A full one-fourth of this country’s Republicans wished they lived in another country.
According to a new Public Policy Poll, 25% of GOPers support secession following President Obama’s re-election. Another 19% of self-identified Republicans said they were unsure.
The latest poll comes as seven states have accrued at least 30,000 signatures on petitions–enough to mandate a White House response–to secede from the U.S. That includes Texas, with 120,000 signatures, in addition to Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.
“Who are these maniacs?” asked host Chris Matthews on Tuesday’s Hardball.
msnbc political analyst Ron Reagan said the GOPers in favor of secession would “call themselves patriots.” Apparently, he said, “when democracy doesn’t go your way, when you have an election and the other side wins, you throw the entire 200-plus years of the American experiment into the dumper.” He said those who want to secede are just having a “hissy fit.”
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank said such behavior is normal after an election and runs in the same vein as those who say they’ll move to Canada after a loss. He surmised that those who said they wanted to secede were the same people who believe Obama is a Muslim or was born in Kenya. He added that those states signing the secession petitions, ironically, are the ones that tend to take in more government benefits than they pay in taxes.
Regardless of party affiliation, 18% of Americans polled said they supported secession, while 68% said they were opposed. A sizable 14% were unsure. Matthews said the whole idea of secession doesn’t make sense. “It’s like, ‘We’re so patriotic, we’re going to leave this country.’” Even scarier results from the survey: Nearly half of Republicans–49%–polled think ACORN (which no longer exists) stole the election for Obama. If states were to secede, they’d still have to discharge their portion of the national debt. And–perhaps even more painful to contemplate–their professional football teams might no longer be able to compete in the NFL. Are the Dallas Cowboys really ready to stop being America’s Team?Recommended
