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Patrick J. Buchanan: Secession talk is trending across America
Oct. 10, 2013 |
Written by patrick j. buchanan
In the last decade of the 20th century, as the Soviet Empire disintegrated
so, too, did that prison house of nations, the USSR.
Out of the decomposing carcass came Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia and Moldova, all in Europe; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
in the Caucasus; and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
The Slovaks seceded from Czechoslovakia. Yet a Europe that plunged straight
to war after the last breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 this time
only yawned. Let them go, all agreed.
The spirit of secession, the desire of peoples to sever ties to nations to
which they have belonged for generations, sometimes for centuries, and to
seek out their own kind is a spreading phenomenon.
Scotland is moving toward a referendum on independence from England, three
centuries after the Acts of Union. Catalonia pushes to be free of Madrid.
Milanese and Venetians see themselves as a European people apart from
Sicilians, Neapolitans and Romans.
What are the forces pulling nations apart? Ethnicity, culture, history and
language - but now also economics.
And separatist and secessionist movements are cropping up here in the
United States.
While many Red State Americans are moving away from Blue State America,
seeking kindred souls among whom to live, those who love where they live
but not those who rule them are seeking to secede.
The five counties of Western Maryland - Garrett, Allegheny, Washington,
Frederick and Carroll, which have more in common with West Virginia and
wish to be rid of Baltimore and free of Annapolis, are talking secession.
The issues driving secession in Maryland are gun control, high taxes,
energy policy, homosexual marriage and immigration.
Four of our 50 states - Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, West Virginia - were
born
out of other states.
Ten northern counties of Colorado are this November holding non-binding
referenda to prepare a future secession from Denver and the creation of
America's 51st state.
In California, which many have long believed should be split in two, the
northern counties of Modoc and Siskyou on the Oregon border are talking
succession - and then union in a new state called Jefferson.
Folks on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, bordered by Wisconsin and the
Great Lakes, which is connected to lower Michigan by a bridge, have long
dreamed of a separate state called Superior. The UP has little in common
with Lansing and nothing with Detroit.
While the folks in western Maryland, northern Colorado, northern California
and on the Upper Peninsula might be described as Red State secessionists,
in Vermont the secessionists seem of the populist left. The Montpelier
Manifesto of the Second Vermont Republic concludes:
`Citizens, lend your names to this manifesto and join in the honorable task
of rejecting the immoral, corrupt, decaying, dying, failing American Empire
and seeking its rapid and peaceful dissolution before it takes us all down
with it.'
This sort of intemperate language may be found in Thomas Jefferson's
indictment of George III. If America does not get its fiscal house in order
or our elites dragoon us into another imperial war, we will likely hear
more of such talk.
http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20131011/OPINION02/310110003/Secession-talk-trending-across-America?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|DW
Oct. 10, 2013 |
Written by patrick j. buchanan
In the last decade of the 20th century, as the Soviet Empire disintegrated
so, too, did that prison house of nations, the USSR.
Out of the decomposing carcass came Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia and Moldova, all in Europe; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
in the Caucasus; and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
The Slovaks seceded from Czechoslovakia. Yet a Europe that plunged straight
to war after the last breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 this time
only yawned. Let them go, all agreed.
The spirit of secession, the desire of peoples to sever ties to nations to
which they have belonged for generations, sometimes for centuries, and to
seek out their own kind is a spreading phenomenon.
Scotland is moving toward a referendum on independence from England, three
centuries after the Acts of Union. Catalonia pushes to be free of Madrid.
Milanese and Venetians see themselves as a European people apart from
Sicilians, Neapolitans and Romans.
What are the forces pulling nations apart? Ethnicity, culture, history and
language - but now also economics.
And separatist and secessionist movements are cropping up here in the
United States.
While many Red State Americans are moving away from Blue State America,
seeking kindred souls among whom to live, those who love where they live
but not those who rule them are seeking to secede.
The five counties of Western Maryland - Garrett, Allegheny, Washington,
Frederick and Carroll, which have more in common with West Virginia and
wish to be rid of Baltimore and free of Annapolis, are talking secession.
The issues driving secession in Maryland are gun control, high taxes,
energy policy, homosexual marriage and immigration.
Four of our 50 states - Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, West Virginia - were
born
out of other states.
Ten northern counties of Colorado are this November holding non-binding
referenda to prepare a future secession from Denver and the creation of
America's 51st state.
In California, which many have long believed should be split in two, the
northern counties of Modoc and Siskyou on the Oregon border are talking
succession - and then union in a new state called Jefferson.
Folks on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, bordered by Wisconsin and the
Great Lakes, which is connected to lower Michigan by a bridge, have long
dreamed of a separate state called Superior. The UP has little in common
with Lansing and nothing with Detroit.
While the folks in western Maryland, northern Colorado, northern California
and on the Upper Peninsula might be described as Red State secessionists,
in Vermont the secessionists seem of the populist left. The Montpelier
Manifesto of the Second Vermont Republic concludes:
`Citizens, lend your names to this manifesto and join in the honorable task
of rejecting the immoral, corrupt, decaying, dying, failing American Empire
and seeking its rapid and peaceful dissolution before it takes us all down
with it.'
This sort of intemperate language may be found in Thomas Jefferson's
indictment of George III. If America does not get its fiscal house in order
or our elites dragoon us into another imperial war, we will likely hear
more of such talk.
http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20131011/OPINION02/310110003/Secession-talk-trending-across-America?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|DW