(Reuters) Scott Strzelczyk is fed up with what he calls political slavery in Maryland and sees one way out - creating a breakaway state, a feat that has not been accomplished since the American Civil War.
Riding a wave of anti-government sentiment across the United States, the small-town information technology consultant has launched a long-shot bid to get Maryland's five conservative western counties to secede from the state, one of the most liberal and Democratic in the country.
"We think we have irreconcilable differences, and we just want an amicable divorce," Strzelczyk, 49, told Reuters after pitching secession to the We the People Tea Party group in Carroll County, a county he hopes will be part of the split.