The Growing Secession Protest

Before continuing with this discussion let's get a few things clear to ensure we understand a few of my premises.

First, no reasonable person should believe that these petitions for secession being filed at the White House's "We The People" website have any chance of action. They also will get nothing more from the President than some respectful platitudes of how we will "have to work together" (read 'you will have to sacrifice your beliefs in the name of compromise while I won the White House and will compromise by giving up very little') and that it is important that the petitioners' voices are heard (read 'you had your chance to whine now shut the f*** up'). Detractors will pass the movement off as only sour grapes, but there is some importance to these petitions. Blowing it off as sore losers is dangerous.

Second, if a state actually started action to secede then I want to be right there. At this point I believe we are skirting on the verge of "Government becom[ing] destructive" and that the Government cogs have forgotten that it they are "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". Pro-expansion of government people have forgotten that the government that provides everything must take it all from others...and eventually the consent of those others, no matter how minority they are, will go away.

Finally, while I hope for a secession movement to actually move forward and do so as peacefully as practical, I am not confident that it will be peaceful. It may even result in another civil war. But freedom is never free and always costs blood to retain. A price, though, that is not too steep for the fruits of freedom itself.

As of yesterday there were seven states that had collected over 25,000 signatures on the online petition at the White House's website. That threshold is what is needed to earn a response from the President.

The petition filed by Texas residents has racked up about 100,000 signatures. Six others from Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have collected 30,000.

It is nothing new for people to say they are leaving the country because of how an election goes. Look at the number of Hollywood geniuses who promised they would leave (and sadly never did follow through). The difference here is I believe most of these people are willing to take action as well...or demand action. With Texas amassing over 100,000 signatures already it is a likely possibility that there will be pressure on state legislatures to actually engage in action. The actions may fail to move far at first in the Texas legislature but the pressure will continue. People will dismiss the actions and demonize those engaged in it (look at how respectfully the Tea Party groups are treated even by the media, much less the opposition). There will be hateful speech (un-prosecuted hate speech, by the way) against the secessionists. But with growing and continual pressure (which will get amped up as Obamacare's and other federal impositions effects become more real to the individual) the actions will start getting close to success (close to passage in the legislature, becoming an actual campaign issue for Texas gubernatorial races, etc). And then we can look back at this warning.

That to secure these rights, 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 to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The "evils" from the federal government are reaching a point of not being sufferable to a large portion of the population. Think about the percentage of Great Britain's population that the Revolutionaries represented compared to the entire United Kingdom. Compare that percentage to what you have as of right now where over 675,000 people have signed secession petitions.

These are all a protest and nothing more at this point. But when the media so dramatically covered the Occupy protests (held by people who claimed they spoke for half of a nation that didn't support them in any manner) some people actually thought the Occupy movement's size warranted attention to their complaints. At best count (which unfortunately comes from Wikipedia, so the validity of the size may be overstated) the movement peaked at 75,311. Even if adding in an extremely generous doubling of the median for the locations reported without a figure (median = 100, no figures for 263 locations) the movement's peak numbers were just over 101,000. And that collection of give-me-everything-without-working-for-it-myself was given credibility based solely on their numbers.

The secession signatories are so far easily over 600% the size of the Occupy protests at it peak. Listen to that group or risk a terrible collision course within the next 10 years.

Heed the warning of the Declaration of Independence quoted above, "...when a long train of abuses and usurpations...it is their duty, to throw off such Government..." And heed this warning from me. Dismiss the secessionists now at your huge peril later. Trample on them too much now and you will hasten the collision course for actions towards secession.