Texas Governor Rick Perry may be on the receiving end of some political mockery for his recent endorsement of his home state's right to secede from the country. But he has the backing of one decidedly anti-establishment Republican from the Lone Star State.
Rep. Ron Paul released a video on Sunday offering support for the principles of secession, calling them "very much American." And he described Perry's recent talk about pulling Texas out of the union a discussion worth having.
"We came together voluntarily," said Paul. "A free society means you can resolve it voluntarily."
The decidedly libertarian Texas Republican and former presidential candidate is one of the few elected national figures to offer support for the stance taken by his governor. And it's not unexpected. The tea parties that Paul's candidacy helped galvanize were the same forum where Perry expressed some of his sentiments.
In his video address, Paul framed talk of secession as a uniquely American right, pulled straight from the same thread as the American Revolution.
[Perry] really stirred some of the liberal media, where they started screaming about: 'what is going on here, this is un-American.' I heard one individual say 'this is treasonous to even talk about it.' Well, they don't know their history very well, because when you think about it... it is very American to talk about secession. That's how we came in being. Thirteen colonies seceded from the British and established a new country. So secession is a very much American principle. What about all the strong endorsements we have give the past decade or two to all the republics that seceded from the soviet system? We were delighted about it.
"I think it is worth a discussion," said Paul, later in his four-and-a-half minute long video. "I think people should discuss this. Because right now the American people are sick and tired of it all. And I think the time will come when people will consider it much more seriously, is when the federal government can no longer deliver. That will come when the dollar collapses."
The real obstacle to any such discussion, in the end, is legal as much as political. The Joint Resolution Annexing Texas to the United States of 1845 allows for Texas to be drawn into five separate states but not secede from the union.
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