Editorial
Secession Petitions: Good PR But Bad Politics
And the Lord spoke unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord: "Let my people go ... " – Exodus 8:1
Tens of thousands of Americans are now petitioning the White House wanting to withdraw from the union. Although peoples and regions around the world are in the process of withdrawing from debt laden, failed central governments including Scotland, Venice, Catalonia, Bavaria, Flanders and others, it won't be as easy here in the USA. While the US petitions generate great PR for the legal right of secession, this is not the way a state or people legally withdraw from the US union.
First, to secede from the federal union on their own individuals must leave the US and renounce their citizenship, a very complicated and expensive process. Second, the legal way for states to withdraw is individually, state-by-state after conducting a state secession convention very much like a state constitutional convention on 10th Amendment issues.
Most of the individual states originally joined the union through this process and it is how individual states must lawfully leave the union. This is the same method followed by the individual Confederate States of America when they withdrew one by one following the election of Abraham Lincoln.
The right of democratic state-by-state secession did not die at the point of a bayonet at Appomattox Court House in 1865 after Lincoln's invasion killed 600,000 Americans. The growing support for peaceful devolution of government powers and services to regions and local jurisdictions to allow citizens to control the power of politicians and government is a positive advancement for the 21st century. In addition, the right of devolution of states, geographic regions and groups around the world promotes government competition and freedom.
I believe legal state secession from the Washington Empire just might become the only way for American citizens to escape the disastrous consequences of the coming global run to liquidate holdings of Washington Treasury obligations and the dollar. Breaking free of the false chains that threaten our economic future from the likely Washington debt/dollar collapse might be our last chance to safeguard our financial security and liberty from the hyperinflation and crushing new tax increases to be forced on this and future generations from the bailouts and national debt.
Have you considered a confederation of states with no Washington income tax, no federal interference in the internal affairs of individual states, no involvement in perpetual wars around the world without a declaration of war, no Washington tax-feeding bureaucrats telling individual citizens, state legislatures or state agencies what to do?
Maybe it is time to consider the benefits of sovereign states voluntarily participating in a decentralized republic or confederation similar to America's first central government, the Articles of Confederation, created by our patriot founding fathers. In such a decentralized nation issues such as marriage, religious practice, history, symbolism, culture, abortion, gay rights etc. are determined at the state level and citizens can live their lives with regulations and conduct governed by the norms of a state or locality rather than a distant federal government.
I can envision the result being a healthy economy, with minimal government debts, a rising standard of living and job growth guaranteed by low taxes, minimal regulations and currency competition – all of this without the Federal Reserve and Wall Street creating excessive bubbles followed by contraction and collapse and then demanding bailouts.
In summary, I applaud the educational and PR impact of these secession petitions and I urge all readers to sign these petitions. But remember, the right to withdraw from the union requires the same process most states followed to enter into this voluntary contract, state-based secession conventions.
In the end, outright secession may not even be necessary. The mere threat to the federal government created by the potential of legitimate state-by-state secession might well be enough to shake up the power elites in Washington and Wall Street so that they get their acts together.
In closing, I would remind you that the people of a tax jurisdiction or individual state are not really free unless they have the democratic, peaceful right to leave as did the American colonies under the British Empire. Also remember that while petitioning the White House may be a great PR campaign there's no reason to get your hopes up that the Federal government will ever say "Yes" voluntarily; while we don't need them, they certainly need us to continue to pay their bills.
I will leave you, dear readers, with this one last reminder: "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another ... "
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Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 11/15/12 07:58 PM
@provalone
No, nothing new. Extremist, fringe, angry white men, racists. Unless and untill there are many millions of signatures. Then you may hear gunshots.
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Posted by Merridth80 on 11/15/12 08:28 AM
Thank you for explaining this process! I am going to download "The Constitution" from "Heritage Colege & start studying it!!!
I would also like to know how to contact the people who are starting this movement.
Can you help with that info?
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Posted by foxace@aol.com on 11/14/12 07:14 PM
While any movement that advances the idea of secession may be a good thing, let us not forget that it is our States to whom we should look for leadership in this matter. Instead of asking permission to secede from Washington, DC it may be more effective to write letters to our Governors, State Attorneys General, and State Senators and Representatives. These officials are the 'lesser magistrates' whose duty is to interpose themselves between us, the citizens of the sovereign States, and the government in DC. So instead of simply signing an online petition for secession, taking the time to write (and call) these lesser magistrates in your State to insist that they stand up for you may be a more productive step.
