For those of you who are completely incapable of following the news in recent days, you should be aware that the United States is facing another Civil War. Residents from more than thirty states filed petitions to secede from the United States upon learning of President Barack Obama’s reelection. The idea of states seceding from the United States simply because their presidential candidate lost the election is an embarrassment to those states in question. In case you did not read my opening statement carefully, I was being facetious. No states will secede from the United States. These threats can be likened to a three-year-old announcing that he is running away from home forever and desires no support from his parents. The parents both know the child will come running and crying back home for a bowl of Apple Jacks or something equally as crucial for survival.
The amount of support each state receives from the government would be impossible to replicate as an individual governing entity. Texas is one state containing residents who desire to secede from the United States. Perhaps I am too cynical, but when I heard Texas desired to secede from the United States, I pictured George W. Bush standing on a bale of hay announcing that he could be the state’s new king. Considering residents in Utah have also filed for divorce from the United States, perhaps Mitt Romney will step up to be the president of the state known for its large Mormon population. I am being sarcastic. The point I am trying to make is this: regardless of who won the election, there would have been sore losers across the United States. There were even a handful of celebrities in 2000 who announced their exodus to a different country if George W. Bush had won the election. Very few of them had the courage to follow through with their threats. Actually, most of them stayed around even through Bush’s reelection in 2004.
To be honest with you, I am more encouraged to move out of the country simply because of Obama supporters, not necessarily my dislike for some of the principles that Obama espouses. Much like hipsters’ hate for bands who are popular mainly because of the irritating fans, I find myself disliking Obama simply because of the arrogance of his supporters. I am sure he may be a nice guy, but if he could hear some of the things his supporters said out of ignorance, he would probably reward them with a firm elbow to the face.
In my experience there are equally as many uneducated yet vocal supporters of President Obama as there were of Mitt Romney. Many times the information these people spew out is phenomenally untrue. As long as they read an article online or saw it on television, they believe it to be fact. If CNN announced they had found Bigfoot, these people would probably believe it.
If Mitt Romney had won, these individuals would truly believe the nation would be in such a dire state that they would no longer be able to live here under Romney’s rule. I would not put it past them to announce secession from the United States as the only viable option for their state’s future.
The problem with the aforementioned people and the ones currently desiring secession is that they place too much stock in the power of individual human beings. I like to believe that I place as much trust in people as they deserve. One man cannot alter the course of this nation’s future beyond hope or repair. Presidents lack the ability to change this country as much as most people believe they can. Obama is not this nation’s great hope; he is one man. At the same time, Mitt Romney would not have been the downfall of this country.
I sometimes think we look at the President as the sole individual responsible for rebuilding or destroying this nation as a whole. If the economy is in a rut, everyone is up-in-arms at the White House. If the country is prospering, the President alone is to thank! This announcement of secession by many citizens of the United States is an embarrassment to our country and those fighting to keep it safe. I encourage you to evaluate and possibly consider revising the entire view you have of the President of the United States of America. You will find yourself realizing the amount of power and influence the president really has or doesn’t have. No nation’s success or downfall is contingent upon one man’s influence.