Shortly after Obama’s re-election, individuals across the nation began filing petitions for their respective states to secede from the United States. These petitions have since gained the support of thousands of disgruntled Americans who appear to believe that secession from the Union is a good idea.

The Texas secession petition, not surprisingly due to the huge conservative population of the state, has the most signatures, breaking 100,000 on Nov. 19.

The petitions have been filed on a legitimate White House website known as We the People, according to Time Magazine. The site promises that any petition that gains over 25,000 signatures within 30 days will receive a response from the White House. Although Texas was the first state to reach this mark, at least six other states have since garnered the required support.

While the secession of Texas is unfeasible, it begs the question: what would Texas’ secession from the Union mean?

If Texans were somehow able to muster up enough military force to fend off the United States for long enough to set up some type of provisional government and begin establishing international trade relations, it would be a major turning point for the United States.

The secession of the second most populous and second largest state in the Union would likely have a major negative impact on foreign confidence in the stability of the United States, which would in turn lead to an economic slump.

Depending on the severity of this slump and the extent of the damage to both foreign and domestic perceptions of the United States, the secession of Texas could mark the beginning of the end for America as a sovereign nation.

Clearly, Texas’ secession would be a big, messy ordeal that would not really benefit anyone. Deep down, most of the neo-secessionist Texans are probably aware that their champion cause is completely unrealistic.

This is not to say, however, that the neo-secessionist movement is useless. On the contrary, the growing neo-secessionist movement is proving to be an extremely useful and virtually harmless way for a group Americans to vent its collective frustrations at Obama’s re-election.

The hope for secession appears to be a pragmatic tool that neo-secessionists are using to keep their minds occupied, even though nearly everyone, neo-secessionist or not, most likely realizes that secession is impossible.

In this way, neo-secessionists are just like everyone else. Each of us uses unrealistic goals, aspirations, and ideas that we know are fabrications of our mind to get us from one day to the next and keep us from resorting to the more violent faculties of man when something threatens our belief system.

In short, empathy for our fellow neo-secessionist Americans might be useful to move peacefully through this highly polarized time in the United  States. They seem to be doing the best that they know how in order to get by, just like the rest of us.