Here is an example of what such a letter might say:
Dear __________:
The national election on 6 November demonstrated that the US is fractured beyond repair both politically and culturally. Moreover, the continuation of a regime in Washington, DC, imperils an already shaky economy and our Constitutional liberties.
Without belaboring the point-which I hope you fully grasp-the sovereign State of __________ would be better served by going her own way, rather than continuing in an environment polity hostile to the interests and well-being of the majority of her productive citizens. On the national scale, cultural and economic changes suggest that this situation will only get worse for our State and her sister states in the South and West. Many believe that candidates supportive of American Exceptionalism will not win another Presidential election.
Secession was the original American political doctrine, and the Declaration of Independence bears that out. Once again, it is time we use this honorable and legitimate means to protect ourselves from those un-American ideas and actions that now threaten our freedom and prosperity as __________ [enter Alabamians, Floridians, etc].
I urge you to use your influence and position as the 'lesser magistrate' to serve the interests of the people of our great and sovereign State.
Sincerely,
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Posted by rossbcan on 11/14/12 09:24 AM
R.H.: "petitioning the White House may be a great PR campaign there's no reason to get your hopes up that the Federal government will ever say "Yes" voluntarily; while we don't need them, they certainly need us to continue to pay their bills."
Petitioning them is an admission of defeat, equivalent to asking your exploiters "please sir, can I have some more" when their very existance and survival (as predators) demands a "no" answer. Mutual consent is required among free and equal people. It is not possible when one party rationalizes the "neccessity" (Machiavailli, falsely framed arguments) of their unilateral and forcefully backed (using OUR guns, against us) decrees of their dominence.
Petitioning for freedom assumes the "social contract" is mutually agreed. Our common predators do not suffer such delusions:
Click to view link
We live in an action precedes consequence reality. The laws of nature allow us to choose to do anything consistent with the laws of physics. The only choice of others, organized force included is, what do they choose to do in response? The "give me freedom" argument is falsely framed. We are already free and there is not a force in the universe which can change this. The true freedom argument is "stop sanctioning me when I exercise my inherent freedoms".
So, what actions and, by whom will lead to new consequences?
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Posted by provolone on 11/14/12 05:23 AM
The White House has used the petition site to talk past the petitioners and deliver the same tired talking points. My favorite instance of this was the response from the drug czar to the cannabis related petitions. In defense of his bureaucracy he cited the 'increasing marijuana related emergency room visits'.
The absurdity of their rationalizations know no bounds. I am eagerly awaiting (with popcorn) the response to this wave of secession petitions. I am not aware of the current dismissive talking points concerning secession. Hopefully we will get some new material here.
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Posted by MoT on 11/14/12 12:57 AM
Democratic "peaceful" right to leave as the Americans, Britsh subjects they, as they did under the British empire? That's absurd! The Empire viewed it as treason and fought to keep them. Likewise with Lincoln and his crushing anyone who dared dream, like the founders, that they had any business exiting the new American empires grasp. To say that our current lunatics would be somehow more "flexible" or ameniable to the bleating of this nations serfs borders on the delusional. The only freedom anyone on this continent is going to get is the one they wrest by force of will and if necessary by force of arms. Mordor-on-the-Potomac will not ever willingly relinquish control.
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Posted by dave jr on 11/13/12 09:08 PM
"W.H. Petition Calls for Stripping Citizenship and Exile for Anyone Who Signs Petition to Secede"
Gee, then would I be an illegal alien? Finally some respect!
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Posted by Ol' Grey Ghost on 11/13/12 06:45 PM
I've also expressed similar sentiments in the past...
Click to view link
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 11/13/12 05:14 PM
"W.H. Petition Calls for Stripping Citizenship and Exile for Anyone Who Signs Petition to Secede"
Click to view link
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Posted by Martin on 11/13/12 12:45 PM
Great editorial Ron on how to succeed at secession! Also I agree that begging permission from our overlords although a good way to get the idea out to the masses is not exactly the way to go.
