How is secession talk different from Streisand's comments ...

[ColbertWatcher]

... about moving to Canada.

I know there's a difference, but I can't quite articulate it satisfactorily.

[B o d i]

1. entitlement =/= disenfranchisement?

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Would you mind elaborating? (I was told there would be no math) n/t

[Wetzelbill]

3. She'd move to Canada to get away from Bush

for four years because he was a terrible president and didn't want to have to deal with that. Lots of Americans live in other countries or abroad for a certain amount of time for many reasons. She'd still stay an American and probably would have moved back by now.

Secession is totally renouncing being an American. It's turning your back on your country and creating your own with no intention to come back. It's a fundamentally anti-american move. And if the United States tried to stop them and a war broke out, they would be official traitors to the United States.

So to sum it up, Streisand talked about moving away for a short while to protest a president and policies, but she still would be an American and come back at some point. Texas secessionists want to leave the United States altogether and turn their backs on it for good.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Nicely put.

One question: if you had a chance to say this to any of the secessionists (like Perry or Palin or their followers) how would they explain away their behavior?

What excuses could they use to save face?

[Wetzelbill]

7. I think they would just say it was different

That Obama is turning the U.S. to socialism, that he was a Muslim etc. They have no logic so you wouldn't get a logical excuse.

A politician would be different, because they have to at least try not to get too crazy. Palin would rattle on, lord knows what the hell she would say, you just know it would be long and incoherent and probably include her son being in the military. Perry would probably say he was taken out of context that he mispoke when he was in front of an excited crowd in the moment. He'd almost have to deny that he meant what he said. He did it to rally his base there, just in case Kay Bailey Hutchison challenges him in the primary. He can still get away with a bit of a mea culpa in most media outlets because none of the far righties that he was trying to rile up would ever really look into those outlets to see he apologized or backed away from it. And if they did, they'd just assume it was some liberal outlet trying to make him look bad. These people think we should burn books and not let people go to college, so if Rick Perry is quoted as backing away from his words on MSNBC or the NY Times they wouldn't care even if they did see it. And I doubt Fox would call him on it or anything.

[rpannier]

4. One involves peacefully moving to another existing country

the other involves insurrection to separate a whole region from a country

[Lasher]

6. The difference is the land.

With secession you stay where you are and declare the land around you no longer part of the US.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Kick. n/t