Texans Talk Secession

Texas talks secession. A big petition is before the White House. We'll hear the case.

On November 9^th, three days after the re-election of President Barack Obama, Texans made a call to secede from the United States.  A petition went up on the White House web site calling for Texas to be granted secession.  Independence.  As of today, 117,000-plus have signed it.

It didn’t come out of nowhere.  Texas Governor Rick Perry has made sympathetic remarks on secession.  Supporters say it’s a reaction to federal overreach.  Critics say it’s deep fringe, racially-tinged nonsense.  Or treason.

This hour, On Point:  secession talk in Texas.
-Tom Ashbrook

Wade Goodwyn, NPR National Desk Correspondent covering Texas and the surrounding states.

William McKenzie, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News.

Daniel Miller, president of Texas Nationalist Movement.

Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.

Houston Chronicle "As of 3:40 p.m. ET, more than 25,000 Texans have already signed the petition on The White House website to let Texas peacefully secede from United States of America and “create its own NEW government."

Ft Worth Star Telegram "One party official from Southeast Texas calls for — not secession — separation. "Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?" writes Hardin County Republican treasurer Peter Morrison, a Ron Paul supporter and author of a race-heavy Tea Party newsletter. "Let each go her own way," he writes, demanding an "amicable divorce" from the U.S. and from the "maggots" who re-elected President Obama."

New York Times "In the weeks since President Obama’s re-election, Republicans around the country have been wondering how to proceed. Some conservatives in Texas have been asking a far more pointed question: how to secede."