Perry fires up anti-tax crowd: says Texas has power to secede from the Union: "'There's a lot of different scenarios,' Perry said. 'We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot.'
He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.
Texas did secede in 1861, but the North's victory in the Civil War put an end to that."
-------------
Governor Perry will be challenged by Kay Bailey Hutchinson, so they say, and is concerned about his re-election chances. He is trying to capitalize on the Tea Party, anti-Washington, talk show, quasi-libertarian angst that is floating around right now. Throwing around the notion of secession may charge up the crowd, but if he isn't careful he will end up on Janet Napolitano's "rightwing (sic) extremist" list. I listened to his speech yesterday about the Texas legislature's resolution on state sovereignty, and he sounded like a demagogue then. I guess he thinks that role fits him.
2 comments:
While they do not have the right to do this outright, there are certain paths they can take to get this goal. Come on, you know this is possible because this is the same country which gives exceptions to tax cheats through cleaver legal
maneuvers.
Really it is just using the legal system creatively.
Texas probably has the best chance at success. Here is just one way how it can work. The annexation agreement made when Texas joined the union provided that Texas would be able to divide into 5 states. This would create 8 more conservative Senators.
If Texas were to try to divide and be rebuffed, the US would be in violation of the agreement and Texas should be able to go free.
It is not all that far fetched. More here:
http://tinyurl.com/texasmayleave
Texas has the same right to divide itself that other states have. It is in the US Constitution. It requires the consent of Congress as well as the state legislature.
The first time Texas joined the union was before the Civil War, when that annexation agreement was made. That doesn't give Texas the right to secede or "leave" or any other special rights. They tried it in 1861. And then they lost the war and petitioned to be let back into the union after the Civil War was over. The second time they joined the union, after the war, they came in under the same terms as the rest of the Confederacy.
As much as Texans hate to admit it, Texas is just another state.
Post a Comment