The country is suffering another major financial meltdown that can be linked to meddling in the economy by the Federal Government and the Federal Government has promised to solve the problem - by increasing its meddling in the economy. This has led many to believe that our ship of state is taking on a lot of water and some are suggesting that it is time to start heading for the lifeboats.
What these folks are talking about is Secession from the Union by any of the several States or political subdivisions thereof. They have a long list of abuses that they claim the Federal government has and intends to inflict upon the American people that rivals the one the colonists brought against King George. From the abuse of civil rights and liberty under the police state of the Bush administration to the socialistic and forcible transfer of wealth from those who earned it to those who didn't under the Obama administration, the people are getting fed up.
They are also noting the inequities of how taxes are being collected from the whole of America and being dispersed in large payments from the public treasury to certain factions, regions, and districts in return for political favors performed by these location's elected representatives. One can reasonably ask how a Federal grant to the people of Belton, Texas to build a new school or fire station promotes the General Welfare of the good folks of Carterville, Illinois and the question is just as reasonable if the roles are reversed.
Naturally, as there are proponents of secession there are those persons who are adamantly opposed to the idea. They suggest that the very idea is un-American, glossing over the historical fact that the United States would not exist except for an act of secession. They counter that it is illegal, missing that the point of secession is to remove oneself from liability to obey oppressive laws that prevent one from exercising his Natural Rights - like the Right to secede.
They also suggest that it would be an exercise in futility since everyone would be trading one group of dictators and despots, the Federal Government, for another, the State government. They like to use that line from the movie, "The Patriot," where Mel Gibson's character explains to his fellows that he is more comfortable with one tyrant 3,000 miles away than to have 3,000 tyrants one mile away from his home. But is this necessarily true? That is the point for discussion in this article.
Here in The Republic, we Texans live under four layers of Fascism. We have the Local/Municipal, the County, the State, and then the Federal Government. Along with the abuse we suffer from each level individually, we have the abuse dictated from the level above unto the levels below on how those levels should dictate over "We the People." I am reminded of how a certain dark substance has a tendency to follow the force of gravity in downward travel across raised ground and I am not talking about snow.
Now if the State of Texas should secede from the Union, again, or for that matter, any of the others, then that is the removal of one quarter of the four layers or 25% of the tyrants we currently tolerate. That is the same as a 200 pound, overweight teenager losing 50 lbs. of dangerous fat. The 150 lbs. that the teenager now weighs, like the governments of the several States, already existed and will continue to exist. She has simply sculpted away the excess weight through diet and exercise.
And since the Federal Government can no longer dictate to the lower levels within the State, the stress of oppression on the people will be reduced. This will be the equivalent of that young lady sticking with her new healthy lifestyle which will help prevent her from suffering those afflictions associated with obesity.
Keeping political power close to home certainly has its advantages. When politicians know that if they should cause it to "rain" they are guaranteed to get "wet" along with everyone else, they are less likely to cause "thunderclouds." That is certainly preferable to being ruled from afar by men and women living and working away from the people they "rule" in some heavily fortified enclave like the District of Columbia. "Keep your friends close and keep your (Fascist Dictators) even closer."
Now the process of secession, like marriage or divorce, is not to be considered lightly or entered into hastily, but like the young wife trying shape up her errant husband by threatening to ship out and go back home to mother, it must be considered and held tightly as a viable option for dealing with a government running amuck with the people's liberty and property.
We, individually and collectively, must consider the risks, costs, and benefits of staying within the Union and the economics of compliance with the dictates of the Federal Government and compare them to the same for striking out in smaller units and the economics of resistance against those who might use force to keep us in the fold against our will. Secession might be a diet we all want to go on or we could be forced to do so as a matter of human survival.
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