It may be because I grew up in the south and it's part of our history but techies seem to forget that the bloodiest US conflict in history was to prevent this very thing. To even entertain the idea that secession would not result in a mass amounts of destruction death exemplifies the Bay area bubble mentality.
I live in Michigan and several times we've had people from the Upper Peninsula try to get support for them to create a new state, ignoring the fact that they would be creating one of the poorest, most uneducated, and most unpopulated states, and it'd never be allowed.
It's a symbolic gesture to say "I don't agree with X policy". the UP of Michigan does it to protest Lansing tax policies, Texas does it to protest liberal federal policies, California does it to protest right-wing federal policies. And everyone knows full well it won't go any farther than a protest.
Seriously, it may be all in fun, but it paints a sad message about the perceptions of people who participate.
"in 1860, the value of the slaves was “roughly three times greater than the total amount invested in banks,” and it was “equal to about seven times the total value of all currency in circulation in the country, three times the value of the entire livestock population, twelve times the value of the entire U.S. "
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cro...
Why? There's no reason secession has to be a violent affair. Very recently we almost saw Scotland succeed in a perfectly peaceful way and we're now witnessing the UK do the same.