurt over Mitt Romney losing the election.
Another four years of President Obama can’t be that bad, can it?
Have we all forgotten about the 8 years we had to deal with that dumb-ass George W. Bush guy? Now we’re even.
Deal with it.
