COMMENTARY: Could Texas secession succeed?
Gary Cecil III
The Signal
Petitions have been submitted from all 50 states to secede from the union. In Texas’ petition, petitioners state one thing they hope to achieve from seceding is to “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.”
They do not specify what these rights are, but taking into account the timing of this petition, it appears that President Obama’s policies, such as his stance on rights for women and minorities, are a contributing factor.
The petition for Texas to withdraw from the union has around 118,000 signatures right now, which is 93,000 more than needed for the petition to be addressed by the White House.
First of all, contrary to myth, Texas has no special, legal right to secede. The myth states that Texas was given the special right to secede when it joined the union. The only right Texas was given was the right to split into five states as declared in the 1845 Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas. But no explicit right to secede was given.
However, any state may secede if, and only if, the government is oppressing its citizens, and their rights to life, liberty and property are being attacked instead of protected. If Texas were to secede on these grounds, it would need to form its own government and currency, and it would have to continue to keep up its successful economy.
Texas’ successful economy is listed in the petition as one of the reasons why it should secede. There may be more to it than on the surface since Texas’ economy is largely based on trade with other countries. To keep up its economy, Texas would need to keep up this international trade. However, this reliance on other countries is not a very safe bet. Since these other countries are obviously friends to the U.S., they may not want to abandon such a large ally by continuing trade with an independent Texas.
To give Texas the benefit of the doubt, perhaps by divine intervention, destiny or just dumb luck and these other countries do decide to keep up trade with Texas, there will still be problems residing right inside the nation of Texas.
Consider what Texas petitioners are proposing the petition. Basically limits the rights of minorities and reflects mostly Republican beliefs. About 40 percent of Texans are Democratic, and 55 percent are non-hispanic whites.
And many of these citizens are Plus a large chunk of the 99.538 percent of the Texas population that did not sign the petition to secede.
If Texas manages to secede, how will that portion of Texas respond to being citizens of a union that opposes all of the issues for which they stand? Not kindly, probably by relocating to the U.S.A.
Texas stands no chance on its own without so many of its hard-working citizens, and it takes a great risk in failing by losing the help of other nations who will remain loyal to the U.S.A. Secession leads to no place good.
If things go down this path, that is it for Texas’ economy. Eventually, “border patrol” will refer to Mexico trying to keep out Texans. But to every dark cloud is a silver lining. Nov. 6, citizens of Puerto Rico voted to support statehood. If Texas manages to secede and Puerto Rico becomes a state, the U.S. will not have to change the number of stars of its flag. That is certainly a relief.
