The Huffington Post reported Tuesday that a petition for Texas secession has qualified to receive a White House response because it has garnered over 25,000 signatures.
The count at this writing is 107,145.
But what exactly would a Texas free from the US government mean to libertarians?
Would it be freer – politically, socially, economically – than it is today? Or worse?
Several organizations are working the same side of this street:
"Texas Secede" never considers what kind of society or nation-state Texas would or should become after secession. What would prevent a new Texas Republic from simply trading what they call "bipartisan despots in Washington" for bipartisan despots in Austin?
In short, while Texas Secede wants Texas to be "a free and independent State" they never specify whether individuals have any right to be free and independent from the state. Their website quotes the Texas Constitution as saying "All political power is inherent in the people" rather than inherent in each individual person.
The Free Texas Constitution proposes in its "Church and State" section "This Constitution should contain a statement of our absolute reliance on God," making it a Fundamentalist Christian Conservative Bible-Thumper's Constitution. Good luck.
The Texas Nationalist Movement (formerly Republic of Texas) list of freedom-oriented Principles never gets around to explicitly saying things like "Constitutional Republic," "individual sovereignty," or that there can be no such thing as a "victimless crime." Would a Bible-Belt Republic of Texas really decriminalize recreational drugs, gay marriage, open gambling and prostitution?
The Republic of Texas identifies Texas as a Constitutional Republic, channels God ("God's Texian Country"), John Wayne, Ayn Rand (who was an atheist), and its webmaster declares "I am John Galt." The government would still collect "small" import and export duties and coin money.
SECEDE Kilgore says he will "file with Tarrant County to officially change his middle name to SECEDE, claims that he "received 50,000 votes in 2006 and 225,000 votes in 2008 running as a secessionist," and proclaims, "Texas Secession! All other issues can be dealt with afterwards."
The United Republic of Texas claims, "We are uniting the HRT [Historical Republic of Texas] and NRT [New Republic of Texas] and any other factions and RT [Republic of Texas] supporters which are willing to join us under the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP)."
Bill St. Clair's Texas Constitution 2000 is explicitly libertarian.
So Texas libertarians advocating secession had best do their due diligence first.
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