Secession, Shmecession: Western Maryland's Secession Quest (With Baby Pictures)

Republicans in western Maryland are reminding everyone of that old adage: If at first don't succeed, give up and make your own state.

In the past year-and-a-half the state passed new gun control laws, legalized gay marriage and even **gasp** medical marijuana. With the state's liberal program, in addition to the loss of a strongly Republican congressional district to gerrymandering, some bitter Republicans -- not unlike conservatives in Colorado, California, and Michigan -- are attempting to do what hasn't been done since 1863: secede and form their own state.

The face of this baby tasting a lemon for the first time
adequately describes the feelings of Maryland Republicans
in the state's most  region.

And boy does the editorial board at the Washington Post make this would-be-state sound like a desirable place to live: 

...a pencil-necked nano-state that would be poorer, more rural, less educated...than the Free State as currently constituted.

And this sucker is gaining steam.

It was chronicled by the Post on Sunday, and from there the story, moving like an unstoppable train, was picked up by many other popular news outlets -- MSNBC  and the Baltimore Sun, to name just two. And more importantly, the movement's Facebook page is up to a whopping 3,300 likes, which is only about 3,000 fewer likes than the "I find It awkward To eat a banana In public" page, and roughly 1.3 million fewer likes than the "I Hate When One String of My Hoodie Becomes Longer Than the Other" page.

The odds of western Maryland becoming a state are
not dissimilar to the likelihood that this baby
can lift these weights.

The leader of the movement, Scott Strzelczyk, knows the odds, which experts have described as "impossible," are stacked against the movement. "We are not dumb people," Strzelczyk told the Post, "We get that this is hard to do." 

For the secession to be successful, it would have to be approved by the Maryland state legislature and then Congress.

Strzelczyk also believes that if western Maryland becomes a state, it will solve all kinds of problems, adding that, "If we have more states, we can all go live in states that best represent us, and then we can get along." The first problem it would solve for Maryland? Probably western Maryland.

But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Scotty is learning about a problem that Democrats face in many Republican-controlled states across the country: Gerrymandering sucks.

But maybe, Scott, you should heed the advice of the Post editorial board and focus on something more attainable, like winning an election. Plus, if you do somehow succeed in secession, your state would look a lot like West Virginia, and no one wants to be associated with West Virginia, just ask Virginia.