Commentary: Obamacare and Coming Secession

WGMD.com ^ | 6-28-2012 | Bill Colley WGMD Host

[RKBA Democrat]

One of the regular callers to my local weekday radio show has been telling me for years the answer to my country’s woes is secession. He makes liberals foam at the mouth but if you take a moment to read a few more paragraphs you’ll see “Rick from Lewes” may be ahead of the curve.

Syria being the possible exception this has been a great week for totalitarians. In Washington and elsewhere across the United States the liberals claim they’ve been vindicated and are planning to chair John Roberts across Capitol Hill. When I was a teenager my Grandmother Colley handed me an old worn book. A History of Pyrrhus was the title and it was a surprisingly good read. It’s also why, unlike the lefties I don’t need to look up the meaning of Pyrrhic Victory.

While “Remember Obamacare” may not have the same ring as some historic rallying cries I see tremendous opportunity for liberty loving people and the candidates seeking their votes. Every candidate for House, Senate and President opposed to the march of big government can now attach Obamacare to a weak economy and that’s the positive side of today’s ruling. There’s also a darker outcome increasingly on the horizon and it’s secession.

I think you’re going to be hearing more people in polite society raising the possibility of going our own way. Do you think there are now more fellow American citizens in Arizona this week considering the meaning of sovereignty?

Some months ago I was watching MSDNC (for research purposes) and Eugene “Marvin the Martian” Robinson of the Washington Post was telling his host the question of state sovereignty had been answered during the Civil War. Really? The war didn’t end when one side raised the white flag and admitted the other had a more valid constitutional argument. It ended when one hungry side grew weary of bleeding. One member of my radio audience this week explained liberals traditionally support the secession of portions of states. West Virginia split from a larger unit during the Civil War and when the shooting stopped and the smoke cleared it never re-entered Richmond’s orbit.

There are a great many more reasons the word secession will gain more currency in political conversation. One of Eugene Robinson’s fellow columnists at the Post is writing about an economic stagnation lasting for generations. Robert Samuelson is neither conservative nor liberal according to his colleagues. He writes simply about dollars and cents and Monday argued the world and its competing nations must blaze a new economic path because as we’ve learned domestically consumer spending as an engine of growth has limits. Such as when indebted consumers can no longer spend.

Samuelson didn’t offer a solution for an obvious diagnosis. He isn’t an alarmist but you don’t need to be a PhD in economics to imagine life could become a serious struggle even for the traditionally comfortable of the Western World. A couple of summers ago the economist Robert Prechter writing a guest commentary for the New York Times predicted the worst economic downturn in three hundred years. Months later I saw him on television and he backed away from his warning. Then this past spring he came full circle, predicting a “deflationary implosion” that would rattle the globe.

Even the most brain-addled liberal understands governments can’t coerce without revenue. See Greece, Spain and California. Eventually the police and jailers don’t get paid and they join the looting and burning. Obamacare isn’t going to break the bank. It was broken a long time ago. The weight of Obamacare and other government programs supported by borrowing and taxing are going to implode the United States. Taxpayers in some states are going to rebel when told they need to pay for bad governance in the Northeast and California. Throughout the Southwest this will be coupled with anger at supporting Central and South Americans running roughshod across borders. When Texas and the Rocky Mountain States secede the federal government won’t have the resources to stamp out the rebellion.

“Rick from Lewes” isn’t just a guy off the streets. He was an assistant at the U.S. Justice Department. Rick worked for Robert Bork. Rick argues the liberals will rejoice as the red states go their own way. It means the left can consolidate power in the remaining Decrepit States of America. Eventually the leftist empire will collapse and the walls will fall and there will be a new dawn for a liberty loving USA. But for a Justice Bork this week.

[central_va]

Israel, the size of NJ with zero resources, “goes it alone”.

[Oklahoma]

The states calling for the constitutional convention can limit the agenda at the convention in the enabling legislation. For example a preset list of proposed amendments would only be considered. For that we would need a certain amount of pre-planning and coordination among the probably Republican controlled legislatures calling for the convention.

[robowombat]

Unfortunately the left does have a big appetite for violence if they can get someone like BATF thugs to perpetrate it. A visit to various leftist web sites including DU is quite an educational experience. The left literally has a visceral generalized hatred of middle class white Red state voters. They would certainly like to kill a lot of them and destroy as much of middle class America as possible. There are plenty of people who have an ‘orders are orders’ mentality in the military and there are quite a few leftist statists among the minority officers. I have heard black USAF officers describe how they would like to air raid and bomb Columbia SC when the SC government kept flying the CSA battle flag from the Statehouse. A major unstated, but to me obvious, reason for ending DADT, demands for women to be integrated into combat units and the USAF purge of openly evangelical faith is to create a more PC military that will consist of a lot of dependent class types and various fringe characters with a generalized dislike for America that will be willing to follow careerists conscienceless leaders to turn their weapons on the American people.

Texas would have the best change of an independent existence. It has oil to back up any currency and a strong sense of cultural and political identity. However, this is likely to be the last election the GOP will win easily in Texas. The advance of Hispanic identity politics casts a pall over that state. Witness Perry stupid remarks on immigration. Also note the type of people who are the mayors of cities such as Dallas and Houston. The liberal rot is spreading within every state with any significant ‘diversity’ population.

[rurgan]

Yes we need the states to secede.

[RKBA Democrat]

I actually think that the GOP will be the bigger problem in a secession scenario. TX has 38 electoral votes. If those were to go away, it would mean permanent minority status for the GOP.

