Secession is in the air. Actually, it’s been in the air since before the Peace of Westphalia and the creation of the modern nation-state in 1636. The United States seceded from Great Britain in 1776. One of the most important secessions in the past 200 years was, of course, the Civil War in 1861 when 11 states seceded from the United States. Less well known is the fact that secession has been a serious issue in five of the fifty states in the US in just the past ten years. The proponents of secession have their reasons.
Hawai’i: There is a movement in Hawai’i seeking full independence from the US because of the “illegal” annexation of Hawai’i from Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893 Hawai’ian secessionists received a boost when the US Congress passed its famous “Apology Resolution” in 1993, to atone for the heavy handed manner in which Hawai’i was annexed by the US at the end of the 19th century.
Alaska: the Alaskan Independence Party succeeded in putting secession on the ballot in 2006 in an effort to gain freedom from the United States.
Georgia: In 2009, the Georgia legislature voted on a conditional secession should the US Congress restrict the ownership of firearms or ammunition; with the recent declaration by Secretary of State Clinton that the US will ratify the UN Small Arms Treaty, Georgia may soon be tested on this point. The UN treaty is a multi-lateral agreement whereby American guns will be subject to confiscation, more bureaucratic licensing requirements, gun registry and more restrictions in the buying and selling of guns.
South Carolina: the Third Palmetto Republic is a movement today to secede from the US in an effort to become independent of an over-controlling Washington and big companies that, together, control the US to the detriment of South Carolinians, unable to stand up to the leviathan of DC and big business.
Texas: In 2009, Texas Governor Rick Perry said, “Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that … My hope is that America and Washington in particular, pay attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that?”
In a 2008 Zogby poll, 22% of Americans believed :”any state or region has the right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic. Secession from the US is unlikely in any state or region today. The work of President Obama and his administration, however, will invigorate secessionist movements that spread to other states.
Secession of any state is not going to happen as concurrence at both state and federal level is required. Let’s take a peek at a hypothetical secession, however.
If a state were to secede, it would immediately seek a treaty with the US. The seceding state might propose as follows:
“Article 1: We will continue to look to the US to provide us with national security, and to that end, we agree to pay our fair share of the US defense budget and NATO. Our National Guard will be maintained as in the past and may be called up by the President of the United States to serve the United States wherever and whenever required.
Article 2: We agree to support the budget of the Department of Homeland Security on a fair share basis for all customs issues, Coast Guard support in our waters, so long as this Department upholds the existing laws of the United States pertaining to counter-terrorism, illegal immigration, illegal narcotics, and illegal arms trade.
Article 3: We agree to continue to pay our fair share of the Department of Transportation, including federal highways and air transportation.
Article 4. We agree to continue to pay our fair share of Native American affairs.
Article 5. We will look to the US State Department to represent us in all affairs foreign to our state and the United States, and to that end, we will pay our fair share of the cost of the US State Department, US foreign assistance, the UN, and the World Bank Group.
Article 6. We will introduce a new currency, pegged to the price of gold (rather than let US inflation work its way into the local economy). All trade with the US will be done in our own currency.
Article 7. We will adopt, temporarily, US laws the first day of our independence with the exceptions that our state supreme court will be the court of last resort for our citizens and other legal entities based in our state; federal US judges must leave our state.
Article 8. All US Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security payments to our citizens will cease on the day of independence, we agree to continue support of these programs at their current levels, though we reserve the right to change the terms of these entitlements in the future.
Article 9. We hereby declare that we are in no way responsible for repayment of any future debt incurred by the United States.
Article 10. Trade between our state and the US will be free and without customs and border controls, though all foreign trade with the US will be carried out with our own currency which will start out, on independence day, at one unit of our currency for one US dollar.
Article 11: We will maintain a small embassy in Washington to represent the interests of our state on matters of trade and finance (especially our contribution to the US budget).
Article12. Articles 1- 11 represent the full extent of our agreement with the United States of America. During the first year after our independence, we will systematically and cooperatively eliminate all US support of, and involvement in, taxation of our citizens, our schools and universities, hospitals, housing, laws and courts, agriculture, veterans affairs, commerce, small business support, the governmental affairs of our state, environment, parks, forests, energy, labor and elections. US laws related to gun control and human life no longer apply in our state. On our independence day, we will relinquish our current congressional and senate seats in the US Congress and our electoral votes for the US presidency”
Imagine the uproar.
In a not unrelated event, fifteen months after Lithuania declared its independence from an “indestructable” Soviet Union in March of 1990 (which secession was triggered by forty years of Soviet oppression economically and politically), the Soviet Union itself collapsed.
