Texas makes push to “withdraw from the Union”?

      My first post is not meant to draw attention to the silly Texas secession movement. That is something that deserves no recognition. It is simply a prime example of how ridiculous the political landscape has become in our nation. The purpose of this blog is addressing nonsense like this that is taking place in America today and trying to make sense of it. We now live in a country where bi-partisanship is almost impossible.  Politicians chose sides on an issue simply by making their stance the opposite of what his or her opposing party believes, no matter how extreme. Facts are now considered “opinions” and politicians(and the public in general) can get away with opposing a fact simply by framing it as “just another
viewpoint on that issue”. The mainstream media does not help this. It is rare for newscasters on a local news station to fact check in today’s society due to fear as being labeled partisan. Since most American’s watch their local news coverage as a primary source of news, this lack of integrity leads to a lot of misinformed citizens. To sum it up, Facts are facts, opinions are opinions. 

      That being said, this “issue” in Texas is a great place to start. After the 2012 Presidential election was over, the results where clear. President Obama won with 332 electoral votes. What makes this win even more decisive is that he won with 51% of the popular vote. In 2008, the President won with nearly 53% of the popular vote. This makes him one of most popular Democratic Presidents in history with Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson being the only other two Democratic Presidents post 1900 to receive more than 50% of the popular vote. Unfortunately, even with strong popularity, some people just can’t deal with the fact that he won. How do they deal with this? Opponents of the President in about 40 States (that means even states that the President won are participating in this “movement”) filed secession petitions to the Obama administration's "We the People" program. 

      Let’s just think about that. He received 51% of the popular vote. A lot of past Presidential elections have been won with less than 50%. George Bush won in 2000 with 47%, Bill Clinton in 1996 with 49% and 1992 with just 43%, and Richard Nixon won in 1968 with 43%. Even John F. Kennedy won with less than half the vote receiving 49% of the popular vote. Are country is based on a constant push to build a more perfect union. “Union”. This seems to be a word that is foreign to a large portion of Americans today. Americans have always shared their feelings on the state of our nation and for the most part, it was symbol of their love for our country and the desire to make it better. Now we are at the point where if certain Americans don’t get their way, the turn their back on the very nation that gives them the right to express their grievances. No longer do they say “what can we do to make our country better”, or even “what do we need to do to win next time”. Instead, we hear the same people that were waving their American flags and boasting about their patriotism when their guy was in charge now saying things like “I’m moving to Australia” and starting movements to declare their states independence from the union. 

      That brings me to Texas. As of this post, Texas had gathered 81,000 signatures on their silly petition to the President. This makes it a big deal for two reasons. The first being that they gathered more signatures than any other state (the second closest is at 30,000). The second reason this is a big deal is that it shows an enormous hypocrisy problem with a lot of Texas Republicans. When their former Governor George W. Bush was in the White House, they bleed red, white, and blue. “Their guy” was in power and anyone who said anything bad about the President was unpatriotic and should just leave the country. This was not that long ago, about five years ago. One President later (note: a more popular President than their guy) and the same Texas Republicans decide that the country they once loved so much “once upon a time” is gone simply because their guy lost. They went from waiving our flag and wearing their lapel pins to calling for an "amicable divorce". Hypocrisy. 

      The logic is just as ridiculous. They have 81,000 signatures and this is supposed to validate their call for independence? Let’s break down this “enormous number of signatures” they are boasting about. 3,249,440 of Texas voters voted for the President. That means 3,168,440 more Texans voted for the President than signed their petition. 4,555,799 Texans voted for Gov. Romney meaning only 1.7% of the people that voted for Romney even signed the petition assuming that everyone who signed it voted. The 81,000 seems even less impressive when you consider that it’s only .3% of the Texas population. 

      As silly as this movement is, for some reason the media is giving it attention as a “huge” movement. In non of the report I have seen covering this does it point out what is so obvious: 81,000 in terms of population for that state is nothing. Unfortunately, it does not surprise me that this is how it is being covered since they can’t “look partisan”. 

      The good news: Even Texas Gov. Rick Perry "believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it." The bad news: Their “movement” has been acknowledged.