I'd bet there's a Ph.D. thesis in the connections between the old Dixiecrats, Civil Rights, the culture warriors, a particular flavor of evangelical Christianity and the culture of the Old South.

Seems to be a definite pattern there. The South is where these sorts of things seem to pop up, repeatedly. The whole GOP leadership seems to have a southern accent, and that's not the first time that's been observed. In the last election, the "base," such as it is, has contracted and it's now easier to see where the real heart of the so-called conservative movement lies. It's the echo of the old sesesh mind, combined with Jimmy Swigart and Coca Cola. Weird.

I dunno if this is real profound or anything, but let me go get my first cup of coffee while you chew that over.

Beck should be brought up on sedition charges.

Fine Governor. Please return all federal aid. We'll stop basing US Troops in your Sovereign nation. We'll take back the NASA facilities. We'll also end all federal grants to Texas schools. We'll stop funding highway building and maintenance. Please don't call us the next time a hurricane hits TX. We'll call you, etc.

All I can say is "FRACK YOU!"* because we all know that Perry wants to keep all the federal aid that people don't think about while biting the hand that feeds him.

*translated to keep it somewhat clean.

These guys kill me, because they generally promote federal policies that are the most intrusive of all: limitations on love and family! Who you love, how you love, who you can marry, whether you can have children or adopt them.

What could be less the government's business? But, nooo, a sensible tax code is something to secede about! puh-leease.

The GOP has pretty much retired from the North and Northeast. It is on the run in the West. Except for a few lightly populated mountain states and Alaska, about all the GOP has left is the rural Midwest and the South. It is not winning all that much in the Midwestern state wide elections. The GOP has become a regional party. Expect its "leaders" to talk regional politics.

"I believe (the federal government has) become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of its citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state." -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Perry and the rest of the Texas Wingnuts are still mad about the 2003 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Texas' sovereign right to throw sodomites in jail (Lawrence v. Texas).

Personally, I would be happy to wave bye-bye to Texas so that it can set itself up under a Taliban-with-crosses government and become a refuge where the Flat-earthers can come and Tea Bag each other to their heart's content.

But I wonder if Perry realizes what it would do to taxes in Texas if they had to do for themselves all the things Texans expect the federal government to do.

Beck and Perry call to mind the Mad Hatter and March Hare. Alice in Wonderland had a similar problem:

CHAPTER VII: A Mad Tea-Party

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. 'Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; 'only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: 'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. 'There's plenty of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

'Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. 'I don't see any wine,' she remarked.

'There isn't any,' said the March Hare.

'Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily.

'It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said the March Hare.

'I didn't know it was your table,' said Alice; 'it's laid for a great many more than three.'

'Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.

'You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some severity; 'it's very rude.'

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, 'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'

'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. - I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud.

'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.

'Exactly so,' said Alice.

'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.

'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least - at least I mean what I say - that's the same thing, you know.'

'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. 'You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!'

'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!'

'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!'

'It is the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn't much.

The Hatter was the first to break the silence. 'What day of the month is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.

Alice considered a little, and then said 'The fourth.'

'Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. 'I told you butter wouldn't suit the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare.

'It was the best butter,' the March Hare meekly replied.

'Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: 'you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.'

The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, 'It was the best butter, you know.'

Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. 'What a funny watch!' she remarked. 'It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!'

'Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. 'Does your watch tell you what year it is?'

'Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: 'but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together.'

'Which is just the case with mine,' said the Hatter.

Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. 'I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she could.

'The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose.

The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its eyes, 'Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.'

'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

'No, I give it up,' Alice replied: 'what's the answer?'

'I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter.

..etc

Beck and Perry aren't threatening to leave America. America has already left them.

I have to agree, let Texas secede, withdraw all federal support, and treat Texans who relocate to other states as illegal aliens. I am unable to understand how these people remain in office.

I am not totally opposed to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana seceding from the United States.

As a practical matter, we should let them get some practice first. Therefore, I propose that during the next 2 years all federal facilities (military/NASA/etc.) be moved from those states. Then, for the following 3 years no federal taxes be collected in those states and that no federal money is expended in those states.

After those 5 years those states could determine if, 150 years after the civil war, they want to finally rejoin the union or go their own way.

For Texas, I propose a different solution. East Texas should be allowed to become part of Louisiana. West Texas (Big Bend National Park & west) should be allowed to become part of New Mexico. Texas, west of Fort Worth & north of Dallas, should be allowed to become part of Oklahoma. Austin should have all politicians kicked out & Austin and south should be left alone as part of the United States. Dallas & Fort Worth & an area within a radius of 50 miles of them should be allowed to become the independent nation of Fake Cowboyland. Houston should be allowed to drown.

