Given my complete lack of enthusiasm for pretty much everything going on in Washington today or emanating from it, especially the usurpation of our rights and, oh yeah, that war, I wonder if these guys are on to something. Game reset time?
The Once and Future Republic of Vermont
The winds of secession are blowing in the Green Mountain State.
Vermont was once an independent republic, and it can be one again. We think the time to make that happen is now. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. government has grown too big, too corrupt and too aggressive toward the world, toward its own citizens and toward local democratic institutions. It has abandoned the democratic vision of its founders and eroded Americans’ fundamental freedoms.
Vermont did not join the Union to become part of an empire.
Some of us therefore seek permission to leave.
Here’s a website devoted to the concept of secession.
“Whenever government becomes destructive of these ends (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness), it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.”
Declaration of Independence of the American Colonies, 1776
#30. I guess my disagreement with the thesis of Nemesis comes down to what he means by “very long” in this paragraph:
“The thesis of the book is that no country, including the US, can sustain imperialism abroad and democracy domestically for very long. Either the country has to abandon its empire, like Britain did, or abandon its democracy, like Rome did.”
Lets be conservative and say that the UK had an empire (including Ireland) for, say, 300 years, calling it quits when it gave up the jewel in the crown, India, in 1948. And lets accept a 3rd World critique and say that US imperialism began at the turn of the 20th Century with the acquisition of the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, etc.
Following the British model, we got 200 years left to go. And keep in mind that the Brits did not give up their empire to save democracy at home, rather it was from sheer exhaustion – after the exertions of WW2, it simply no longer could put forth the effort to maintain a global empire. The US has a LOT more resources than the UK ever did.
If representative government (in one form or another) can be maintained for roughly 300 years while also holding an Empire, does that really mean that imperialism and democracy are incompatible?
Ah… 24-hour-a-day ESPN is what prevents the Sheeple with Guns from seceeding.
You’re brilliant, Rob.
26, Pmitchell, yes, you can watch the thing pump oil out of the ground while you shop. Earthquakes in CA, t-storms and tornadoes in tornado alley and hurricanes along the Atlantic and gulf coast. If we seceded, we wouldn’t have to deal with FEMA…. Re:Midland Odessa, only time I’ve ever seen a pro baseball game called due to sandstorm. Looked just like that that recent youtube sandstorm video in Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJ5J3nZfnY&NR
BubbaRay,
Where is that picture of the well??? I made a drive from Dallas to Marfa between Christmas and New Years (with my fiancee and the dog) and thank the lord for that Starbucks as we went 6 hours on I-20 with nary a one…
[off topic] 35, ethanol, the oil well is in the parking lot of the mall at the northwest corner of 191 and Parkway, Odessa, TX. If you have Google Earth, you can see it as the large sand-colored patch in the southeast section of the parking lot at coords. 31 53 40.19 N, 102 20 11.86 W. Next time I’m out there, I’ll post a link to a pic.
Now all we need is a micro-refinery on the spot and we can top up the tank right there. 🙂
I’ve always wondered why petrol is more expensive where they pump it out of the ground. It’s usually $0.10 more per gallon in Midland Odessa than in Dallas.
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#37: No need to YELL.
#37 – Thanks for the link.
You might also look into http://www.unity08.com/
#38 – I respectfully disagree. If you’re not pissed off, you aren’t paying attention. We as a nation are in big trouble.
30 – California is a net revenue loser to the federal government. In fact, there is a large element of truth to the “red state, blue state” business about the red states being a drain on the rest of the country. See http://tinyurl.com/4g5dj for a fairly even-handed analysis based on the feds’ own figures.
Bottom line: California (and a lot of the other blue states) could not only pay their own way, they’d have a built-in surplus doing it.
Sure, secession is a viable option under certain circumstances. You just have to look at the former USSR. Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Moldova all seceded from the USSR without firing a shot.
Of course, the secession had to coincide with the USSR going bankrupt and having absolutely no way to prevent it. It would never have happened under Stalin, that is for damn sure.
Secession is only possible when there is a lack of will or power to prevent it. If you want your state to secede from the union, you will likely have to wait until the U.S. economy implodes (which hopefully won’t happen anytime soon but you never know).
If the U.S. did collapse and fracture into its component States, the only superpower left would be China, with Russia running a possible second. I, for one, don’t want to see Communist China ruling the world. Maybe this is what Josh Whedon is predicting in his Firefly series where everyone’s second language is Chinese.
I find it interesting that every State that joined the Union after the Civil War has been on land that the US either conquered, annexed, purchased, acquired through treaty, or seceded from Mexico. If you had a nation of your own, would you want to join the US today?
The problem would be to get all the people who are supporting all that stuff going on in Washington to move there.