The Case For Secession

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.

–Benjamin Franklin

I have written about this on the Rio Norte Line, and, most times, I am met with opposition from both sides of the political divide.  To my friends on the Right, I say: understand your sentimental attachment to the memory of America, but you are not using sound logic.  The nation you pine for is no more.  And to those on the Left who seek to control as many people as possible, I say: it is not the place of any person to control the conscience of another and no intention can or will ever be noble enough to change this truth.  Sadly, the two sides – liberty vs. tyranny – are growing farther and farther apart, to the point where I no longer believe they can be reconciled.  Therefore, I have grown more and more convinced that the only hope of man preserving the lamp of individual rights and liberty on the face of this earth lies in secession of those States which still embrace the founding principles and ideals of America from those States which seek to control them.

I have come to the conclusion that the ‘Red’ States should be given a chance to vote on secession.  I came to this conclusion for many reasons, but mostly, because I am sincere in my belief that no person has the right to control another.  So long as we are not actively causing harm to another person or their property, or the society in general, we should seek to allow maximum liberty and to exercise minimal control over others.  Sadly, a growing number in this country no longer agree with this foundational American value.  What’s more – and what’s more ominous – is that the government is now using our tax money to indoctrinate our children to believe that the government should be in control of everyone – for the good of the whole.  And to go one further, the government is now using its power to attack those who oppose big, controlling government.  In effect, the government that swore to protect freedom-loving Americans is now using their money to attack them and their children.  This is precisely what these two stories represent:

‘What is Government?’ Elementary Students Taught It’s Your ‘Family’

Fourth-grade students in Illinois are learning that “government is like a nation’s family” because it sets rules and takes care of needs such as health care and education.

New Emails Raise Serious Questions About Disgraced IRS Official: The Tea Party Issue Is ‘Very Dangerous’

Newly-released emails between disgraced Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and her staff may contradict earlier claims that the agency’s harsh treatment of conservative groups was not politically motivated.

The government is not our family.  To say otherwise is the stuff of Orwell’s “1984” and Huxley’s “Brave New World.”  If this does not bother you, go read those two books in the next two weeks.  If you read them in the past, re-read them.  They were not warnings of what to avoid, they were bold assertions of what was coming – whether we like it or not.

Nor is it the business of the government to decide whether or not Americans are a threat.  If they are trying to advance a political agenda within the legal process for doing so, the government’s job is to stay neutral.  After all, they are supposed to represent all the people, not just those of their political Party or agenda.  When they cross the line and start using the power of government to protect their side and attack the other, they have crossed the line of subversion and tyranny.  Such people are control mongers who deserve jail – if not execution.  Yes, I said execution.  There are times when evil must be eliminated from society and not just locked away, because you can never lock evil away for long.  Unless it is eliminated, it always finds a way to get out again.

Another long-term theme of mine is that America is now walking a parallel path to that traveled by 1930’s Germany.  Many do not like this comparison, and I suspect it is for one of three reasons.  For most, it is ignorance.  They simply do not know enough history to understand my comparison is accurate and warranted.  Others understand it, but they object to being counted among as being like those who supported Hitler’s regime.  Tough!  If you know and understand enough to be offended, yet you still defend what the government is doing, you are the same people – at least in spirit.  And then there are those who understand I am dead on target but who do not care.  They are the ones with whom true evil lies.

Thankfully, a majority of Americans happens to see things along pretty much the same lines.  Sadly, the divide happens to also be among Party lines:

Number of Americans Who Say Government Has Too Much Power Hits Record High

Given the mood of the people; the fact that true government authority comes from the consent of the governed; and my sincere belief that no one should forcibly control another person, I believe the only solution to the mess we are in is to allow a vote for secession.  This way, those who want a government family can vote to stay in the union and have their socialism.  But those who do not want it can vote to secede from the union and preserve their liberty.  I regret that it has come to this, but I see no other possible solution to the divide that, left unchecked, will drag those who wish to live free into involuntary servitude with the rest of those who seek to control them.  It is the route that republics always take when they decay, and our republic is in decay.  We either cut of the gangrenous limbs to save what is left of the patient, or we lose the entire patient.  At least this way we still have the opportunity to resolve our differences according to the rule of law.  If we simply continue the path we’re on, we will succumb to the rule of man, and by any other name, that rule is tyranny.

Besides, our founders said the States have a right to secede.  Lincoln got it wrong, which is why we shouldn’t consider him a hero, but as the nations first dictator.

[NOTE: when I advocate eliminating evil, I do so within the confines of the Social Contract, which means according to due process.  I am not among those who, being control mongers, seek to eliminate their opposition in the name of greater good.  I am for the rule of law, which means people must be charged, tried and convicted by a jury of their peers.  Their crimes must also be commensurate with the sentence.  There are very, very few crimes against society which truly warrant the death penalty.  The same cannot be said for the control monger, who, as history has shown, knows no bounds to their blood lust.  Once the heads start to roll, there is no telling how many children will be sacrificed before their wanton lust is satisfied or they find some vestige of humanity sufficient to cause them to check themselves.  The French Revolution should be clear enough testimony to the Truth of this assertion.]