In the week since the presidential election there have been 20 petitions for states to secede from the United States of America posted on the White House's website.
The site, "We the People" is designed to "give all Americans a way to engage their government on the issues that matter to them" by creating petitions. The site accepts only petitions that ask the administration to address a problem, support or oppose a proposal, or otherwise change or continue federal government policy or actions. If a petition gets 25,000 signatures in 30 days the White House will address the issue.
There are currently two petitions posted for Oklahoma to secede. Combined, there are more than 17,000 signatures. A petition for Texas to secede currently has more than 83,000 signatures.
But actually seceding from the U.S. is something that is completely unrealistic for Oklahoma for many reasons. The biggest reason, though, is that Oklahoma simply couldn't afford to be its own country.
In the 2013 fiscal year, almost half of the Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation's funding will come from the federal government to expand highways, repair bridges and fix roads.
Oklahoma could not maintain its transportation infrastructure if it lost that $450 million in federal funds.
The state's education system would be decimated without federal dollars. Oklahoma currently ranks 49th in the U.S. for school spending, and that includes close to a billion in federal funds. In fact, the federal government supplies almost a third of Oklahoma's education budget. Students would certainly suffer if the Oklahoma seceded and lost all of that money.
Even individual cities and towns use federal funds.
In the 2012 fiscal year, the City of Tulsa accepted close to $60 million in federal grants. Some of the funds went to Tulsa International Airport, some went to the Metro Tulsa Transit Authority, and some went to public safety to pay for things like extra police officers.
In all, the U.S. government will send close to $22 billion to Oklahoma this fiscal year. That includes funding for things like public housing, welfare programs, colleges and universities, even the food bank.
If Oklahoma seceded, all of that money would be lost and those organizations would struggle to continue operating.
"I don't think we would be set up for such a situation," Tulsa resident Julie Buddrus said.
Aside from all of the federal funding the state would lose, seceding from the union would destroy many Oklahoma's businesses. Products shipped to the rest of the U.S. would technically be imports, allowing the U.S. government to impose tariffs. Many companies would likely pull out of Oklahoma to avoid the complications the situation would create.
"A lot of people would be on the streets," Tulsa resident John Nicholson said. "A lot of people wouldn't have jobs, they couldn't pay their bills."
Despite all of that, with thousands signing the petition, there's clearly no shortage of people who are fed up with the federal government.
But many petition signers didn't take the petition literally.
One man wrote on the FOX23 News Facebook wall:
"I really don't think we want to actually secede from the US but it does allow us to express ourselves saying that we are fed up with the Governments lack of ability to manage things (sic)."
Another wrote:
"A petition to secede does not mean anything other than President Obama and the White House will know there's some thousands of citizens upset. Unless the State Legislature forms a convention to secede than this is just people spouting angry stuff (sic). I signed it for fun but honestly there's a time to run and a time to keep fighting to retain our liberty the government has stripped from us. Now is the time to keep fighting."
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin's office issued a statement in response to the petitions, simply stating "Oklahoma is not going to secede from the union."
Click here to see the first Oklahoma petition.
Click here to see the second Oklahoma petition.
