And there’s a part of me which says that any attempt at secession this time around would not see the same response as it did with Lincoln. I could easily see the Obama-style Democrat simply unable to make the decision to fight for the integrity of the country, as Lincoln perceived the battle, and by time a decision was made, those people in the free states would have already established their right to govern.
The other, darker part of me, could also easily see the Obama-style Democrat labeling any such an effort as a “terrorist” action and then launching a nuclear warhead towards any state capital which seeks that kind of autonomy. At that point, it’ll be a crap shoot whether or not the military will actually follow the order.
Another alternative is equally dark - secession becoming the threat that Lincoln and others warned about, with Balkanized enclaves everywhere, mayhem and fighting among states and quasi-state entities, and people seceeding from the original state and then people inside that group seceeding again. ACORN and the Black Panthers ruling Philadephia; the Chicago machine finally showing its Marxist colors; folks in the Dakotas living among heaps of rotting grain unable to get the food to market; the border with Mexico, in places unguarded, swarming with the Reconquista. Maybe Lincoln wasn’t so wrong after all.
I would like to see the Czechoslovakia plan, personally. The states gather. Your group goes one way; our group goes the other way; we sign an agreement and call it day. Let the left maintain their little kingdoms along the California coast and the Great Lakes and the Northeast, and allow those of us who want limited government and liberty to reform our nation from Alaska to Texas.
I guess we’ll just see. When I keep hearing the word “secession” over and over and over, something is going on.
I'll believe it when I see it. Americans did nothing when the National Firearms Act was passed. Veterans of WWI did nothing after the Bonus Army incident.
I'm a young guy, but all this talk seems to me to be chest beating. I'll only believe it when I see concrete action.
If Russia is any indication of what we might expect, one could anticipate a spike in organized crime rising up after the collapse.
The bloodshed would be like nothing we have ever seen.
Such a blow by the government would convince millions of us there would be no reason to live in such a society. Better to die fighting for something than to allow tyranny to enslave and crush our liberties.