The Path to Secession

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The Path to Secession
By Frank Speiser
March 2009

The time has come to speak clearly.

Plainly.

Honestly.

Let us realize and confront the circumstances and times in which we now find ourselves.

Can anyone reading this feel as though they are adequately represented in the House or Senate?

Does your Senator or Congressman listen to your concerns and represent your state or district when your life's work, savings and earnings are being carved up by those you do not and cannot elect?

Can you “petition your government for a redress of grievances ”, as specified in the very kernel of our founding ideals?

What was once a federal government is now a national government. The difference between the two was once commonly understood. Our country's concept of local representation, formed in order to protect the competing interests that are inherent in a large federation of people, is now gone.

James Madison warned us, even explicitly in The Federalist Papers #10. Alexis de Tocqueville saw this, as well. Factions are dangerous if not checked by moral integrity and respect for personal liberties.

Today, our purported leadership has not only chosen to be blissfully unaware of the necessary and successful ingredients for large and diverse groups of people to co-operate - they have opted to devolve into a war bracket of competing factions for their own political gain. This is unacceptable to anyone wishing to pursue our hallowed ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Politicians are in large part a Machiavellian lot. They operate on zero-sum assumptions. If someone is to benefit, someone must lose. When choosing which course of action to take, these types of people understand that it is only prudent to act when the cost of action is less than the cost of inaction. The factions fighting within this framework insulate the very few who benefit from this spiral of conflict.

We, the remaining patriots steadfast in our ideals of individual liberty and property rights, have been burdened with the responsibility to provide the “cost incentive” necessary for political action. There is little to lose for those of us that comprise the general citizenry. Confiscation is planned and new designs for encroachment are being made each day.

We needn’t be aggressive, nor initiate aggression. In fact, that would be philosophically untenable and morally corrupt. We need only assert our natural right of self-ownership. Our cost of inaction is to watch idly as the embers of individual life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are snuffed out to a round of celebratory applause. I, speaking for only myself, find this unacceptable.

We (those of us that may agree with me) seek only peace and absence of tyrannical interference. Most of us can agree that a step closer to this, is a step in the right direction. However, those of us that have hoped to remain politically disengaged while we focus on important issues like family and prosperity have been squarely targeted. It is now time to act, or it is clear that our actions will become increasingly directed and planned.

We should follow the only path that has been tested and proven to yield a peaceful and co-operative society. If we’re being true to our ideals, we owe this to ourselves, and even those misguided enough to try to rule us by force. We need to assert our right to self-government.

We need to assert our natural right of peaceful secession.

Our path may be a bit more complex than our forefathers, tactically. However, there is hope. It may be true that you can’t fight city hall – but you can have city halls fight each other.

There seems to be no local representation for us. Therefore, we should secede from our counties and states. Why pay state taxes, property taxes or sales tax if the money is just passed up the chain to the federal government and doled out according to a philosophy of confiscation? Why do we allow those in the states to represent us?

We should send a message that if you – the state and local representatives – will not represent us, we will secede and cease to pay taxes that only go to the federal government anyway. Let’s just cut out the middle man and pay only our federal burden. To many of us, this will result in some much-needed discretionary income that we may retain.

If the states will not represent us as designed, they should not see a dime of our tax dollars. The same goes for our municipalities and counties. You can see this sentiment starting to bubble in places like Oklahoma, with opposition to the REAL-ID bill and in New Hampshire with state resolution HCR-0006.

Of course, we do not seek to empower a monolithic and all-powerful federal government. The way districts and voting blocs are configured, very few states have the incentive or mechanics to secede and those in power have little impetus to act. Let’s give it to them. If your representatives will not protect your interests, then they do not deserve the support of their productive class. We do not need our states to join us. We only need those areas with concentrated productivity and income to assert their right to the fruits of their labor.

Let the state governors realize that they will see no tax revenue from us until they represent us, and stop the savage confiscation that has been building for more than a century. It is only becoming more efficient and is accelerating rapidly. Local representation is critical, and if it is absent, it should not be rewarded.

We can secede, and we should offer to do it peacefully. There should be no violent repercussions for our wanting to retain the fruits of our labor. The states, counties and municipalities should either pass legislation making the confiscation and re-distribution of our wealth illegal – and do what they are empowered by our specific enumerations – or step out of the way and understand they will not see a dime. As our production is no longer accessible to them, their power will wane. Even if our initial attempts are not successful any politician can see how this will erode their means to advancement.

Let the governors of our states represent us, or we will rescind our permission tentatively granted for them to do so. Now!

It is time to start our work on secession. We need to assert our right to self-ownership, reclaim our right of self-determination and demand representation, or agree that we will withdraw and represent ourselves in the face of federal encroachment. It will surely yield more advances in liberty than the current broken structure. The few good men and women that are elected to do this and would like to hold true to our word, need this kind of leverage to begin to yield a constitutional imperative.

Represent us, or represent the federal apparatus. Either way, we’re giving notice that we have had enough, and from here on out, the true patriots will not yield in their pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, nor will we shrink from the service in protecting these individual ideals.