Please go, Ron

In a display of a serious irony deficiency, Ron Paul uses his taxpayer funded, government website to argue for secession from an overly intrusive government.

Is all the recent talk of secession mere sour grapes over the election, or perhaps something deeper?

Sour grapes, with a delicate bouquet of racism and batshit insanity.

Currently there are active petitions in support of secession for all 50 states, with Texas taking the lead in number of signatures. Texas has well over the number of signatures needed to generate a response from the administration...

Dear Texas, No. Sincerely, Barack H. Obama

...and while I wouldn't hold my breath on Texas actually seceding, I believe these petitions raise a lot of worthwhile questions about the nature of our union. Is it treasonous to want to secede from the United States?

To want to? No. To try? Yes.

Many think the question of secession was settled by our Civil War.

It was.

On the contrary; the principles of self-governance and voluntary association are at the core of our founding.

Yes, they were. But it's still treason.

Clearly Thomas Jefferson believed secession was proper, albeit as a last resort. Writing to William Giles in 1825, he concluded that states:

"should separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government without limitation of powers."

Keep in mind that the first and third paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence expressly contemplate the dissolution of a political union when the underlying government becomes tyrannical.

You see, Ron, it might surprise you and many of your Tea Party followers to find out, the Declaration is not part of the Constitution. It's also not part of our law codes. I know, you've only collected a government paycheck to write laws that pass Constitutional muster off and on for thirty-six years, so you might not have had time to learn that fact. Do we have a "government without limitation of powers" yet? No. One of those limitations is that Constitution thingy that your not so familiar with. Another, paradoxically, is that part of the government that you collected a paycheck from. You members of Congress are supposed to show some restraint, if only because you fear the other party coming to power some day. Third, are the American voters, who still get to throw you out if they don't like how you're doing your job. You see, under a government with truly unlimited powers, we don't get to do that.

The Federal government kept the Union together through violence and force in the Civil War, but did might really make right?

It might not have made it right, but it did make it legal. Remember what I said about voting above? The "Federal government" is not an entity separate from the American people. It is chosen by American people and made up of American people. We chose to keep the Union together and, in doing so, we made it legal.

Secession is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession. Some felt it was treasonous to secede from England, but those "traitors" became our country's greatest patriots.

The founders of most new countries were almost always, at one time, traitors to the old regime. That does not make treason "a deeply American principle." Being founded by secession does not make secession "a deeply American principle." Let me put this in terms you might understand. You're a gynecologist. Being born of a cesarean section does not make climbing screaming and naked through your mother's abdomen a deeply defining characteristic of your being and it certainly does not justify doing it a second time.

Drift off topic. Whine, whine, whine.

If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government, they cannot truly be considered free.

You might be right, but you are pulling a bait-and-switch con on us. You started when you brought the Declaration into this. The Declaration of Independence is a philosophical argument. Let me repeat myself, the Declaration is not part of the Constitution, nor is it part of our law codes. A philosophical argument can always be made for secession, though it won't always be a valid argument. Whining because you lost two elections in a row is not a valid argument. Not getting your way is not a valid argument. And even when you do have a valid argument for secession, it's still treason and you better be sure all of your fellow secedees are on your side and you better be ready for a fight.