September 16, 2009
Secession talk
I’m a native Texan and have lived here the vast majority of my life. I think it’s unconscionably irresponsible for elected officials on the public payroll to speak glibly of secession while knowing they will never be held to account. Therefore I think it’s put-up-or-shut-up time. I’d like to see Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid 1) publicly offer the Republican delegation in Congress the opportunity to draft a constitutional amendment allowing states to secede peaceably from the United States, and 2) guarantee that the amendment, if or when drafted, will be brought up for a vote. Let’s see how Rep. Boehner and Sen. McConnell respond.
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It would be a most interesting proposal to bring forth in this, the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
seems to be a popular topic – one of the more off-beat twitter feeds i follow had something on secession this morning…
https://twitter.com/Rush_0_Limbaugh
I’d really like to see folks like Jeb Hensarling, John Cornyn, Joe Barton, Kenny Marchant, et al., have to go on record supporting or denying the right of states to secede.
Well, their states would sure lose a lot of federal support and funding all down the line, wouldn’t they?
Yikes! No more Medicare or VA health care for veterans!
Well, that would be a relief — to be freed of the socialist yoke.
If Texas secedes, will you be accepting liberal/socialist/communist/sane refugees?
If Texas secedes, I’ll be a refugee.
You can join me, Renner, and live on the lam! Eventually we will assemble a band of gypsies.
Will Buddy Miles drum for us?
Ooh, I’m sure that the Republicans in Texas are quacking in their boots over that one. “Oh, whatever you do, don’t throw me in that briar patch!” Whether the vote goes up or down, it would still be a win for them.
The real problem is that when over half the country would fire Congress as a whole and start a whole new election, an amendment like that has a chance of passing. Is that a chance that Pelosi would be willing to take?
Actually I think it would be quite a dilemma for them. Gov. Perry ‘won’ re-election in 2006 with only 39% of the vote–it was a race with 4 ‘major’ candidates and Texas doesn’t require a run-off for the governor’s race–and he faces a well-known and well-financed primary challenge next March. If the reps and senators voted against the amendment, they would lose the support of the hard-core right which Perry courts. If they voted for it, they would lose moderates, which do exist in Texas, and even conservative Democrats who sometimes vote for Republicans. Meanwhile, Texas shifts demographically more and more toward the Democratic Party anyway. Even as it is, the Texas House is barely in Republican control.