The Beginning of a New Secession?

Slavery and Civil War

Measuring the significance of current events is a perplexing task. Media "headline-ism" and rampant sensationalism do not help at all. The histrionic pronouncement of an apocalypse every day is little short of obscurantism.

So, we have found a deep internal well of scepticism bubbling up when we have heard pronouncements of a global economic apocalypse. But when we consider the implications of the graphic below we wonder whether in the medium term things will indeed be very difficult. The strains upon the US body politic will likely be considerable.

Forecast US Federal Deficit

(Hat Tip: Fairfacts Media)

We recently saw a Democratic strategist being interviewed on Fox. When asked about the size of the deficit, her defence was that the deficit was an unfortunate by-product of the cost of doing all the things which the Obama administration promised to do (and some more besides, we may add). In other words, the huge deficit spending is part of the collateral damage of achieving Democratic goals.

When pressed on the huge burden the government will be putting on future generations, the regime apologist just shrugged and said that they had no choice but to take on that level of debt. Democratic socialism has its price, and it must be paid.

We have blogged earlier on how, over the longer term, the borrower always becomes the lender's slave. The US is clearly going to wane as a world power; its place will be taken by other nations. We are indeed entering a different world order.

Now something else has emerged in the US which gives us pause.

WAKE UP CALL: TEXAS GOV. BACK RESOLUTION AFFIRMING SOVEREIGNTY
Tue Apr 14 2009 08:44:54 ET

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”

Perry continued: "Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas."

A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.

It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.

Hat Tip: Drudge Report

Resolutions affirming state sovereignty over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government certainly have strong constitutional warrant. Depending on how the Federal Government responds, this could be a first step towards secession on the part of some states. It was the secession of states, you recall, which led to the Civil War. Impossible in the modern world? Nothing is beyond the pale. We should not discount the possibility.

If the Obama administration were to bring an iron fist out of the velvet glove, all bets would be off. Would there not be an irony in this? Obama, like Lincoln before him, a president from Illinois, prepared to use force to "preserve the Union." Last time the casus belli was the abolition of slavery--the Union denying the state's rights to protect slavery within their jurisdictions.

This time the casus belli would be the Federal government's promulgation of slavery--the Federal Government enslaving its people by huge mountains of government debt and the Federal controls which go with it. This time it would be the seceding states standing up against the Union for abolition of slavery (albeit of the debt-based kind).

It will become more serious if Texas is joined by other states in asserting state sovereignty.