A petition calling for the Obama administration to allow Texas to secede has reached the minimum number of signatures needed for an official response from the White House.
Arlington resident Micah H. created the petition on the We the People petition section of the White House website, entitled “Peacefully grant the State of Texas to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.”
Petitions that gain at least 25,000 signatures in 30 days will receive an official response by the administration, according to the site.
Started Friday, three days after the election, it picked up almost enough signatures over the weekend, reaching the minimum for a response by Monday afternoon.
Mentioning the economy and the alleged lack of leadership from the government, the petition asks to withdraw from the U.S. because Texas has maintained a balanced budget and good economy.
Eighteen other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Oregon, have gained thousands of signatures with similar petitions on the site, but as the Texas Tribune points out, Gov. Rick Perry is likely the only governor who has mentioned seceding himself.
“When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation,” Perry told bloggers in 2009. “And one of the deals was, we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.”
Texas’ major cities went to Obama in the election, despite the state remaining red. The trend in the major cities becoming more liberal has led some to wonder if Texas could become blue as early as 2016.
As a native Texan, I can’t imagine a worse fate for Texans than secession, especially if the leader of the independent Texas is the anti-gay Perry. And I can’t wait to see the Obama administration’s response.
Read the full text of the petition below.
The US continues to suffer economic difficulties stemming from the federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending. The citizens of the US suffer from blatant abuses of their rights such as the NDAA, the TSA, etc. Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it’s citizens’ standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.
