Thoughts on Texas Secession
The Governor of the State of Texas recently said that Texas should not rule out secession as a means of dealing with recent displeasure with the federal government. A recent poll showed 25% of the Texan population was for secession. Now I don't really think that Texas will secede, but it has me thinking.
While I disagree with current conservative rhetoric claiming that Obama's initiatives will somehow destroy America, and I also disagree with southern rhetoric building up to the Civil War, I find that I am not against the idea of secession.
The United States of America is a special nation. Technically it is 50 separate countries unified under a very strong coalition government. The Constitution does not forbid secession. It became de facto illegal following Lincoln's decision to use force to maintain the Union, but as to whether or not it was legal for him to do so is also not clear. So on principal of that alone, I do not think secession is illegal. However, I think that it should not be undertaken lightly, nor without due consideration.
The South seceded in reaction to the election of Abraham Lincoln to the office of president of the United States. There was fear that an abolitionist in the White House would end the institution of Slavery, which they feared would cause an economic and social crisis in the South, as both their economy and culture relied on slavery and the low status of African-Americans. For a Democracy to stand and mean something, one must abide by its rules, even when they are unfavorable to you. Elections mean nothing if after you lose you quit the group. Nations aren't clubs that you can join and leave at your leisure when things don't go your way, that is an awfully lame, petty, and anti-democratic way to behave. Democracy means working within the system to bring about the change you desire, and that sometimes you can't get what you want because what you want is too unpopular.
However, maybe it doesn't. This issue becomes very tricky because the South seceded to protect their "right" to dominate another group, deprive them of rights, and force them to do thier work for them. Slavery is wrong, and anybody doing anything to defend it is also wrong. So the South was wrong to secede because they wanted to protect slavery, which is wrong. But what if that wasn't why they wanted to secede? What if there was no slavery? What if the South wanted to secede because they liked the Jacksonian notion of an agrarian based land owning society and didn't want the rapid industrialization being imposed on them by the North? If that had been the cause of secession, would that have been wrong? I think that it would have been ok. Slavery is evil, secession isn't. People have the right to live as they see fit, to a point. If modern conservatives want to live in a nation with low taxes and few government services, yet the democratically elected government consistently denies them that (now I don't think that a 3% tax increase for the richest 5% is a big deal, but that isn't the point), shouldn't they be able to leave and create their own country with their own values? I think that they should be able to if they really want to and if a majority of voters agree.
Now the original concept of state's rights was that states would be able to have a heavy hand in shaping how their own lives in their own states go, but the federal government has taken more and more power as history progresses. Between FDR, Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush, the executive branch and the federal government has become more and more powerful. I am actually mostly happy with how things go. I want to live in a nation that is united in its laws and treatment of all. I want freedom and rights for everybody. But if parts of the Bible belt wanted to live in a theocracy, I honestly don't have a problem with that as long as they gave people living in that state a year or so to get out peacefully if they didn't want to live in that.
So now I wrap it all up. If Texas wants to secede, go for it. I don't want to stop them. Everybody wins really. Conservatives can flock to Texas and create the nation they want, and two less republican senators blocking Obama's legislation means that the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and be able to push through each and every reform that I voted for when I voted Democrat this last election.
While I disagree with current conservative rhetoric claiming that Obama's initiatives will somehow destroy America, and I also disagree with southern rhetoric building up to the Civil War, I find that I am not against the idea of secession.
The United States of America is a special nation. Technically it is 50 separate countries unified under a very strong coalition government. The Constitution does not forbid secession. It became de facto illegal following Lincoln's decision to use force to maintain the Union, but as to whether or not it was legal for him to do so is also not clear. So on principal of that alone, I do not think secession is illegal. However, I think that it should not be undertaken lightly, nor without due consideration.
The South seceded in reaction to the election of Abraham Lincoln to the office of president of the United States. There was fear that an abolitionist in the White House would end the institution of Slavery, which they feared would cause an economic and social crisis in the South, as both their economy and culture relied on slavery and the low status of African-Americans. For a Democracy to stand and mean something, one must abide by its rules, even when they are unfavorable to you. Elections mean nothing if after you lose you quit the group. Nations aren't clubs that you can join and leave at your leisure when things don't go your way, that is an awfully lame, petty, and anti-democratic way to behave. Democracy means working within the system to bring about the change you desire, and that sometimes you can't get what you want because what you want is too unpopular.
However, maybe it doesn't. This issue becomes very tricky because the South seceded to protect their "right" to dominate another group, deprive them of rights, and force them to do thier work for them. Slavery is wrong, and anybody doing anything to defend it is also wrong. So the South was wrong to secede because they wanted to protect slavery, which is wrong. But what if that wasn't why they wanted to secede? What if there was no slavery? What if the South wanted to secede because they liked the Jacksonian notion of an agrarian based land owning society and didn't want the rapid industrialization being imposed on them by the North? If that had been the cause of secession, would that have been wrong? I think that it would have been ok. Slavery is evil, secession isn't. People have the right to live as they see fit, to a point. If modern conservatives want to live in a nation with low taxes and few government services, yet the democratically elected government consistently denies them that (now I don't think that a 3% tax increase for the richest 5% is a big deal, but that isn't the point), shouldn't they be able to leave and create their own country with their own values? I think that they should be able to if they really want to and if a majority of voters agree.
Now the original concept of state's rights was that states would be able to have a heavy hand in shaping how their own lives in their own states go, but the federal government has taken more and more power as history progresses. Between FDR, Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush, the executive branch and the federal government has become more and more powerful. I am actually mostly happy with how things go. I want to live in a nation that is united in its laws and treatment of all. I want freedom and rights for everybody. But if parts of the Bible belt wanted to live in a theocracy, I honestly don't have a problem with that as long as they gave people living in that state a year or so to get out peacefully if they didn't want to live in that.
So now I wrap it all up. If Texas wants to secede, go for it. I don't want to stop them. Everybody wins really. Conservatives can flock to Texas and create the nation they want, and two less republican senators blocking Obama's legislation means that the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and be able to push through each and every reform that I voted for when I voted Democrat this last election.