Poll: GOP split on secession

Written by Johnathan McGinty Friday, 01 May 2009 11:25

In the truly weird, somewhat comical and, yes, obviously terrifying news department ... more than 40 percent of Georgia Republicans think the state would be better off as an independent nation, while one-third of the state's GOP voters would favor Georgia leaving the Union.

Granted those numbers are lower than the ones we saw in Texas, where roughly half of the state's Republicans favored secession, but they're nonetheless eye-opening. And it would explain why John Oxendine is catering to the neo-secessionist crowd these days, and why folks like Rep. Nathan Deal and State Sen. Eric Johnson will do all they can to appeal to that segment of the population.

Safe to say, it'll be an interesting primary to watch.

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FARfetched: ...

I live in Nathan "Raw" Deal's district… frankly, seeing the antics of the people who live up this way, sometimes I wonder if the US would be better off without Georgia.

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May 02, 2009
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Xon: ...

Well, PERHAPS this has more legs to it than I first suspected. I'm still leaning towards "temporary political trick for a party that has little other choice", but let's just assume for the moment that a belief in the validity of secession really is going to make a comeback. Care to have an actual discussion on the merits of the idea?

It is supported by scholars on all sides of the political spectrum (Kirkpatrick Sale and Eugene Genovese, both firm leftists to say the least, both find secession to be a valid tool of freedom for oppressed minorities, for instance). It is the majority position of the "founding fathers," even Hamilton in his (largely dishonest) Federalist Papers arguing for the ratification of the Constitution. It is also, as I understand, endorsed by the United Nations as a right of cultural minorities throughout the world.

The idea that it is inherently "scary" to even consider that, perhaps, member entities of a larger group ought to be able to leave that group if they no longer like the direction it is taking, is a self-evidently disingenuous claim for any American to make, unless you are willing to go on record as being against the Revolution of 1776. A secessionist movement if there ever was one...

So, want to talk about it on the substance of the ideas? Have your publicist call mine.

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May 02, 2009
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thatteachergirl: ...

I would like to see the ideas that these GOP secessionists have for how to keep Georgia afloat once they leave the Union. There is no way that Georgia could sustain itself independently without serious aid from other states or countries, and I don't think the US would be all that happy to help support GA if they leave. Living in Georgia myself, I must say, if the idea was ever seriously brought to a head, and Georgia decided to leave, I would be putting in for a job transfer out of the state pronto. Who in their right mind would back such a proposition?

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May 05, 2009
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Xon: ...

teachergirl,

Why would Georgia be "unable to sustain itself"? People always say this sort of thing, and maybe it's true, but it's not clear why it would be true. Is it something peculiar about Georgia? Would the U.S. not treat Georgia as a member of NAFTA?

If Georgia just ended up with a government that was run pretty much the same way the federal government is run (which is likely), then I agree with you completely. And, knowing Republicans, that's probably exactly what would happen. But why, in principle, could Georgia not succeed if a more libertarian governing philosophy was somehow miraculously in place?

Also, why couldn't Georgia join with other seceding states to form a new nation larger than itself? Other states are talking the same talk right now, so there's no reason to assume that Georgia would necessarily be all by itself.

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May 05, 2009
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