[Tau Food]

There is no inconsistency between our war for independence and the attempts of some southerners to leave the US in the 1860's.

BOTH were decided by force.

I am suggesting that the next time someone wants to secede, that they try a different approach, an approach like Scotland pursued. Try it.

[DiogenesLamp]

There is no inconsistency between our war for independence and the attempts of some southerners to leave the US in the 1860's.

BOTH were decided by force.

Yes, but one wasn't supposed to be. We changed the rules, remember? Force shouldn't have been required in the second case, because the principle that people had a right to leave had been won. Our Nation was founded on a new Paradigm, and not that of the British Union.

Had we followed our own paradigm, we would have accepted the same right for others, that we demanded the British accept from us.