Petition for Texas secession hits White House response mark

Less than a week after President Obama’s reelection, an online petition calling for Texas to secede from the Union has gained enough signatures to prompt a response from the White House.

The petition is posted on “We the People,” the White House’s website for petitions. The White House has pledged to provide a formal response to all petitions that receive more than 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

The Texas secession petition was posted on Nov. 9 and already has more than 27,000 signatures.

{mosads}People have posted similar petitions for dozens of other states to secede, but the Texas petition was the first to cross the threshold. Republican Mitt Romney won Texas with 57 percent of the vote.

The petition does not explicitly cite President Obama’s reelection as a reason to secede, but claims the nation continues to suffer because of the “federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending.”

The petition claims that American citizens are suffering “blatant abuses of their rights,” pointing to the Transportation Security Administration and the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows for indefinite detention of terror suspects.

The petition cites Texas’s large economy and claims that it would be “practically feasible” for the state to secede.

The writers argue that leaving the United States would protect Texans “standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) made headlines last year for past comments suggesting he would consider withdrawing from the United States.

“When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation,” Perry said in 2009. “And one of the deals was, we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.”

Perry later clarified that he does not support secession.