Secession Movement Comes to NH

Across the country, in more than 20 states, signatures are being gathered requesting President Barack Obama to allow states to consider seceding from the union, according to press reports over the weekend.

The states, ranging from blue states like New York and New Jersey, to some of the reddest of the red, in North Dakota and Texas, must collect 25,000 signatures within 30 days to receive an official response from the White House. Texas already has more than 25,000, according to reports. 

On Nov. 11, the movement officially came to New Hampshire.

Free State Project supporter Menno Troyer posted a call to “mobilize New Hampshire” on Facebook last night requesting others sign an online petition to join the other states. The post quickly spread around the site with a number of liberty Republicans and other activists signing onto the movement.

After 150 people have pledged to sign the petition, the drive will be posted on the whitehouse.gov website.

Troyer said he was inspired to start the drive because he does not "like the way the US is going, with regard to personal freedom.” He said there was “a long list of grievances” but admitted that he didn’t want to antagonize the Obama Administration.

Troyer said unlike the national movement, he wasn’t starting New Hampshire’s petition because he was “upset Romney didn’t win.” Between the two, he said, “I slightly prefer Obama.” Troyer said it was more about timing.

“I did this because the moment is right,” he said, “with all those other petitions being filed, and NH did not yet have a petition to secede that was publicly visible at whitehouse.gov.”

Troyer hopes that the Obama Administration will take the request seriously and, at the same time, will grant the states “a peaceful withdrawal,” adding that he feared the military or some other form of force would be used in response to the request, potentially causing another civil war.

Ideally, Troyer would like to see New Hampshire be its own country although he said that a Northern New England combination nation “would be pretty cool, too.”

“One thing I envision,” he said, “if New Hampshire were its own country, given the pro-liberty political climate here, is that it would quickly become the Hong Kong of the North.”

However, he admitted it would be “a tall order” to get 25,000 signatures in 30 days in New Hampshire, because it’s such a small state. A few hours after posting the petition drive, 44 others signed up to assist with seven saying “maybe” to the proposal.

And if the federal government decides not to allow states to secede and things become worse? Troyer has a plan – move to a country where the government is smaller and tends to leave people alone, with far less police control.

“I am eyeing several different options in Latin American countries,” he said.