Why states' rights and secession still make sense
And why secession is making even more sense every day:
If divorce is considered preferable to a marriage that can't be fixed, might not divorce also be preferable to a political union that has failed as well? The Jeffersonian, decentralist philosophy and all-American radicalism I embraced fully in my youth makes even more sense today than in 1999. Whether revisiting states' rights or going the route of full-blown secession, it would be far more logical to allow the many, very different parts of this country to pursue their own visions than to keep pretending we are all looking through the same lens. And looking back on my own past, I am reminded that any future South worth avenging would do well to revisit its own radical heritage — so that the principles of limited government might rise again.
Welcome to the future.
posted by Old Rebel @ Friday, September 25, 2009
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2 Comments:
I know this might sound picky, but I don't like the metaphor of a divorce for secession. I've seen it come up a couple of times now.
A pro-secession traditionalists like myself is also more likely to believe in the indissolubility of marriage. St. Paul likens the union between husband and wife to that between Christ and his Church. Therefore, marriage cannot be dissolved (although I know Christians disagree on this to some extent).
To liken the union between the states to marriage on this understanding is to attribute a kind of "metaphysical" nature to the federal government. It's closer to Lincoln's conception of the mysterious "Union" that pre-existed even the Articles of Confederation, which he refers to in his First Inaugural Address.
Using the "marriage" between the states metaphor concedes too much to Lincoln. In addition, we now have to advocate a metaphorical "divorce", which is not something I would advocate in a marriage situation.
Let's scrap the marriage analogy and replace something that more accurately reflects the increasingly artificial nature of the "union" between the states.
Any suggestions?
Unfulfilled exodus.
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