Posted on 10/04/2013 3:15:42 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat
WASHINGTON DC — In some U.S. states, the sharp political rift between Republicans and Democrats is also a geographical divide in which political power is controlled by liberal progressives in heavily populated urban areas. This has left some rural conservatives groups tired of their powerless minority status and looking to secede, not from the country but from the states where they reside.
The Western Maryland Initiative is the latest such attempt, joining efforts by groups in Colorado, Michigan and California to attempt to secede from their own states and either form a new state or join with a neighboring state that better reflects their political views.
Scott Strzelczyk, one of the leaders of the Maryland secession group, says conservatives in the rural western areas of his state adamantly oppose new taxes, environmental regulations and gun control measures that are being imposed on them by the liberal majority in the eastern cities that control the political process.
“Ultimately we just feel that the people aren’t represented and that we could have a government that better represents us if we were to split off and form our own states,” said Strzelczyk.
The secessionist group in Northern Colorado has a similar list of grievances and virtually the same rural/urban divide. Conservative activist and Rancher Bob Beauprez says that in politics today there seems to be no room for compromise, so perhaps secession is the only way to ensure that minorities have a political voice.
“If we are going to continue to have these ideological battles that end up maybe not moving in a very positive direction and ending in good government, just different government, maybe we ought to just go our separate ways. Why don’t you run your state and we’ll run ours,” said Beauprez.
Even if these initiatives ultimately fail, Beauprez says they are energizing the conservative movement. In Colorado, voters recently ousted two Democratic state lawmakers in a recall election launched over their support for stricter gun laws.
The U.S. constitution does allow for the formation of new states, but it requires the approval of both the state legislature and Congress. It has been done in the past, such as when West Virginia broke off from Virginia during the Civil War, but it is rare.
Since 1959, when Hawaii and Alaska became the 49th and 50th states admitted to the union, the United States has not added any new states. Undaunted, Strzelczyk says it may be time to radically re-draw the map to create hundreds of smaller states. “This way we have choices and all these diverse people have ways to live together harmoniously without fighting each other, without brother fighting brother and neighbor fighting neighbor all the time. And that’s really ultimately what I wanted, just to be left alone by government to live my life.”
Many experts say it is unlikely that Congress would approve any new states, especially if it means changing the current balance of power. Michael Trinklein, the author of Lost States, a book about past movements to create new states in the U.S., says conservative state secessionists should learn from history and partner up with state movements in liberal-dominated territories like Puerto Rico.
This is how Alaska, considered a liberal stronghold in the 1950s, joined with then-conservative Hawaii to gain statehood for both without altering the national balance of power. “Alaska nor Hawaii would have been added had they not come in together. You basically need a dancing partner and that has long been true in American politics,” points out Trinklein.
Still, he says most state secession efforts in history have failed. Strzelczyk says he knows his goal will be difficult to reach, and maybe even nearly impossible, but for frustrated and isolated rural conservatives it may be the only option left.
Unfortunately the trap door of this roach hotel slammed shut long ago after the loss of state’s rights and almost every constitutional restriction on Federal power rendered moot.
I would gladly pack up and leave for a state not under the thumb of this Federal criminal conspiracy.
There was a lovely secession of West Virginia from the insurrectionists, and a few counties of California are applying for secession from the liberal mess that is California.
Eastern Wa. state has wanted to leave the western part and join Idaho for years.
The black-robes once again walked into political territory and overthrew hundreds of years of American tradition.
Until then, most state senates represented counties. After Reynolds, state senatorial districts had to be of roughly equal numbers. IOW, state senates were made little different from state assemblies.
By Reynolds, the Scotus for all practical purposes imposed a 17th amendment-like decision on the states.
Rural counties around the nation would like to secede from the city mob governments imposed on them by scotus.
What congress should do is realign the border of Idaho and Montana to follow the boundaries of Yellowstone.
Because the current boundaries are not aligned with the park boundaries, those sections of Yellowstone are the only places in the country were you could murder someone, and not be able to be tried. There is no state court with jurisdiction, and the federal court with jurisdiction is across the state border in Wyoming, making a court case against the murderer unconstitutional.
Yes, that's what set mega-cities in power over whole states.
An astute student of history and human nature, Thomas Jefferson, predicted what we see happening here in America. While a strong case can be made that the French aristocracy brought it upon themselves, as ambassador in France, he witnessed the run up to the FIRST socialist/communist revolution there. He penned the following observations concerning what would happen HERE should that socialism come to the United States. He CORRECTLY predicted that we would become an increasingly contentious and litigious people as we shouldered one another out of the way to get OURS from the public trough and the trough would soon be empty.
He also knew where the bulk of the problem would originate.
That whirring noise you may hear coming from that mountain in Charlottesville, Virginia is Mr. Jefferson getting up to around 3600 RPM.
(A 6 minute video with this information may be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypLu49pq3bI)
As I understand it, at the time of the drafting of the Declaration, Mr. Jefferson originally wrote “…Life, Liberty and PROPERTY…” (meaning that one’s right to freely acquire, use and dispose of his property – to the extent doing so did not violate the same to others – was a Creator endowed right. Because slavery viewed humans as property, the phrase “Pursuit of Happiness” was adopted instead to avoid – at least for the time being — the inevitable debate on that subject.
“The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” —Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:230
“I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers 12:442
“I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice.” —Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173
“Our cities... exhibit specimens of London only; our country is a different nation.” —Thomas Jefferson to Andre de Daschkoff, 1809. ME 12:304
“Everyone, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs and a degree of freedom which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private.” —Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:401
“An insurrection... of science, talents, and courage, against rank and birth... has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from the panic of this first catastrophe.” —Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:402
“I fear nothing for our liberty from the assaults of force; but I have seen and felt much, and fear more from English books, English prejudices, English manners, and the apes, the dupes, and designs among our professional crafts. When I look around me for security against these seductions, I find it in the wide spread of our agricultural citizens, in their unsophisticated minds, their independence and their power, if called on, to crush the Humists of our cities, and to maintain the principles which severed us from England.” —Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:120
Is this true? It can’t be. If so I need to start planning a Yellowstone trip with a person I know.....
I learned it on Volkoh Conspiracy.
Of course if you plan to murder inside the Idaho-Yellowstone area, but planing took place outside the specified location, the conspiracy itself is punishable in the venue in which the conspiracy took place.
Ooops, slipped up already. My previous post was thoughtcrime.
Why don’t we trade Northern California for Puerto Rico. That way the balance isn’t changed?
I wonder if this H G Spafford, was the father of H G Spafford, who wrote "It is well with my soul?"
Sounds good to me. Call the break away counties Northeast California (the string of counties from Del Norte to Inyo). Add another state for Southeast California (San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Imperial Counties) and consider breaking NYC and Long Island into a separate state to go along with it.
California would then have 6 senators for some 30 million people, whereas we now have 2. Northern NY absent NYC/LI would be reliable Republican, and their senators would still represent rather more than most.
Of course the Dems in Sacramento CA like running the rest of the state, the graft is larger.
Conspiracy would require consultation with another over specific acts. Mere thoughts are insufficent. Don’t use a travel agent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4529829.stm
Ain’t gonna happen. The courts, like the other 2 branches, interpret the Constitution as it sees most beneficial.
They may, but the legal case is frightfully clear.
The borders of Yellowstone predate the state borders, and the state borders were not aligned with the park boundaries.
Since noone lives there, it doesn’t come up often.
Agree! Let them have their USSA, as long as they leave the rest of us out of it.
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