Texas Republicans want to secede from the United States. Could they do it?

The Lone Star state is called that because of that. Some people in Texas want to break away from the United States and form their own country.

Texas Republicans called for a referendum to determine whether the state should remain an independent nation.

Local self-government has been impaired by the federal government. The policy platform approved by delegates at the state party convention said that the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored.

There have been calls for Texas to become an independent state for a long time. The state is proud of its independence. In an age of heightened polarisation, could the rebels have a chance.

Darrell M West says that is not likely to happen soon.

There are people in Texas who don't like the direction in which the United States is going on a wide range of issues. He told The Independent that it was one thing to complain about the national government and another to chart your own course.

They will find out how complicated it is once they start. Is Texas going to need to create its own currency? Is it possible that it would have its own army? Is it necessary for people to have a passport to travel from Texas to Oklahoma? There is a question of whether Texas would be allowed to leave the nation.

The US Supreme Court settled the last of the questions more than 150 years ago.

Texas became independent from Mexico in 1836. Nine years before it joined the US, it was an independent nation. The American Civil War began when Texas left the Union and formed the Confederacy.

The Supreme Court ruled against the Confederacy before the Civil War ended. In the Texas v White case, the court held that states couldn't decide to break away from one another. At the end of the Civil War, the state rejoined the union.

Some Texans in the Republican-dominated state are not giving up on their own path. The calls get louder when the White House is held by a democrat. The national political atmosphere is a factor today.

The logical end of political polarisation is what it is. People are not trusting one another and our internal divisions are increasing. He sayscession is polarisation on steroids.

It tells us what a risk we are in. Mr West says that crazy ideas that used to be on the fringe are now on the platform.

Republican dreams of independence are not exclusive to them. The reliably Democratic state of California contemplated the idea of leaving when Donald Trump was elected.

According to Richard Kreitner, author of Break It Up: Secession, Division and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union, that doesn't mean it won't happen

He says that it was expected that the party locked out of power in their largest state would think about leaving. It has come closer and closer to consummation under each president.

The frequent calls for separation from both sides should cause some Americans to question their patriotism.

I think it would be better for everyone to stop and think once the tables have turned against them, rather than pretending to be outraged every time their out-of-power opponents talk about secession, only to do the same thing themselves once the tables have turned against them. We have to see that it continues. What do we get from it? There is a chance that the costs of disunion are too high. He thinks maybe not.

Mr West thinks it may be time for Democrats to leave. There will be a shift in power from Democrats to Republicans in the next few years due to institutional imbalances in the Electoral College.

It would be foolish of Texas to leave now because the Republicans are poised to do very well in the next couple of years. They wouldn't want to leave because they might actually be in charge of the country. Mr West says that other people could become upset with conservatives.

The call from Texas Republicans portended a larger issue with the American political system.

If there is not some kind of constitutional breakthrough that forces a more sensible reworking, top to bottom, somebody is going to decide they might be, which is confirmation of what we all already know.