4 ms·

Can anyone explain the consequences/seriousness of this to a foreigner.

by AndreasFrom 14y ago

cskau 14y ago
Perhaps also the reasoning behind it. Why Louisiana? Why at all?
- aantthony 14y ago
  Seems they have posted it for other states also: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions
div 14y ago
I'm not American, but this submission feels pretty devoid of content and is more something that belongs on /r/politics. Anyone is free to create a petition on petitions.whitehouse.gov This particular petition has only about 8000 signatures, the population of louisiana is 4,574,836 since 2011.
doesnt_know 14y ago
I would say that this isn't very serious at all. Anyone can create a petition on that site, "Louisiana" isn't asking for this, some person in Louisiana is. That state is the size of my country, if someone in my country decided to try and make a decision like this for everyone I would be fucking pissed. Even if this reaches the threshold, it's still only a tiny fraction of the state population. What is to stop this state going into a Civil War? There is probably equal or more that would want to stay as part of the US. Honestly, this is a really stupid submission to HN.
charonn0 14y ago
They're mad that Obama wont he election. The Declaration of Independence, while not possessing the force of Law like the Constitution, states that the powers of the government arise only from the consent of the governed, and that since they did not consent to a second Obama term they want to leave the Union. What's interesting is that the US today seems more strongly divided than at any time since immediately after the Civil War. Secession is not necessarily impossible in this environment, and imagine what would happen if the USA fell into open civil war again. Added to this is the fact the the US Territory of Puerto Rico seems to be closer to Statehood than ever before. So we could lose one and gain one in short order. Louisiana was one of the states in open rebellion during the Civil War. If anybody's going to do it, it's a Southern state like Louisiana (or Texas, but at least Texas can take care of itself.)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
greenyoda 14y ago
As a previous commenter pointed out, this is the petition of several individual citizens, and not any kind of official action by the State of Louisiana. Furthermore, a petition on Whitehouse.gov has absolutely no legal significance, and only minimal political significance (this one is likely to be completely ignored by the White House). Thus, this action has no consequences. The Declaration of Independence[1], which the petition cites, has historical significance, but is not a part of U.S. law. If I remember correctly, the U.S. Constitution[2] (the underlying basis of U.S. law) does not mention any mechanism whereby states can secede from the U.S., which means that the government would have no legal authority to allow Louisiana to secede. Historically, Louisiana and several other southern states seceded from the United States in the 19th Century and fought the Civil War[3] against the remaining states. After losing the war, the southern states were eventually re-integrated into the U.S. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_I... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War

Can anyone explain the consequences/seriousness of this to a foreigner.

cskau 14y ago

Perhaps also the reasoning behind it. Why Louisiana? Why at all?

aantthony 14y ago
Seems they have posted it for other states also: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions

div 14y ago

I'm not American, but this submission feels pretty devoid of content and is more something that belongs on /r/politics. Anyone is free to create a petition on petitions.whitehouse.gov This particular petition has only about 8000 signatures, the population of louisiana is 4,574,836 since 2011.

doesnt_know 14y ago

I would say that this isn't very serious at all. Anyone can create a petition on that site, "Louisiana" isn't asking for this, some person in Louisiana is. That state is the size of my country, if someone in my country decided to try and make a decision like this for everyone I would be fucking pissed. Even if this reaches the threshold, it's still only a tiny fraction of the state population. What is to stop this state going into a Civil War? There is probably equal or more that would want to stay as part of the US. Honestly, this is a really stupid submission to HN.

charonn0 14y ago

They're mad that Obama wont he election. The Declaration of Independence, while not possessing the force of Law like the Constitution, states that the powers of the government arise only from the consent of the governed, and that since they did not consent to a second Obama term they want to leave the Union. What's interesting is that the US today seems more strongly divided than at any time since immediately after the Civil War. Secession is not necessarily impossible in this environment, and imagine what would happen if the USA fell into open civil war again. Added to this is the fact the the US Territory of Puerto Rico seems to be closer to Statehood than ever before. So we could lose one and gain one in short order. Louisiana was one of the states in open rebellion during the Civil War. If anybody's going to do it, it's a Southern state like Louisiana (or Texas, but at least Texas can take care of itself.)

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

greenyoda 14y ago

As a previous commenter pointed out, this is the petition of several individual citizens, and not any kind of official action by the State of Louisiana. Furthermore, a petition on Whitehouse.gov has absolutely no legal significance, and only minimal political significance (this one is likely to be completely ignored by the White House). Thus, this action has no consequences. The Declaration of Independence[1], which the petition cites, has historical significance, but is not a part of U.S. law. If I remember correctly, the U.S. Constitution[2] (the underlying basis of U.S. law) does not mention any mechanism whereby states can secede from the U.S., which means that the government would have no legal authority to allow Louisiana to secede. Historically, Louisiana and several other southern states seceded from the United States in the 19th Century and fought the Civil War[3] against the remaining states. After losing the war, the southern states were eventually re-integrated into the U.S. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_I... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War