More than 8,000 Alabamians sign petition to secede from the U.S. - WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather & Sports

President Obama's re-election has prompted a wide variety of reactions in Alabama including several thousand people who say they want the state to secede from the union.

Citizens from more than 20 states have filed petitions on the White House's official petition website since the day after election day, all seeking to secede from the country.

And before you dismiss this as just a fringe movement, the petition seeking Alabama's independence has more than 8,000 signatures so far.

The White House website allows anyone to post a petition asking the federal government for anything, but you have to have at least 150 online signatures just to be posted on the site.

So at least that many people signed on almost immediately after President Obama was re-elected to ask the government to "Peacefully grant the State of Alabama to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government."

"When it comes to some of the hot button issues we saw in this campaign, all we're hearing now is ‘Republicans and Democrats are trying to find a way to come together,'" said Birmingham-Southern College political science professor Dr. Natalie Davis. "Then we see this article and it says ‘well, maybe we're not in that game.'"

Davis says she can't speak for other states' secession petitions online, but for Alabama, she sees seeds of the state's past, but also a future that's frightening for some.

"It is interesting that there is a level of fear and alienation on the part of our state. Part of it has to do with some of the things we hate to talk about. About race, about the relationship between the federal government and state government. ‘Don't tread on me,' that's part of our culture, and maybe some people err on the side of going just a little too far with it. And maybe some of them are nut jobs. But the truth is, a lot of what these folks say resonate with some people. On the other side of the coin, you get this response which is ‘you people are laughable.'"

For the White House to even officially accept a petition and look at it, the petition has to get 25-thousand signatures in a month.

so this alabama petition needs about 17,000 more signatures by Dec. 9 or it will just disappear into the Internet archive forever.

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