Residents of All 50 States Submit Secession Petitions to White House Website
Corrected: The Obama administration’s “We the People” initiative has had an unusual response: petitions to secede from the United States, filed on a White House website by residents from all 50 states.
The administration launched the initiative to give citizens a chance to have their voices heard, the Los Angeles Times reports. Only 150 signatures are needed for a petition to appear on the website, while 25,000 signatures are needed for a White House response.
So far, the Times reported on Wednesday, residents of six states have hit the 25,000 threshold: Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas.
The secessionists are experiencing an online backlash, however, as new petitions are appearing that call for penalties such as stripped citizenship and deportation for the signers.
Out of 146 petitions on the website, 66 are requests for secession, the story says. Then there is a petition, removed by Wednesday evening, suggesting a response to the nation’s “national despair.” President Obama should “do the Hokey Pokey on national television during a special presidential address to the nation.”
Hat tip to Pat’s Papers, which linked to a story on the Georgia petition by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Updated at 10:08 a.m. to correct a spelling error in the headline.
