Roll Call

So we all know about the secession petitions by now. Personally, I think they're mostly just blowing off post-election loss steam. More a means of registering dissatisfaction and "no confidence" than any meaningful petition. Leftists caterwauled about going to Canada in '04, conservatives about secession in '08 and '12. Is what it is.

So, whatever the merits and costs of secession (I'm a fan, personally - but then I grew up in Dixie, so take that for what it's worth.) - it's not something that's seriously on the table now, and I think even those of us who'd go for it know that. At this point in history, it's just a juicy non-story for a slow news day.

HOWEVER -  among some fairly big names in the punditry circles, this last week or so has started to see words to the effect of "what kind of idiot signs their name on something like that on the WHITE HOUSE website?"

... which honestly, I find pretty darned disappointing.

If you're going to argue against signing a petition, argue the merits of the petition.


Now secession is a good idea, or it is a bad idea. It sure as heck has its down sides, no matter what your opinion of the Late Unpleasantness, and what it did or did not settle.

Madison had quite a bit to say about the dangers to liberty small states can present to their minorities if un-moored from the larger body. More, a fractured America simply can't provide the bulwark against a coalescing sharia-minded Caliphate or third generation Chi-Com expansion that the whole 50 stars working together can. A broken American Union makes the world a much, much more dangerous place.

So secession is not a simple, costless, or light decision.

HOWEVER - if your reason for not signing your name to a petition is because you're afraid of getting put on a list, then you are acting the part of a coward.


By all means, if you in your soul disagree with a petition, don't sign the darned thing.

But if you DO agree, and you still don't sign? You spit in the eye of our ancestors that were willing to sign a treasonous document to publicly pledge their support for liberty, and back that pledge with their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

Liberty comes when the people who want it are willing to stand for it, lists be damned. And I'll be a citizen of an American Republic, but I won't be property of an technocratic empire.

So here's how it goes.

I want liberty. I want very low taxes, no to little "help" from my state, federal, or local government, and most of all for all the little tinpot tyrant Bloombergs to keep their mother-may-I nanny-state hands off my family.

Now, I'd prefer to get that from 10th Amendment federalism. That way we can all get what we want - Massachusetts can tax like crazy and mandate cat leash laws, Oregon can hand out tax-subsidized pot, and California can start raiding late dirty-old-man period Heinlein novels for a marriage code. Meanwhile we'll find a nice red state nearby to cling to our guns and religion in.

If the Japs knock on our harbor doors, we can all join hands long enough to kick 'em out of our corner of the swimming pool, and then get back to leaving each other the heck alone. That's the world I want to see. Nice, peaceful, easy.

If that's not an option though - if there's no way to vote ourselves out of an ever tightening net of taxes and regulation, then heck yes I'll back partitioning the United States if that's what it takes. Up to and including all the fallout of the last secession.

... even if we lose.


Now, sometime soon I'll talk about why I think even a losing battle is worth the fight. But for now-
lists only have power when people are afraid to be put on 'em.

So put me on the damned list.

Jennifer Sims
Arlington, Massachusetts
Freakin' AMERICAN