The last time a Dem sat in the WH, the right tried to overturn the election through impeachment. Though they didn't entirely succeed, they did manage to stifle progress and set the stage for W.

Now another Dem is in the WH and the right is back to thwarting progress in Congress and talking about armed insurrection.

Talk about spoiled brats and sore losers.

"I believe (the federal government has) become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of its citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state... We think it's time to draw the line in the sand and tell Washington that no longer are we going to accept their oppressive hand in the state of Texas." -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Governor Perry: Which policies, specifically, do you object to? How do you propose to draw a line?

Until you spell these things out you're just another empty windbag.

As for Beck, until he is driven off the airwaves by his fellow right-wingers, that side has lost all right to discuss the patriotism of anyone on the left.

Note: as odious as I find Beck, I would be perfectly happy to have him keep his slot on Fox permanently if the rightwing would acknowldge that it is their side, not the left that has been openly advocating secession and revolution and voluntarily surrendered the mantle of patriotism or if the MSM shouted them down every time the tried to don that mantle. I know neither will ever happen, but I can dream can't I?

Is it just me or does it seem like all of these folks-- Beck, Perry, teabaggers-- are really jumping the gun on this? All of their anger and rage is over the actions of an administration that isn't even 100 days in. Which is exactly why it's so clear that this is no surging grassroots movement, it's nothing more than a lot of angry republicans who are still mad that they lost in November. In fact the official endorsement of the "tea parties" by the RNC only exposes it further, as does FoxNews promoting and particiapating in them.

I think there are a lot of passionate anti-government GOPers who believe that they're part of some kind of "silent majority" movement, meanwhile it's just the RNC/FoxNews trying to pretend that their movement is bottom-up and not top-down. It's all sort of sad, really. They're behaving like programmable sheeple and don't even seem to realize it.

As a lefty who lived in DC for 8 years I went to my share of protests. However, it has always been fairly clear to me that the vast majority of protests are only marginally effective, most of the time they do little more than make the participants feel good about themselves, like they're doing "something." The only thing useful I think they'll get out of this is networking, although odds are this will be a pretty big release for a lot of them, they'll feel like they did "something" and will simmer down afterwards.

Perry's just shooting off his mouth. He's trailing in the primary polls for another term to Sen. Hutchison, who, even though she is a Republican and therefore a douchebag, is at least not insane. Just base cultivating here.

Perry wants "the cruel hand of Washington" out of Texas? Hey---I can live with that, but there "are" preconditions:

Whenever a tornado, or a hurricane, or a wildfire consumes a part of Texas, my insurance company should be free from any obligation to repair the damage. To do otherwise constitutes "insurance-premium-increase without representation", and is grounds for committing aggressive acts of offensive war upon the pompous fiefdom of Texas.

For the same basic reason---that Texas effectively levies a tax upon my monthly budget without affording me, as a non-Texan, with due representation in their government---I should not be forced to subsidize their infrastructure, or their public education, or their defense from the Mexican drug cartel.

Likewise, I have the right to know, in advance, if anything I purchase for myself, or for any member of my family, or for my home, contains ingredients or subcomponents that were manufactured, installed, or in any way handled or transported by the denizens and/or infrastructure of Texas.

And finally: I hereby call for an immediate Convention to discuss the procedures whereby Texas is irrevocably removed from the Union of these United States, and replaced forthwith by the State of Puerto Rico. (This would serve a double purpose, in that Bush would henceforth be a Texan, no longer an American, and would summarily forfeit his Presidential pension and Secret Service detail.)

As I posted to another blog, this makes me want to rethink the "America, love it or leave it" taunt of a few years back.

There seem to be some on the right who are now considering the second option.

"Ya spell, ya read, D-O-O-R."
-Deborah Harry

This gets me back to a point I have been wistfully making for many years:

Lincoln was wrong to fight the Civil War. He should have simply let the South secede.

The Confederacy would have been almost completely isolated internationally as revulsion against slavery grew. Any slave leaving Confederate territory would have been freed. International pressure would have compelled the South to abolish slavery by the 1890s at the latest. Can you imagine a southern slavocracy persisting into the 20th century? I can't. The last major country to abolish slavery was Brazil, in 1888.

We would have avoided that terrible war and all of its consequences, which are still poisoning our discourse today. The South might have eventually petitioned to rejoin the Union, but there would have been no "lost cause" mythology. Or it might have remained independent, in which case they could have their theocracy and we could have our democracy.

