Because the looters and moochers in Washington have made a mockery of the Constitution, Professor Williams wonders whether the only solution is for advocates of limited government to split off and create an America based on traditional principles of self reliance and individual freedom:
I believe we are nearing a point where there are enough irreconcilable differences between those Americans who want to control other Americans and those Americans who want to be left alone that separation is the only peaceable alternative. Just as in a marriage, where vows are broken, our human rights protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them. The Democrat-controlled Washington is simply an escalation of a process that has been in full stride for at least two decades. There is no evidence that Americans who are responsible for and support constitutional abrogation have any intention of mending their ways. You say, “Williams, what do you mean by constitutional abrogation?” Let’s look at just some of the magnitude of the violations. Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution lists the activities for which Congress is authorized to tax and spend. Nowhere on that list is authority for Congress to tax and spend for: prescription drugs, Social Security, public education, farm subsidies, bank and business bailouts, food stamps and other activities that represent roughly two-thirds of the federal budget. Neither is there authority for congressional mandates to the states and people about how they may use their land, the speed at which they can drive, whether a library has wheelchair ramps and the gallons of water used per toilet flush. The list of congressional violations of both the letter and spirit of the Constitution is virtually without end. Our derelict Supreme Court has given Congress sanction to do anything upon which they can muster a majority vote. …Americans who wish to live free have several options. We can submit to those who have constitutional contempt and want to run our lives. We can resist, fight and risk bloodshed and death in an attempt to force America’s tyrants to respect our liberties and human rights. We can seek a peaceful resolution of our irreconcilable differences by separating. Some independence movements, such as our 1776 war with England and our 1861 War Between the States, have been violent, but they need not be. In 1905, Norway seceded from Sweden; Panama seceded from Columbia (1903), and West Virginia from Virginia (1863). Nonetheless, violent secession can lead to great friendships. England is probably our greatest ally.
[…] an ideal world, the central government would allow towns to formally secede, and those towns could then contract to have private management. But that’ll never happen […]
[…] as Walter Williams has explained, secession today may be an effective way of protecting liberty from ever-expanding centralized […]
[…] as Walter Williams points out, secession can be peaceful, such as when Norway left Sweden early last […]
[…] as Walter Williams points out, secession can be peaceful, such as when Norway left Sweden early last […]
[…] On a totally separate topic, it appears some towns in New York are listening to the sage advice of Walter Williams on the topic of […]
[…] On a totally separate topic, it appears some towns in New York are listening to the sage advice of Walter Williams on the topic of […]
The United States has changed….forever. I don’t think the country will break up based on ideology…it will break up because of economic collapse.
[…] Walter Williams has argued that the same thing should happen in America, with the pro-liberty parts of the nation seceding from the statist […]
Secession is a fabulous idea…and the ONLY way to return liberty to America! We are currently living under a large, centralized and increasingly oppressive government. Does anyone seriously think that 545 people can manage Trillions of dollars and 310 Million citizens and do more than give lip service to the Constitution? Those proportions are the very reason for America’s slip into collectivism.
The truth is that the rights of men pre-exist government, all political power belongs to the people, and that governments are instituted among men for their own benefit. Unless and until we recall those ancient truths, and soon, America will certainly slide into Reagan’s “1,000 years of darkness”. How could anyone think otherwise at this point? The national government has taken our right to travel unencumbered, our natural right to privacy, our right to trial by jury and to be charged and meet our accuser…do I need to go on? We now have fewer rights than men had under the Magna Carta!! Decentralization is the only way back. So let’s get it done!
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet racism). var AdBrite_Title_Color = 'FFFF66'; var […]
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet […]
The one thing I would have to comment on what Mr. William’s says is that though, yes, England is our greatest ally nowadays, that wasn’t necessarily the case until probably the late 19th century or 20th century. Even England was backing the South against the U.S. during the Civil War. It took a long time for those wounds from our 1776 secession to heal, almost a century. The same goes with the South and the Civil War. That relationship took quite a while to heal as well, if not close to a century as well. The point is, yes, even violent secession can lead to great friendships, as is evidence by England and the South, but it takes quite a while for the wounds of war and violence to heal and for that friendship between once enemies to start. Do people really think the Feds, Republicans or Democrats, would simply allow a portion of the country to peacefully secede without forcefully bringing them back in? I highly doubt it.
Maybe the limited governmentalists could pool their money together and buy part of Greenland and settle there, or claim part of Antarctica and begin a country there, or perhaps purchase an island in the South Pacific or something and live on that and ships around the island and begin a limited government nation. It seems Greenland an Antarctica are the only places left on earth to settle. After all, my ancestors left the United States for what was at one time Mexico, now Utah, an inhospitable place where no one wanted to live, because of religious oppression within the supposed land of the free and a refusal from the Fed. gov. to protect them in their constitutionally protected rights; they left the U.S. in order to practice their religion in peace and within their full rights. And that same government that refused to protect their First Amendment rights followed them into the wilderness and had the gall to ask them on their journey West out of the United States to send 500 men to go and fight for the Union Army against Mexico. And those Mormon men did. Why? Because they believed in America and its Constitution and the rights it protects, even though wicked men in government ignore that fundamental law and violate it and the people’s rights and wicked men in society elect those wicked men into governmental office. The system of government we have works wonderfully great when you have good, moral people in office, elected by a good, moral society, but not even the greatest designed government can protect people from wicked and oppressive officers of government who are elected by a degenerate, immoral, selfish, and dependent society that seems to be going downhill faster and faster by the year.
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet […]
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet […]
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet […]
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet […]
[…] in the United States, where the issue is linked to the ugliness of slavery (though at least Walter Williams can write about the issue without the risk of being accused of closet […]
[…] by Walter Williams (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), in large part because he’s so good at explaining economic concepts, […]
As you (Dan) point out so many times it’s the size of the federal budget that is driving the succession movement. People tolerated 19% federal government and now it’s just insane. 25% and growing.