Rumblings about secession have been coming from California since the election of Donald Trump.
I don’t blame them. Who wants that lunatic to head up their government? Well, apparently half of the voting public of the United States does.
All my life I’ve been pumped full of propaganda stating that the only reason any State would want to secede from the US is because the State is full of racists. No one rings that bell when California wants to secede. It seems that maybe there really are legitimate differences in the attitudes of different States, and those differences are not limited to racism.
Californians want legal pot, they want legal abortions, and they want safety nets. Good for them.
Texans want low taxes, extremely restrictive access to abortion, and very few business regulations. Good for them.
What’s wrong with different states having different attitudes and different laws? If you live in Texas, but identify with Californian attitudes, move to California. If you live in California, but identify with Texas attitudes, move to Texas.
The United States has the potential to live up to its name. We can be 50 States (and several territories) all United for the common good. But the common good is not fulfilled when the interests of one group trounces the interests of another group.
The Bill of Rights outlines the individual liberties that all States must respect. As long as the States do not infringe on those liberties, they’ve got a pretty free hand to run themselves more or less as they please. But when the federal government insist that every state behave just like every other, we have all lost our liberty to tyranny.
If the States would constrain the federal government to its Constitutionally authorized powers, all Americans could live with the Liberty and Justice for All that the Pledge of Allegiance claims we have. If the States United will not constrain the federal government, those States who believe in individual liberty have only secession as a last alternative.
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