Almost like big government is totally unnecessary to get the important shit done...

I'd say this is less about secession & more about displaying the responsibility, power, & effectiveness of state & local government. For too long Americans have believed federal government is the only way to take care of things or tried to use federal government to control other states on issues that are pretty much none of their damn business. States need to take more of an active role, & federal government needs to back the fuck off. Federal government really shouldn't be involved in much aside from military, helping coordinate efforts initiated by more than one state (important point being "initiated by the state," not initiated federally) to increase efficiency, determining if states are violating the constitution, & preventing the violation if they are.

Back to root American values.

Unless you want to talk about secession from the US Corp back to a Federation of States with small central government & no income tax... Then that works, too.