The idea that the GOP needs to integrate the extremists is 100% wrong. The polar opposite of what needs to happen. What the GOP needs to do is kick the extremists, conspiracy theorists and theocrats to the curb. That’s not grass roots it’s weeds.

Secessionists are just sore loser crybabies. They deserve the contempt I felt a few years ago for those who wanted to move to Canada over GWB.

Is Secession Bid More Than a Cry of Rage?

The 2012 election encouraged the idea that the U.S. is split into two camps that are politically and culturally alien and with opposing economic needs. Mitt Romney’s infamous formula of the 47% (reiterated in his equally ugly post-election remarks about “gifts”) played upon an old idea that one half of the country feeds off the taxes paid by the other half.

But the 2012 election introduced the idea that the welfare-recipient minority is now the majority. A common theme in conservative post-election analysis is that the Democrats now have an unbeatable coalition of ethnic minorities, single women and socially liberal youth that is turning the U.S. into a European social democracy. (Mark Steyn: “Tuesday’s results demonstrate that, as a whole, the American electorate is trending very Euro-Canadian.”) If that is the consensus among the conservative talking heads, then it’s rational for conservative grass-roots activists to conclude that the only viable future for the conservative minority is to form its own country.

The call for secession will be mocked and dismissed. But while it is built on a legal fallacy, it does articulate honestly the feelings of a growing number of conservatives who feel emasculated in 21st century America. It’s now the duty of the Republican Party to try to integrate them back into mainstream, legitimate politics.