Off The Grid News

A Look At The Secessionist Movement

The Motivation

Conservative forces throughout the country are unhappy with a president who continually expands the reach of government, forcing citizens to pay additional taxes in order to keep the poor afloat. These groups are beginning to push for secession forcefully, championing a position that was once confined to the fringe elements of conservative parties. Popular conservative media outlets like Fox News are covering these secessionist movements with no incredulity: they see secession as a viable option for states unhappy with current government trends.

Many states were home to secessionist movements before the election, but Romney’s loss has only served as fuel for these movements, which hold Obama responsible for the degradation of the country. It is a testament to the unhappiness of the nation as a whole that even citizens in blue states like New York have filed petitions to secede.

The goal of these movements, of course, is the hope that states could re-assert their dominance in areas that traditionally belong to the states. Education and healthcare are some of the biggest areas that frustrated citizens are working desperately to return to the dominion of the states. Nobody can argue with the idea that should the federal government remain in control of these policy areas, our country will pick up speed as it heads for failure. The federal government continually seizes power from the states, and it should surprise nobody that citizens are coming together to re-assert their power as voters and activists.

White House Petitions

The White House has added a new segment to their website for petitions from citizens. Intended to create better communication between the general public and White House officials, a petition “requires” a response once it has reached 25,000 signatures. That means that a team at the White House will consider the request and prepare an official response for the administration. Some of the more eccentric petitions on the site include things like “re-declaring independence” and legalizing mushrooms; at the moment, there are 248 petitions on a range of issues. However, all fifty states have citizens who are currently petitioning for secession, though at this time, only eleven states have amassed enough signatures to require a White House response. While there are red states across the country pushing for secession, each of the eleven that require a response is located in the South.

The petition for Texas to secede from the Union currently has over 110,000 signatures, more than any other state moving to secede. Texas is currently pursuing almost twenty lawsuits against the federal government; many of their claims revolve around the constitutionality of Obama’s universal healthcare plan and the necessary impact on the states. There are states (and citizens) all across the country that are actively campaigning to involve more community members in the secession movement. These petitions, however, are citizen-based and not official state petitions for permission to secede.

The Reality of Secession

While many secession activists push for autonomy in the hopes of freeing states from the grasp of the overreaching federal government, many of these individuals fail to carefully consider the changes that would occur in terms of every day government operations.

Things that would cease to be provided by the federal government that seceding states would be responsible for include:

The truth is that no matter the White House response to these secessionist movements, there are insurmountable legal barriers between the states and secession. Legally, the president does not have the right to allow a state to secede, and no legal framework to do so exists. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that the Union is composed of “indestructible states”: a contract, in other words, that cannot be broken. If any state were to successfully secede, they would likely have to force a constitutional amendment allowing secession through first. With enough liberal voters in the country, it is unlikely that legal procedure would change enough in the next twenty years to allow secession.

While almost no state is equipped to take over all federal functions, these secessionist movements can, at the least, serve a powerful political purpose. With citizens in every single state pushing for the secession, the federal government may finally have to take heed of citizen complaints about overreaching federal power. The Constitution also reminds us that the power of the federal government comes from the people, and movement has the potential to allow us as a nation to reclaim that power.

©2012 Off the Grid News

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