Secession vs. Expulsion

In the political blog Big Jolly Politics I came across an article titled "Jerry Patterson Attacked by Kid in Puberty" in which the article sites another blogger, Ben Sherman, for attacking Jerry Patterson, a Lt. Governor candidate and a veteran of the Marines, for saying that instead of Texas seceding from the Union, we should expel other liberal states.  He goes on to say states like California and New York should be expelled due to his opinion that "their legislatures aren't representing them".  Big Jolly Politics argues that this attack on Patterson is unfounded and credits Sherman's attack on Patterson on his hormones.  Clearly a right leaning blog, this article intends to speak to Republican voters in order to rally support for Patterson in spite of his statement regarding expulsion of liberal states.  The author of Big Jolly Politics is calling Patterson's statement a "joke".  The evidence behind the authors argument that Patterson's statement was simply a joke is somewhat unclear and not presented in the article.  The blatant extremity of the statement suggests that, yes, it was a joke, however the last time our nation was politically divided and states began to secede the Civil War happened resulting in the deaths of three quarters of a million Americans.  Given that the repercussions of the Civil War and the lessons learned from it are still as important in American history today as they were 100 years ago, I believe that Lt. Governor candidate Jerry Patterson made a mistake by mentioning expulsion, even in a joking manner. There are simply too many ways people could be offended by the statement.  It is for this reason that I must disagree with the author of this article.