“It’s déjà vu all over again.”
The Huffington Post/YouGov poll on US secession sentiment came out today. Secessionists are in the minority, but the numbers are literally crazy. There are secession polls in all 50 states, and of those polled by YouGov:
Over half opposed seeing their state secede, with 42 percent strongly opposing the idea, while 22 percent said they supported the idea. A quarter weren’t sure.
Those sound a lot like birther numbers to me. In a rather counterfactual opinion, 20% said that it was very likely that a majority in their state would vote to secede. I am on the YouGov panel, but I wasn’t one of the 1,000 adults queried on this question.
Not surprisingly, it’s largely the Republicans who want to leave the Union, twice as many males as females, and highest among those 65 years of age or older.
There was a slight bias against Texas in the poll. Nationwide 22.8% supported secession for their state, 29% said that states should have the right to secede, but 31.6% said that Texas should be allowed to go.
So what happens if all 50 states secede? I guess the Taliban takes over.
US out of US!!!
I have to admit that the numbers are not at all what I expected.
I think the only question of any real interest is #4, whether the respondent supports or opposes his own state seceeding. 12% strongly support, and 10% tend to support. Those are an order of magnitude higher than I expected.
And I had thought that the attempts I often hear to associate secession with the GOP were a smear. But here are the numbers: among Republicans, it’s 43/40, a 3 point spread in favor of secession.
And these numbers are national averages. I was certain there was no state where support for secession was anywhere near a majority, but now I’m wondering what would happen if you polled individual red states.
Then again, these are just angry people saying something on a poll…
…Which is much different from how they might act or behave if the actual threat of secession was real and not just a fantasy sour-grapes whine-fest…
This is no different than the loser at a bar spouting off tough guy trash talk, until someone actually walks up to him and calls his bluff…
Here’s an interesting article about how the government might be forced to respond if any of these tantrum groups tried to take action with their seccessionist garbage:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2012/11/15/how-the-u-s-military-would-crush-a-tea-party-rebellion/?partner=obtech
I read a book with this premise, only South Carolina somehow got control of a nuclear missile. I haven’t been able to find the title.
Oh, goody! The ‘Darlington’ study is back! It was a topic of interest over at Amazon a while back, when birther sites forst got a hold of, insisting this was gov’t sponsored, DoD planning, targeting the Tea Party, blah, blah, feed the persecution complex. I had completely forgotten about it. Not surprising it would pop up in light of the secession fad. There was a wingnut video about it, a panel, really going nuts on it.
Google “Kevin Benson Tea Party” and enjoy the hits from last summer. Infowars, Oathkeepers, blah, blah.
But they do have the missile, at the Columbia fairgrounds. So says Wiki.
This.
No, it was Albert Shanker: There is a reference to Albert Shanker in the Woody Allen movie Sleeper (1973). The protagonist is transported to the future, where he is told that the old world was destroyed when “a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Shanker
Let me guess …. they simply picked up the one the USAF “left” on Florence, SC in 1958?
http://www.cracked.com/article_19546_7-nuclear-weapon-screw-ups-you-wont-believe-we-survived.html
And I bet 0% of these have any idea of the practical consequences (especially if the US take an inamicable stance – how would, for example, Utah secede if all states around it don’t? They would not be able to import anything if US airspace and any land routes are closed to them…).
My country also has those isolationists (mostly on the right end of the spectrum) who have no idea that closing down imports/exports would throw us back to the Dark Ages.