…There’s always some idle secession chatter in the freedom-and-independence-loving United States, too. A new poll shows one in four Americans support “the idea of your state peacefully withdrawing from the United States of America and the federal government.”

But could it ever be more than a rhetorical phenomenon in the States? It seems unlikely, given that those who benefit most from union are those most interested in secession…

Secession got more support from Republicans than Democrats, more from right- than left-leaning independents, more from younger than older people, more from lower- than higher-income brackets, more from high school than college grads…. Of the people who said they identified with the Tea Party, supporters of secession were actually in the majority, with 53 percent.

In other words, it’s recipients of government largess who want to get out. It’s net donors to the government who want to stay. To wit, only one in five residents of the wealthy New England states supports secession, separatist-lusty Vermont included, versus one in three residents of the poorer southwest, where the urge is more pronounced…

But it takes a lot more than grit to make it as a new country — and generally, the poorer, smaller, and less-diversified the state, the worse it would fare after independence. Secession itself would also be extremely costly, though how costly would depend on whether the United States acceded to the plan (not likely) and how much it wanted to antagonize New Kansas or Free Texas or what have you. Would it forgive said state’s debts? Would it implement airspace restrictions, travel restrictions, sanctions, or even a full embargo? Might it bar a new country from the global payments system?

But let’s say we’re in a heartless, rationalist thunderdome-type situation. In that case, who deserves to get kicked out?

I love when Annie Lowrey gets down to the real losers we wouldn’t pay to stay. Calling Florida America’s lunatic dongle really warms my looney geek-heart the most.

Thanks, Helen



  1. McCullough says:

    California, New York, and Illinois. Perhaps more.

  2. Sir Shirgall says:

    I’d like to see Washington, Oregon, and Idaho secede and become the great country of Lincolnia.

    • Animal Mother says:

      Cascadia would be as better name for the Great Unification of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

      • Sir Shirgall says:

        Yes, but can you imagine the comedy of people trying to figure out how to pronounce “Lincolnia”?

        Several counties here have tried to secede from their mother county and form a new county named “Lincoln”, at least in Washington, Oregon, and northern California.

    • Tim says:

      I’d like to see it rain more glop there (not really)..

      http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Oakville_Blobs

  3. spsffan says:

    California. Because I live here and would like to get away from Washington’s war machine.

    But, that’s somewhat tongue in cheek. If the question is who would we like to kick out, then Florida tops the list. Nothing good has come out of there since Jim Morrison.

    • JMagee says:

      I agree. Since you won’t fight, we’ll take the oil and gas and cut-off the water.

    • WrightBrothers says:

      California to secede in order to “get away from the war machine” is somewhat ironic seeing that California depends on and has dozens of military bases there. Heck, they could secede and create their own war machine.

  4. pedro says:

    When you need help to get some zzz, is nice to have a place like this blog when you have gone a long time without sleep.

    Yawn!

  5. NewFormatSux says:

    When Bush was reelected, it was liberals in New England that were talking about secession.

    If you kick out Florida, where will all the wealthy liberals go to retire and stop paying the high taxes they voted for?

  6. Tim says:

    Kick out whatever that state is that has Lindsey Graham in it so that when his promised nuke finally goes off there then we won’t give a shit and get all Martial law over it.

  7. AdmFubar says:

    i’d like to see the state of stupidity secede.

  8. sargasso_c says:

    Any state with an “a” in it’s name, starting with Canada.

  9. M0les says:

    The District of Columbia?

  10. jpfitz says:

    This is a downright nasty proposition. It’s akin to who to pick to be on your dodge-ball team in grade school. The question of who’d you like to not fund with federal dollars is in essence a question of who takes more funds than they commit to the group. I wouldn’t expect this form of exclusionary type of finger pointing from Eidard.

    To ask which state would like to be partitioned from either the confines of a state or the US is a better question.

    For some comedic politics here are some guido’s, which are not the majority representation of Long Island. Queens is where most of the guido’s live and some now have pushed east into Suffolk county. Oy vey.
    http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/kctbhb/long-island-wants-to-secede


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