[longtermmemmory]

that is garbage.

succession was settled during the civil war. The need is to purge the unelected and the socialist/communists who use the law to destroy the law.

(ie use freedom of speech to silence opposition)

This is no different than shutting those down who only seek “peaceful coexistance” or “room to grow”.

[central_va]

The real lesson of the Civil War seems to be lost on everyone. The real lesson to learn from the Civil War is that 11 states completed disassociated from the Federal Govt. and created a new central govt. in 4 weeks, from scratch. This was done during the age of the telegraph while being invaded at the same time. FedGov™ power is an illusion and paper thin.

[DelaWhere]

"I don’t think Federal Troops would attack fellow Americans. But you can be sure they’d be ordered to if any state attempted to seceded."

I really hope you are correct - but I keep thinking about the Civil War... They did then - do you really think people are any different today?

[OldPossum]

Thanks for your thoughts in posts 36 and 37.

Your view of the Hispanics in Texas is along the lines that I, a non-Texan, see them, pretty much a passive section of the population not prone to do anything along the lines of really activating what our Founders had in mind when they inserted the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.

It’s just that I see them as an impediment to those in Texas who believe in States rights, which I agree with you can now only come about by a Constitutional Convention. I see Texas as leading the way with such a convention.

Like you, I hope that we can settle this situation by the democratic process, i.e., vote out the Democrats and vote in activist Republicans who can restore the kind of government we once enjoyed.

Yes, I know that “activist” and “Republican” is a strange combination of words in the same sentence but miracles do happen.

[untwist]

For me the issue is what is happening at the state level. States will have to decide what is best for their futures. Many states suffer from unfunded mandates and already find the federal tax buden is unsustainable. High-employment states, like those in the South are carrying the load for more liberal states.

Taking the producing states and their tax revenues away only worsen the burden for the more dependent states. It forces the other states to make very big decisions to go Left or Right.

[RKBA Democrat]

I would prefer to see a CC as well and think that’s a strategy that should be concurrently pursued. The problem, though, is getting enough states to call for one. The plain truth is that several states are pleased as can be to see aca upheld and have no problem with increased taxes or governmental control. So NY, IL, CA, etc are going to call for a CC? Really?

Another possibility is having a state or states negotiate to remain within the Federal construct but with a different or more autonomous status such as Puerto Rico or Guam.

[longtermmemmory]

we have this now because the federal coersion used in the past and in the present has been removed.

no more extortion to provide unfunded mandates.

The blue state budgets are screwed.

27 states sued to fight the medicade freebie expansion.

NYstate is so desperate they are advertising. You can’t watch the ad without laughing out loud.

[RKBA Democrat]

The primary lesson of the CW was that might makes right. It also confirmed that stupid leaders who secede and then start a war against a bigger adversary will most likely get stomped in the process.

The constitution was never explicitly changed to address the issue of secesssion one way or the other. You’d think that if the intent was to never allow for it, then the constitution would have been amended after the CW.

[longtermmemmory]

there was no interconnection then as now.

The ecconomy was agrarian.

You also had that whole slavery issue.

Now we have enclaves of leftists aka northern cities.

isolate the cities and you cut the head of the hydra.

NYC should NOT be the center of the news cycle.

look at the county by county conservative liberal. Isolate the cities and the zombies are just one mean from panic.

Just look at them now in this storm follow up. They are moaning for the government to bring them food.

[MrB]

“Rick argues the liberals will rejoice as the red states go their own way.”

---

Then Rick doesn’t understand liberals in the least. There’s no way they let any people out from under their thumb, peaceably at least. It’s inherent in their worldview that they have to control people, limit their freedom, and impose their will on others, ESPECIALLY those who disagree with them.

[winodog]

Most all discussion is centered around the States but it is more of a rural against city battle. Huge parts of almost all states want nothing to do with the city progressives.

The military will wind up being the same. They may have most the military on their side or unable to operate however many units will fight for the rurals

[precisionshootist]

Not really. Obama and the libs only really have the numbers in the halls of congress. They are the ones that prevent modifications like a balanced budget amendment by blocking it. When it comes to the states and the will of the people they simply don't have the numbers to stop passage.

The purpose of the CC is to propose amendments (limiting government in this case, which will come from the red states) but then the amendments will need to be ratified by the states. Because they must be ratified by the states we really have little to fear from the libs. Most of the country is still solidly in the red and with recent shenanigans some formerly blue states are beginning to come over to our side. So bottom line even if the left were to get some radical amendment proposed (which they don't have the numbers to do) the states would never vote to ratify it.

This is the cliff notes version of how a CC works. Here is a link to great information on how to amend the constitution by convention. It's at the Goldwater Institute. Download the .pdf. I promise you will not be able to stop reading as it's very interesting.

Here is a link. This is just a summary. The actual report is a pdf. If you read it let me know what you think!

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/amending-constitution-convention-complete-view-founders-plan-part-1-series

[Brilliant]

“You can’t watch the ad without laughing out loud.”

Very true. It seems like it would be counterproductive. Basically, they are admitting that even they know they have a reputation for being anti-business to a point where they can’t ignore it and need to try to convince you that you are wrong in your assessment.

[x]

“A free Republic of Texas...” Would be the 8th- or 10-largest economy in the world, IIRC...

Would be the 8th- or 10th- richest state in Mexico ...

[x]

Below is the secession map the Left proposed when John Kerry was defeated in 2004. We are two culturally different peoples, and our cultures are not compatible. A friendly divorce will be best for everyone.

"Jesusland" and "The United States of Canada"? That may be one culture, or four or five or six or eight or ten cultures, but they aren't two cultures. I don't see either half staying together very long.