Locals react to Idaho secession petition

Since the election dozens of online petitions have sprung up calling for states across the nation to secede from the union, including one petition with thousands of signatures asking for Idaho to form its own new government.

As of Tuesday night more than 3,000 people had signed the Idaho secession petition.

The petition on whitehouse.gov calls for the administration to allow the peaceful secession of Idaho, saying the government has violated peoples God-given rights.

Some locals who support it the secession petition said when a ship is sinking, it’s time to leave, and that with runaway spending in the U.S., it’s time to abandon ship.

“Because we’ve already got a big deficit and we’re headed in the wrong direction,” Tracy Howser said.

Others said it’s simply people making a scene because the election didn’t go their way.

“That really comes to mind, we have a lot of sore losers. It would be nice if people would just get over the fact,” Bannock County Democratic Party Chair Catalina Steckbauer said.

Of course, there’s many in the area who aren’t exactly happy with the way the election turned out, but who think the idea of secession is a bit of an overreaction.

“I wasn’t real happy with the election, but we’ve got to stick together. We’ll get through the next four years,” Shirley Jones said.

While others said it’s just not worth taking seriously.

“I think it’s way childish, and it’s extreme. I mean, why would you secede from the union, so we could be a sovereign nation by ourselves? It’s just ridiculous,” Stephanie Swore said.