We’ve all heard the reports of the “Secession Petitions” now originating from all fifty states and garnering several hundreds of thousands of signatures. We even have one going from this fine blue state of New York. I didn’t sign it. I am persuaded that if secession ever becomes a necessity, it won’t emanate from New York, and it won’t be promulgated with just a pen or a click.
Calls for secession are nothing new. It is secession that created this country, and so in that sense it is in our national DNA. Conservatives calling for secession are cast as kooks by liberal comedians and commentators; though in 2004 when Liberals forwarded the same idea, they viewed themselves as sarcastically sophisticated in their suggestion. They envisioned the northern blue states aligned with the more socially liberal country of Canada as “The United States of Canada”, or “Realistan”, “Central Realitania”, or the “United States of Liberty and Education”. The southern conservative states they mocked as “Jesusland”, “Redneckistan”, or the “United State of Texas”, with Crawford as its capital. The only intellectual consistency you will find is that what liberals view as brilliant when initiated by their own, they will view as deviant and evidence of dangerous mental instability when employed by the right.
For the most part, these calls for secession are simply instruments for registering one’s discontent, and hardly a genuine Declaration of Independence. The same Declaration that justified the need for “One people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” also admonished us that “Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…”. If ever it was the right of a State to peacefully secede from the Union, it was decided by the Civil War that it no longer is. A true secession will always be accompanied by the threat of bloody war. That fact has channeled our propensity for revolution and secession into more reasonable, and oft times just as effective strategies and responses.
In watching the news, we in America seem conspicuous in our preference for peaceful protest when compared to so much of the rest of the world. The Tea-Party protests were engaged in with zero arrests, property destruction or violence. The smaller Occupy movement, by virtue of its younger, more militant, and sometimes drug affected demographic; was a bit more aggressive, but was seldom riotous. The response to Egypt’s President Morsi circumventing the Judicial branch of his government by decree, claiming he is acting by the will of God with 51% of the vote; has been rioting in the streets of Cairo, threatening the stability of the young government. Our response to our President circumventing the other branches of our government by executive orders, claiming he has a mandate with 51% of the vote; has been somewhat more subdued. Does that mean we are a more compliant democracy… or just a wiser one?
In the tradition of Ghandi and Dr. King, we are a nation that has learned that victory can be had without violence, liberty without war. We may not jump to the streets with molotov cocktails, but we patiently stand in our liberty. Long after the Egyptians have succumbed to their new dictator, we will continue to be a nation that equates freedom with the words “I won’t!”. Raise a wild animal as you would a domesticated one and it will remain an unpredictable pet. Likewise, tyrants will never find the American public one that can be tamed, as other nations. We are the progeny of Patrick Henry, valuing liberty over life itself. This stubborn, indomitable refusal to cooperate with even overwhelming power flies in the face of a President who believes an electoral victory guarantees the compliance of a nation. The secession petitions are written notice that it does not.
Dividing the nation into demographics, pandering to groups to garner their vote while expressing clear animosity toward others, and regarding the various states on the basis of how they relate to their value in future elections, are things that both parties participate in. Even the existence of two moderate national parties effectively discourages the existence of states that might choose more libertarian or socialist government models. The progressive fantasy of a centrally controlled nation where conformity is forced on the states in accordance with the dictates of the party in power, has upped the stakes in national politics. It has only served to increase division, obstructionism, and disfunction in the administration of government; and anger, disunity, and rebellion in the public at large.
IMHO: The wisdom of the tenth amendment establishing limits to the purview of the Federal government, and leaving all other considerations to the states has been largely ignored in recent years. Calls for secession can be interpreted as a longing for a return to the diversity that the nation was founded on: “E Pluribus, Unum”. Grand purposes like national defense, civil rights, and foreign relations, can only be addressed by Washington; but the divisions in the country rarely focus on these roles. We have added to these delegated powers endless new responsibilities that would have best been left to a more local level. We have created a behemoth government not unlike so many other behemoths; too big to fail, but too big to work.
Where people might move to a state where they felt more comfortable with the drug laws, the level of taxation, the quality of education, or the amount of regulation or security… the centralization of so much homogenizes the nation, eliminates diversity, and requires conformity. It is then unavoidable that vast segments of the population will feel disenfranchised and their desires marginalized, with no recourse except secession or revolution. In our system, opportunity for revolution comes with each election, but a successful revolution only leads to the same feelings in the hearts of the new losers. How much better it would be to restore the tenth amendment, decrease the role and singular importance of Washington; where people could agree to disagree and still be united nationally. Until then we will continue to be a nation at war with itself, where victories are always temporary, and there is always a murmuring resistance. The victors will ever attempt to impose their universal mandate, and free Americans will always meet tyranny with the words, “I won’t.”
