Lately the whole idea of secession has been filtered through various media sources after the presidential election. Go for it if you really think that your current state would be much better off on its own. This is mainly just sore–loser syndrome.

Recall the presidential election when people said they would move to Canada if George W. Bush was elected, and not too many people moved when he was.

“The Government of Canada established hotlines, and procedural how-to. Basically, it was a hotline for people to vent. They really were not going to leave,” said retired UW-Whitewater Professor, Dick Haven. According to the Canadian Census, between 1996 and 2000 there were 24,155 Americans that emigrated. From 2001 to 2006 there were 38,777 residents leaving the United States. Sure, some people may have moved there as a result of presidential elections, but it’s not really a major shift in population.

Abraham Lincoln believed that states couldn’t secede for five reasons. Firstly, the states cannot physically separate. Secondly, secession is unlawful. Next, he believed that a government allowing secession would disintegrate into anarchy. Americans are not enemies, but friends. Secession would destroy the world’s only existing democracy (at Lincoln’s time), and prove for all time – to future Americans and to the world – that a government of the people cannot survive.

The only way for a state to secede is to actually incite a revolution, like that of the Civil War. There would be conflict, but gone are the days of cannons and troops lined up in a row. Instead of the original north and south states, we would have states all over the map – 50 of them.

Taking into account the electoral map, pinpointing the red and blue states with major military installations, Obama won Connecticut, Virginia, Illinois, California and Washington State and Romney, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky and Colorado. These states possess submarines, naval facilities such as aircraft carriers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, supply commands and air facilities. The way of battle with open field conflict would change to insurgency and domestic terrorism.

Finally, how would these states govern themselves without all the federal aid they receive? There would be no Medicare, no Social Security, no Pell Grants, and no highway transportation funds. I’m sure that these states are better off just sticking it out to see what transpires in the next election.