Secede and Secession

Texas Governor Rick Perry has begun talking about taking his state out of the United States of America.

Secede (v) - To remove yourself from an organization or communion. The word comes from Latin and means to go apart. Secession is the formal act of seceding.

The word in Latin, secedere, described the act of plebeians migrating from the city to compel patricians to address their grievances. In other words, the common laborers would leave town and let the rich folk to fend for themselves for a while. It wouldn't take long for the patricians to remember that they needed the poor folk more than the plebeians needed the rich folk.

The Texas secession movement is not alone. The League of the South, which considers Abraham Lincoln to be a domestic terrorist, wants to restore the Confederate States of America. South Carolina, which was the first state to secede back in 1860, has in 2009 introduced legislation that reads a lot like a secession bill. Like the 1860's secessionist movement in the South, this modern one turns the original origin of the word on its head. It is moneyed interests, patrician slaveholders then and tax complainers now, who want to leave.

Alaska has a secession movement, so does Vermont and Hawaii. Back when George Bush was president California had its own secessionist movement. As this guy points out, practically every state in the Union wants to secede.