As of today, a petition posted on the White House website calling for Texas to secede from the United States has garnered more than 80,000 signatures. Residents of almost 40 other states have created similar petitions, but none come close to Texas’ number of would-be rebels. The petitions have been a major news story recently, but they really shouldn’t be.

It should be a no-brainer, but no state has the right to secede from the Union, regardless of how many of its citizens might wish to. The terms of each state’s admission to the Union and the terms of the Confederate states’ unconditional surrender after the Civil War state this unambiguously.

Furthermore, statistically speaking, not very many Texans want to secede. Texas has 25.7 million residents. The 80,000 petition signers, though an enormous figure out of context, comprise less than half of one percent of the total state population. If you gathered them all together, they wouldn’t even fill Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The fact that there are that many sore losers in Texas — and that is what this petition is really about — shouldn’t come as a surprise; it should be expected.

This secession petition is not a legitimate issue. Let’s stop treating it like one.