Poll: almost half of Georgia GOP think state would be better off seceding

By Stephen C. Webster

When asked if Georgia would be better off as an independent nation or as part of the United States, 43 percent of Republicans in the state selected independent nation, according to a poll published Friday.Asked, “Would you approve or disapprove of Georgia leaving the United States?” 32 percent of Georgia Republicans said they would approve.

State wide, just 27 percent think Georgia would be better off independent of the U.S. and a mere 18 percent would approve of secession.

The General Assembly of Georgia recently passed Senate Resolution 632 in support of the state sovereignty movement, by a vote of 43-1; an act Atlanta writer Jay Bookman characterized as accidentally threatening the state’s ties to the United States.

“In fact, Senate Resolution 632 did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country,” he wrote. “It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.

“’Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no force,’ the Georgia Senate declared.”

“Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. …

“Now, to be fair, the resolution passed because it was snuck unnoticed onto the Senate resolution calendar on the 39th day of the 40-day legislative session, when senators were trying to handle dozens of bills and scores of amendments. Most did not have an opportunity to read the six-page resolution, which in its description claimed to merely affirm ’states’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.”

In Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry recently made comments many interpreted to be friendly toward secessionist politics, a Rasmussen poll found just 18 percent of his constituents would vote to secede from the United States were such a ballot ever put forward. Just 31 percent of the poll’s respondents believe that Texas even has the right to leave the Union.

A majority of Georgia Republicans — 52 percent — sided with the United States in a Research 2000 poll commissioned by DailyKos.