2014-02-11

Secession Push Continues in Maryland

I don't think these people have any chance of forming a new state, but they're pushing on.

Some Western Md. Residents Want To Form Their Own State
“If your vote doesn’t count, it’s the same as having no vote. We’re not free,” Strzelczyk said. “We’re doing exactly what they did in 1776. I just simply want to live as a free human being with limited government intrusion in my life and that’s really why I do this.”

They claim Maryland’s lawmakers don’t listen to their concerns so they want to form a state more in sync with their beliefs.

“I’ve gone down to Annapolis. I’ve complained; I’ve been in rallies,” said Parr. “It all falls on deaf ears.”

“The attitude is sit down, shut up, we don’t care what you think,” said Olden.

“We are enslaved to this government in Maryland that we want nothing to do with. All we simply want to do is peacefully leave,” Strzelczyk said.
One cannot argue with the logic of it. The American system is designed to be decentralized; the reason for leaving England was for these very reasons. The Civil War did not settle the issue of secession (as some try to argue), it only showed that sometimes one side can use violence to compel the other to live under its rules. The ideas behind America's founding, found at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

How long will social mood remain in a primary negative trend? This is the big question. If negative mood bottoms out in the next 10 years or so (or has already hit bottom), this will likely go down as a period like the 1970s, only longer. If instead 2000 was a grand supercycle top and social mood will fall for years and hit a much lower bottom, then the odds of a significant political event increases greatly. There are secession movements in Arizona, Colorado, California, Maryland and Michigan, not to mention existing/former movements in Vermont and New York. While the secession movement appears to be mostly driven from the right, it is a non-ideological issue. If enough Democrats and Republicans decide it makes more sense to separate into new political arrangements, they can agree on this issue even if they disagree on everything else.

States should be allowed to re-form: see if it makes sense for Western Maryland to merge into Pennsylvania, or for Northern California to join Oregon, since creating new and very small states is unlikely. If Western Marlyand can become a separate state, any city with population of a few hundred thousand could declare itself a state and I see no desire on the part of the government to allow hundreds of states. If instead they cannot become a state, and cannot join with other states, then the secession movement will have to look for political allies. Right now, there seems to be no coordination between all of these movements, but that can change. Once a national secession movement begins, it can move in lots of directions because at that point, some states may decide that leaving the United States is a viable option.

While this may all sound like far off speculation (and it is today), the key to remember is what happens as social mood declines. Ten to fifteen years from now, the U.S. economy could be in dire straits, with high taxes needed to finance the debt and probably a foreign war. The burden of union would be very great and the hatred between left and right will have grown far more intense. The conservative (non-political meaning) first step is to alleviate the desire to secede, as Giuliani did with Staten Island in 1993. The next best step is to allow some limited form of secession, such as joining another existing political unit. Ignoring the problem and dismissing it as not worth worrying about is to gamble that social mood will not decline.

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