Texas appears to be the epicenter of a secessionist movement that's been picking up steam in at least five other states.
Daniel Miller is president of the pro-independence Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM). There has been a spurt of growth in TNM because of increased tensions between Texas and the federal government over immigration and transgender education issues.
The Republican Party of Texas has also given a boost to TNM after including support for an independence referendum in its 2024 Legislative Priorities and Platform document. The state party also elected two pro-independence officers\: the chair and vice chair.
Miller talked about other states interested in seceding on his Facebook show. He was asked whether he supports other states leaving the U.S.
"100 percent, but it's not that I support their seceding, it's that I support their right to have the discussion and have the vote and if that's what they want to do as a people then do so."
In Biden's America. that might not be possible. Asking questions about some things, like contested presidential elections, could get you thrown in jail or punished in other ways.
Miller spoke to Newsweek about the secessionist movement in California, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, and New Hampshire.
"A case can be made for a plausible path to independence for any of those states. As with all independence movements, current and historical, their 'exit' timeline expands and compresses depending on internal and external factors.
"California, Alaska, and New Hampshire have internal momentum that can be accelerated by a further deterioration of the relationship between the federal government and their people.
"Florida and Louisiana are newer [independence movements] but are already expressing political and legal resistance to federal overreach. Given the federal government's complete lack of a spirit of reform, if the gulf between their voters and federal policy continues to grow, their push to exit could accelerate greatly."
Truly spoken. But what would be some of the factors that would accelerate the "push to exit"?
"Calexit" is supported by the "Yes California" movement, which was initially founded in 2015 to campaign for greater autonomy for the Golden State but later advocated full independence. It's most recent plan calls for a new country called "Pacifica" to be formed "in the San Francisco Bay area and along the central California coast," while the rest of the state would remain in the U.S.
The Alaskan Independence Party was founded in 1984 to campaign for the state to leave the U.S. and become an independent nation.
Some conservatives and libertarians in New Hampshire are also pushing for the state to leave the U.S. Earlier this year Republican state Representative Jason Gerhard introduced legislation that would require New Hampshire to declare independence if the national debt surpasses $40 trillion, around $6 trillion higher than it currently is, though this was not passed into law.
Of the states with active secessionist movements, California, Texas, and Alaska have the best cases geographically and ideologically. But is secession really the best course of action?
Giving up on the United States is stupid. Too many times in our history we've faced existential crises and come out the other side better and stronger. Just ask the Kaiser. Or Hitler, Tojo, Mussolini, bin Laden, or the Soviets. The list of those who underestimated the U.S. is a long one filled with half-wits like Hitler and Mussolini, and arrogant POSs like Gorbachev and Brezhnev.
The union remains intact as a matter of mutual agreement more than anything else. It may be technically unconstitutional for a state to secede, but if you're planning on leaving the union anyway you're probably not going to be overly concerned about the opinion of constitutional lawyers. In the end, the voters of any state could jointly vote and decide that they are splitting off to form their own nation. They just need to ensure that they are prepared to fight a war to maintain their new independence. If California, Florida, and Texas were all to leave, they would gut out three of the largest pools of electoral votes and congressional seats in the country. The loss of Alaska would drastically reduce the country's total landmass. Louisiana controls one of our nation's largest shipping ports. I'm not sure what the people in New Hampshire are thinking, but they're always kind of weird anyway.
In summary, this would be a terrible idea for America and it would come at one of the worst times imaginable. It would be far better to stick together and fix the issues that may be driving some people to consider seceding. The best thing they could do at this point would be to start by removing Joe Biden from office in November. The country will probably seem far more attractive after he's gone.
That's for sure.
