Politics & Government

Is California Ready to Secede From the United States?

So far, more than 13,000 Golden Staters have joined an online drive to leave the union.

In more than 40 states across the nation, signatures are being gathered asking President Obama to allow states to consider seceding from the union, according to press reports over the weekend.

The states, ranging from blue states like New York and New Jersey to some of the reddest of the red, such as North Dakota and Texas, must collect 25,000 signatures within 30 days to receive an official response from the White House. Texas already has more than 25,000, according to reports. 

On Nov. 11, just five days after President Obama was re-elected to the White House, the movement officially came to California and now has 13,046 signatures and growing. 

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The petition was started by Jennifer K. from Yucca Valley. 

However, California's movement has not seen the fervor of some other states, such as New Hampshire, where the creator has launched a Facebook campaign. 

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There is a California Secession Facebook page, which recently received a post linking to the online petition after almost one year of inactivity. 

Last year, about a dozen counties in the eastern and southern parts of Southern California, minus Los Angeles, tried to secede from the state to form "Southern California." 

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone's reasons for secession included "too much money spent on state prisons, too much power for public unions, too many regulations and not enough of a crackdown on illegal immigration," according to the New York Times.

In response to these and other secession petitions, Joshua L. from Birmingham, AL, started a petition to deport everyone that signed a petition to withdraw their state from the nation. 

It currently has over 8,300 signatures, a few hundred more than the petition for California to secede from the US. 

What do you think about this secession petition? Do you think it will receive 25,000 signatures by Dec. 11? Tell us in the comments. 

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