...what happens when the next day Mexico shows up and says they want the northern part of their country back... gringos.

That's it! What to do with the neo-Confederacy? Send them on boats ... to platforms. Although I think they'd be happier anchored off of Cape Town instead of red San Francisco. I knew we didn't want to lose Texas, just the 48% of Republicans there.

They told the liberals to go back to Russia and the blacks to go back to Africa. Perhaps they should go back to ... their floating platform ... shades of Waterworld.

the plot of some new Thomas Pynchon novel.

It should be pretty funny, once it's published.

everybody all together now:

two state solution!two state solution!two state solution!

i look forward to a manful republic of manly men, doing manly things together in a manful fashion, with other men!

I was certainly never a fan of the Communist Party, but in America the Communists did do one useful thing -- they made American college students aware of Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid. Eventually "Free Nelson Mandela" went from a Communist rally cry to a mainstream political position.

It's a similar case with the Libertarians. They were the first group to care about and study the damages caused by the War on Drugs.

Now that we see the mess the War on Drugs has made in Mexico, obviously the Libertarians were right about where this war was heading and about the ultimate folly of all the privacy-invading sacrifices we've made for this unwinnable war.

I don't think their job is to win elections. Their job is to be a laboratory for new ideas that is separate from the mainstream and informs the mainstream.

I would never want to live under a Communist government, but the Communists were the first ones to care about Nelson Mandela and that turned out to be an extremely worthy cause that Americans only learned about because the extreme left wouldn't shut up about it.

I don't vote Libertarian but I am grateful to Libertarians for making the drug reform movement what it is today, and I value their presence in the marketplace of ideas.

Then invade them for their oil. Or would that technically increase our dependence on foreign oil? Now I'm confused.

A poll released today states that only 21% of the American public now calls themselves Republicans. The Republican Party has become -- and will continue to be -- increasingly cultlike. Rapidly, it is fading into irrelevance.

America has thrived on a two party system and will continue to do so. But, that doesn't mean that the Democratic Party's opposition will remain the Republican Party. Twice before in this country's history, major political parties (Federalists and Whigs) have collapsed and disappeared. That could and very well may happen again, with the Republican Party becoming extinct and being replaced by something more centrist.

Watch and see what happens. If President Obama is relatively successful during his first term look for the Republicans to nominate a candidate who caters to the purest ideologues in the party. And, look for that candidate to lose by a historic margin in 2012. That paves the way for something else and I wouldn't be shocked at all if, by 2016, the Republicans are relegated to fringe party status.

At least when liberals threatened to leave during the Bush years, we didn't threaten to take any land with us! We also didn't lie about the REAL reason we wanted to leave either, namely Bush himself. These hypocrites say "big government" when they really mean "democrats". Their party lost so now they don't want to follow the rules anymore. Oh, and they want to take some of our property with them as...what...compensation for their pain and suffering? Sorry kids, only welfare queens get something for nothing.

You want your perfect capitalist utopia off the coast of San Fransisco? Great, we'll see you in a month after you figure out your philosophy doesn't work. And get horny for all those women who won't be joining you. If Texas does secede all that would happen is it would fall into a third world country between the libertarians and "social conservatives" killing each other over whose vision is the REAL conservative. The whole conservative "movement" would fall apart without a liberal straw man to fight. These groups have nothing else in common.

It's OK with me if they want to go away. C'mon guys--what happened to all rich people colonies on Mars? Mars is where all the COOL nerds want to go!

It is unsustainable to continue to believe that women can marry the state. Healthcare for all, childcare for all, more time off for child bearing and all those other liberal essentials have to be paid for by someone....or maybe not.

Neverland, Neverwas, Neverouldbe.

It is just for some tv "news" producer.

You pretending that it is anything more than a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea impugns your own reality.

Seriously, have any of you assclowns writing about secession ever gone and talked to real Texans?

Now that you have seceeded the people of the United States of America will just need you give back the US all of those awful federal funds you have recieved....

Oh, btw, you will not recieve 1 dollar more for education, medicare/medicaid, social security, defense (including defense contractors, etc), highways, infrastructure, etc.

The US will of course control the/our military bases, railroads, ports, and all other federal offices/complexes, NASA will be shuttered in Houston, etc, etc, etc. You know, stuff that those pesky non-Texans paid for.

We will of course also put a 50 foot fence around the state....you know to keep foreigners....like you Mr. Perry, out of our country. I'm sure you will understand.

How "robust" will your little country's economy be then? Oh, btw, what will you be using for currency?

So....good luck with all that.

Isn't that how the Lord of the Rings ended...with the elves fleeing Middle Earth in boats headed for the West? I gotta tell em...Just like the Fountainhead is not a religious text, neither are those stories about Hobbits meant to be an outline for a political program. You've lost your free thinking groove by modeling your lives after authorized texts. See what happens when you link together with social conservatives too long? You stop being that secular right that I used to love to party with in college.

You used to be so good with using logic and tried to find facts to keep liberals honest. Your belief in libertarian utopias used to be a good counterweight against liberal utopias...As Garrison Keilior once wrote in Salon..against the tendency of Democrats for putting up warning signs everyplace where the ground is not level and creating limited regulated spaces where cowboys could hoot and holler. But your support of the more totalizing tendencies of the social conservatives and their quest for authority over personal decisions that you give for the sake of getting a seat at the table has not served you well. Hopefully if you do go into exile, you'll get that free thinking groove back.