S. Waybright said:
Perry wants "the cruel hand of Washington" out of Texas? Hey---I can live with that, but there "are" preconditions:

I would add another precondition -- that employers in the United States are permitted to discriminate against people who were "educated" in a Texas school system that teaches that the Earth if flat, that it was created on October 23, 4004 B.C., that Pi is equal to 3, and that if you add 21 billion you end up with a number that is smaller than the original.

Wow, Republicans and others who think "I believe the federal government has become oppressive" and can decry "its intrusion into the lives of its citizens" all while cheering loudly - and proclaiming that the rest of us were not clapping loudly enough - during the Bush years, wherein that administration was spying on American citizens without warrant before 911 - and thus before their supposed rationale for doing so - is rich indeed.

I guess they really cannot stand it when they are out of power. But when they're in power, they can do all these things and more with nary a peep against that which they now crow about.

Perry - Since the vast, vast majority of citizens are middle class or working class, do you suppose that this majority of Texans know that they are in the midst of the largest middle-class tax decrease in American history? Why don't you tell them? Or would the truth crossing your lips cause your face to burst into flames?

Beck - please show us the way. Succeed yourself, and blaze the trail for all like minded individuals who hate America and don't understand the meaning of "United We Stand", and "One nation, under God, indivisible...". Weren't you and your ilk the promoters of the bumper sticker slogan "These colors don't run!" But please, by all means, run away from your country; continue on with the even more extreme rhetoric than that which helped get your party shellacked in the last 2 elections. Rank hypocrite extraordinaire.

Does anyone here remember how Andrew Jackson responded when Calhoun threatened much the same thing in the 1830's over tariffs?

He put the navy off the coast of SC and told them that if they left the Union, he'd have no choice but to consider them a hostile nation and act appropriately. Considering this was the same man who carried two slugs in him from previous duels, the psychos took him seriously.

I think we need to do the same with these fools. No serious legal scholar has taken the Kentucky Resolutions with anything more than a grain of salt since 1865... if Perry wants to leave or feels he's being treated unfairly, I know a Governor in North Carolina who will take his federal funding right now.

Virginia: But without the Civil War, there would have been no Fourteenth Amendment. Maybe, even without the Fourteenth Amendment, the States eventually would have desegregated their schools, given equal rights to women, given indigent criminal defendants the right to counsel, adopted the exclusionary rule to deter unreasonable searches and seizures, etc., but maybe not, and certainly not on a nationwide basis.

@ Steve: This is not the way to deal with Glenn Beck. Reading the crazy shit he says has some value to me, because he has a bully pulpit and a following and I like to know my enemy -- and I certainly don't want to watch him myself -- but I don't understand why you dignify his wingnuttery with a refutation when you admit that all he's after is publicity. You're giving it to him!

Please yes. Leave. Get out. Don't let the door hit you.

Could you imagine how much better off we'd be? No more wars of choice, because the military power of the Confederacy would be less than half what our combined power is now. No more more economic superpower destroying the world's economy, because the money and the stupid policy would be separate.

And the Union would actually be able to become a civilized, progressive nation. Yes, the Confederacy would be left behind, but 20 states' worth of regressive lunacy is better than 50.

Please please please let this happen in my lifetime. And please, at the time it happens, let the President have the wisdom to let them go.

Mr. Toad - I'd like to think we could have gotten the protections in the 14th amendment through evolving social standards without having to fight a bloody and divisive war, which people would still be seething over 150 years later.

But of course we'll never know for sure what would have been. I'm just getting sick and tired of the southern tail wagging the dog in this country. I'd be perfectly happy if they'd go their own way.

Virginia and SadOlVet, I'm in Georgia and I'll fight to the death to stay in the Union.
As I've commented before, the real history of the South (how a ruling class took it to Secession, how there was much brother against brother struggle and Unionism, especially in my neck of the woods {the Southern Appalachians}, how the Republicans and Abolitionists lost interest in the conquered South and sold out freed slaves to the Jim Crow Bourbon Dems..) has been obscured by Hollywood history and Moonlight and Magnolia nonsense, propped up with Gone with the Wind and Birth of a Nation as sacred texts.
There are Southern progressives, it's just the old Democratic party, the Blue Dogs, combined with the Republicans have kept them down. We need your help. You're not going to be rid of these annoying states anytime soon. A sense of the real history and a willingness not to stereotype all southerners would help.

Please please please let this happen in my lifetime. And please, at the time it happens, let the President have the wisdom to let them go.

Only if the North is guaranteed retention of all nuclear weapons. Could you imagine Gov. Sanford of South Carolina with the bomb?

