White House responds to secession petition, says Texas doesn’t have right to leave the US
Source: articles.washingtonpost.com
Bad news for thousands of people who wanted to see Texas secede: The state is still in the U.S.The White House has responded to a petition asking that Texas be allowed to break away from the country, saying the Founding Fathers who created the nation “did not provide a right to walk away from it.”
More than 125,000 people signed the petition, which was created a few days after President Barack Obama won re-election. The White House has promised to respond to any petition that gets more than 25,000 signatures within 30 days.
Jon Carson, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, issued a response quoting Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address and a Supreme Court opinion after the Civil War. It said America was created as a “perpetual union,” but one that allows people with different beliefs to debate the issues.
“Democracy can be noisy and controversial,” Carson said. “Free and open debate is what makes this country work. ... But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don’t let that debate tear us apart.”
The petition was created by Micah Hurd, a Texas National Guardsman and an engineering student at the University of Texas in Arlington. He couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.
In asking that Texas be allowed to leave the country, the petition cited the “economic difficulties stemming from the federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending.” It argued that given the size of Texas’ economy and because the state has a balanced budget, it would be “practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union.”
The petition also said the federal government didn’t share the same values held by the Founding Fathers.
But Carson argued that the writers of the U.S. Constitution addressed the need for policy change through elections, not secession.
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