On Secessionists

A note on the minor seccessionist movement and it's responses.

Ok, a set of notes. Please feel free to not read. I won't be offended.

1. When I say minor, I mean it. Let's consider Mississippi. As a write this, the petition on petitions.whitehouse.gov for Mississippi to secede from the US "Peacefully grant the State of Mississippi to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW governmen" has 16330 signatures. Out of an adult population of roughly 2.25 million people. That's seven signators per thousand adults in the State.

Less than one percent. And that's assuming they're at all serious. Or that they actually live in Mississippi, neither of which we can easily verify. As it stands, they're an incredibly small and thus unrepresentative portion of the population. Schizophrenia is more common, but we're not talking aout a schizophrenia epidemic.

2. It's clearly an attempt to vent frustation rather than actually do anything. Possibly mixed in with utter incompetence, I concede. They keep referenceing the Declaration of Independence, which very much wasn't a petition. I presume that if this was in any way serious, they'd follow the parallel and issue such a declaration themselves.

3. Self determinism isn't a bad thing. After all, the US is founded on the idea, and reaffirmed it as a member of the UN. It's not relevant here, of course, as less than one percent of a population isn't anywhere near enough selves.

4. What's truly represehensible (to whatever extent these petitions can be) are the petitions to strip petitioners of their rights or citizenship or otherwise punish them. Free speech and the right to petition for a redress of grievances are explicitly protected rights under the Constitution and the idea that anyone, particularly the President, ought abridge them should be anathema to anyone who actually believes in the principles Americans claim to love.