Does the state have any right anymore?

States are merely a form of government, and governments do not have rights. They have powers, authorities and obligations, but they do not have rights.

The governor added, "We think it's time to draw the line in the sand and tell Washington that no longer are we going to accept their oppressive hand in the state of Texas."

I believe they tried that once before, and got their asses soundly whipped by the Yankees before they gave up.....

Ironically, the saying "the Constitution is not a suicide pact" is usually attributed (apocryphally) to Lincoln, referring to his suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War.

If they secede, as General Sherman did last time around, make 'em howl. Burn Dallas & Houston to the ground and hang Perry and the rest of them.

There is a story, told on various Confederates, but often on Gen. Robert Toombs, who is supposed to have said, before the 'Late Unpleasantness', "Boys, we'll whup those Yankess, even if we're fighting with corn stalks".
After the war, a former soldier reminded the General of his boast, and asked what happened. The General is supposed to have replied 'Son, those damned Yankees wouldn't fight using just corn stalks!"

The South is not going to secede. With black population, northern and hispanic (yeah, undocumented) inmigration, the Dems have a chance to break the hold of the Old South.
Mindless scorn of southerners (not that our political class has done everything to bring scorn) only intensifies the 'screw you if you don't like it/I don't care how you do it in NY' attitudes.

Yeah, I can sympathize with Gov, Perry. I used to want to run away from home when I was a child as well. Something about it getting dark outside, becoming cold and hungry always made me want to come back, though.

Don't let them secede. Kick them out!

By almost any measure, the loss of the deep south would be a net boon to the remainder of the states. Secession is hardly a threat, it's more like a tempting offer we'd be fools to pass up on.

Heck, let's create a formal process for leaving the Union that includes a process to repatriate U.S. assets (military, infrastructure, etc.) from the seceding state and a window for population transfers. Allow a state to put the terms to a popular vote at any time.

And let's also create a formal process for a super-majority of the states to force secession on a state under similar terms. I think we could probably tee up Alabama and Mississippi pretty quickly. You're average American would have a hard time coming up with any major contribution to our economy or culture coming out of those two states since blacks fleeing persecution took the Blues out of the delta.

Take it from someone who has a lot of personal experience with mental/emotional "issues" - Beck is a VERY troubled person. I say that not in any political sense, but purely from a human perspective.

Count me as another commenter willing to let Texas secede. Go ahead--we won't miss you. And talk about a permanent majority--without Texas's electoral votes, we could have a Democratic president for a loooooooong time!

Please, let's not do this. Let's not stopp to the level of the Republicans. This silly rhetoric is only being espoused by a very small number of idiots, albeit some fairly powerful ones. But nobody's actually serious about it, and saying "Let them leave" or "throw them out" does nothing to further the discourse.

Oh dear, what's Perry and Aunt Pitty Pat to do, but, to reach for their smelling salts to mourn for "The Cause".

Oliver Wendell Holmes, who held his wearing of the blue highest in his life's work, once, said to the effect that had the Southern States gone to Federal Court to argue secession, prior to the War, they may well have prevailed, but, that the Civil War, in and of itself, made that proposition moot. More smelling salts for Rick and Pitty Pat.

I agree with Kris and Mr Bill -

1) Enough with the separatist talk; from both sides. We are a union, and that means that we sometimes have to take the bad with the good. And there is a lot of good from the 'south'.

2) With that said, let's call such talk what it is: treasonous - when spoken by a state official (whose oath, I am sure, includes something about 'support and defend the constitution of the United States'? Perhaps not, but such is implied, I would argue, by being elected to high office. Beck is guilty of sedition - and while I would agree with both of them having the right to free speech. I wouldn't *prosecute*, but let's call them on their patriotism!

Let them go. The blue states are wealthier, are net contributors to the federal budget (of whose largesse the supposedly anti-tax red states are recipients), healthier, better educated, and have better social cohesion (e.g. lower divorce rates).

The blue states, as well as Atlantic Canada, Eastern Canada and British Columbia can then build European welfare states while the red states and the Canadian West can be the bastion of conservatisms all by themselves. Let's see how well that works.

My governor (oh, how I am ashamed to have to say it) Rick Perry is just about smart enough to make sure his hair is combed to perfection. That's it.

Years ago, I worked in the Wyoming and North Dakota oil patch alongside many displaced Texans who were fond, on eening shift, of recounting what they'd learned in their Texas History classes in grade school or high school (I forget which, probably wouldn't have made much difference). One thing many of them celebrated was the "fact" that under the terms of its admission to the Union Texas had reserved the right to leave the Union if its people or their representatives decided this would be a Good Thing. I don't know that Rick Perry drank this same koolaid when he was of an impressionable age, but if so, this might explain his current rhetoric, bless his heart.
I for one would miss easy access to Texas but if we could just deed parts of it back to Mexico....

