Speak Out: Maryland an Island Among Secession Protesters?

An apparent wave of post-election discontent has found its way online in the form of tens of thousands of people protesting the outcome of the presidential election by stoking the specter of secession. Maryland isn't among the states represented but all four of its neighbors are.

Disgruntled residents from dozens of states—from California to New Hampshire and Texas to Florida—are using the Internet to try to invoke their First Amendment right to “petition the government for redress of grievances” by asking the White House to allow their state to withdraw from the Union.

The White House's “We the People” program says the administration will respond to any petition that receives 25,000 or more signatures within 30 days. Petitions that have been popular in the past include one demanding the White House beer recipe and marijuana legalization, reports The Washington Post.

The petitions from Louisiana and Texas were approaching the threshold for a response. They were the first two states represented, followed by Alabama. Petitioners must be over 13 years old, and only have to put a first name and last initial on the site. 

The Texas petition had topped 80,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, enough to spur a response from Gov. Rick Perry but nothing yet from the Obama administration, the Dallas Morning-News reported.

Six other petitions had crossed 20,000: Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Meanwhile, a petition calling to “deport everyone” who has signed a secessionist petition was rapidly nearing 6,000 signatures.

The petitions for Maryland’s neighbors haven’t stirred the same sort of fever pitch—Virginia (2,170 signatures), Pennsylvania (8,745), Delaware (5,350) and West Virginia (3,280).

But we can't help imagining if they did leave.

There would be no more behind-the-scenes battling with Virginia for federal transit funding. Corporate tax shelters in Delaware would become an international imbroglio. And, West Virginia’s meddling with Maryland’s gambling referendum could have qualified as an affront carried out by foreign interlopers.

What do you think of the protest? Should Maryland be involved? Or can you imagine a more perfect union without some of these petitioners?

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