I'll add my voice to the chorus saying "Let them go." We'll keep going with our economic recovery plan, they can have a government spending freeze, and then we'll see who's committing suicide.

I'm all for giving these people the right to secede as long as the rest of us also have the right to kick them to the curb.

Goldilocks, thanks for the Alice excerpt. It sometimes appears as if Republicans, in their continuing march to regionalize themselves, have been quaffing from a bottle labeled "DRINK ME"...and we all know what effect it caused on Alice.

States are merely a form of government, and governments do not have rights. They have powers, authorities and obligations, but they do not have rights.

I disagree with your sentiment. Your definition is spot on with the function of a State; however, the States, as members of the Union, have a right to know where their rights to exert authority starts and what they are obliged to do as part of the Union. Not all elected officials agree where the Federal lines are drawn. This concept is the very heart of State Rights.

Antoher part of this quandary is: how much should the Federal Government dictate/influence state-level and local affairs regarding legislative, judicial and civil decisions? Saying the States have no rights, except to exert its power and pay its obligations totally disregards the fact that the definition of those powers and obligations IS the point of contention from the anti-federalist school of thought - a view held by many citizens even after Reconstruction.

Sure it's stupid to think about, sucession and all - since our economies and cultures are so intertwined at this point. But Spouting out random nonsense in a political arena gets attention when no one is listening to you...

Not all schools in Texas are bad. The U of Texas law school has tougher entrance requirements than the Harvard business school. They didn't accept W, but Harvard did.

Beck has stepped way over the anti-American line with his seditious, radical extremism. He has become pure deceitful anti-American propaganda...to the point that it's not just opinion but violence he is instigating. He may try to hide behind this "rodeo clown" facade when challenged but it's time he were stopped. A 'Mordrid' in a time of crisis. His rabble rousing will have consequences...he wants people to rise up so he can get what the wealthy are after...a corporate operated police state. I am praying for his elimination from the public air waves...but he will not do it voluntarily....he needs our help.

Oh, don't worry. I don't want a second civil war. That's why if the South gets serious about leaving, I will gladly hold the door open (and keeping my federal tax money for the North thank you very much) while they go on their merry way. No need to fight about it. They don't want us interfering, I say we give 'em what they want.

Buh-bye.

Secede? The sooner the better. Is there anything I can do to make your secession easier, Mr. Beck?

btw...the GOP remind me of Napoleon pig from Animal farm...and the southern states are their dobermanns. Thank God they are still a minority much much smaller than they know.

Rollback the Reagan tax cuts. Tax the rich. Take back those golden tea bags

As I said in a previous post, why don't these "independence-minded" people put their money where their mouths are and DO IT! Go for the independence you are so desirous of and then you can over-tax your fellow citizens to maintain your country's infrastructure and disaster management. With NO federal aid, I doubt you'll be able to pull it off but, by all means try it. It'll be fun to see how this little experiment turns out for ya'll and a lot more amusing than listening to empty rhetoric!

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas."

As Crockett discovered at the Alamo, as as anyone who has lived in Texas can tell you, they can be one and the same place.

so conservatives want to secede?

isn't that cutting and running?

Dear pirates:

Any ship whose home port is in Texas is no longer under the protection of the USN.

OTOH, if you see a warship flying the flag of the Texas Navy, you'd better run.

So who is going to pay for this "New Government"?

Surely the constitutional case for secession was settled long ago. As another Illinois lawyer put it:
I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 12
Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it�break it, so to speak�but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 13
Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union." 14
But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 15
It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.
A Lincoln. March 4, 1861

surely president soros can usurp any formalities of the constitution,after all it is a pliable document(just ask harold koh) however, the secession would include any states who favor "right wing extremist" tenets such as guns,nukes,oil,coal,secure boarders,capitalism, the constitution,taxPAYERS etc. then you folks could gleefully employ peace signs,apologetic diplomacy,batteries,wind mills,illegals,socialism,transnationalism,free loaders etc. i think we're onto something here! just remember, all deals are FINAL. if you're unhappy with the allowance president soros is giving you or you suddenly realize that those pesky terrorists just wo'nt listen! i'm sure the u.n. will provide a swift and effective remedy. after all, i'm positive you wouldn't dare tunnel under the fences of any "right wing extremist" state for protection now would ya?