On Secession and Secessionists

This Modern Secession Movement might become intriguing as more and more entities decide to press for secession from one another.

I'm told that there are now secession movements in all fifty states. But within the states, particularly Texas -- which got the ball rolling, after all, with some of the more intemperate statements of its brain-addled governor quite some time ago -- there have arisen plenty of internal secession movements seeking to withdraw this or that city from the grip of the Other Secessionists. Well now. What have we here?

For some time, I've been writing that the Problem With America is that it is too big. It's a Domestic  Imperial State where one really ought not to be. It's an anachronism built from the detritus of the British Empire, which itself was a criminal enterprise leading to untold suffering and misery around the world. Basically, as brilliant as many of the Founding Fathers were, their underlying premise was that they could do this Continental Imperial Project better than the British, and they wanted the power and authority to engage in it without interference from London. They were prepared to take that power from London and did so.

Their Original Sins, of course, were slavery and genocide, both necessary for the Imperial Project to succeed. The political efforts to curb the excesses of these sins led to the Civil War and a temporary break up of the Union to discover whether the future of America would be corporate-Imperial or plantation/mercantile-imperial. The corporate side won.

And here we are.

Of course it's not that simple, not at all, but the outline is strong, and the problem continues to be the fact that the country is a domestic Empire that's just too damn big. The solution is to break it up.

Ah. I can already hear the screams of Imperialists: "Balkanization!" Yes, well.

The United States is really an uncomfortable amalgam of a number of culture and geographic areas into an unwieldy and nigh on ungovernable mish-mash of a nation served by an ever more remote and disconnected national government and a descending series of ever more impoverished state and local governments.

Given my druthers, the rest of the country should secede from the Old South rather than the other way around, since the South really runs this pop stand and isn't about to let go of it any time soon. So, drop kick them. I'd go farther, though, and abolish the states as well, since they are all artificial creations with no natural existence either culturally or geographically at all.

Instead, what's now the United States should be divided into affinity/geographic regions, perhaps ten of them outside the Old South. Each independent. For a time I thought that there was some merit in preserving the national existence, but now I'm not so sure.

The idea of domestic empire has become an anachronism in any case.

It's time to ponder something else again.

A real secession movement would be founded outside the South and would have as its objective freeing the People from the illiberality of the Old South. Real secessionists would want to see the chains of the Old Southern mindset broken, and our governments liberated from control by Old Southern politicians and their cruelties.

I like the idea of turning the Modern Secession Movement inside out this way.

Heh.

Headline of the Day: "Now El Paso Wants Out of Texas"

The Modern Secession Movement which has been triggered by the re-election of The Kenyan Socialist Darky to the White House has led to plenty of ludicrosity, especially in Tejas next door where the crackers have gone crazier than usual.

Comes now a petition out of El Paso saying "let us out of Texas!" Apparently El Paso would re-up with New Mexico, which makes sense given that it is practically a suburb of Las Cruses as it is. There would still be the question of what to do with Ciudad Juarez, but that can be dealt with in due time.

Don't think, however, that New Mexico itself has escaped the Modern Secession Movement. Oh far from it. 

Even though, let's be clear, most of the signatures on the NM petition of secession are by out-of-state-ers. New Mexicans may be a cussed lot from time to time, but most of them know what side their bread is buttered on and are well aware that twice as much tax money flows into the state as its comparatively few residents send to Washington.

Were it not for all the military bases and installations and all the labs and university programs and all the other national funding that winds up here, it's hard to imagine that New Mexico would be anything but a very impoverished wilderness and frontier. New Mexicans by and large know this.

On the other hand, they mostly know how to live on the edge. For hundreds of years and perhaps for thousands of years before that, New Mexicans and their Pueblo Indian and other progenitors lived "poor." They had no choice. And they made the best of it -- in sometimes charming, sometimes astonishing ways. The Earth provides -- but rarely abundantly for those who live here.

Secession is seen by the wag-rocracy as more of a joke these days than it was prior to the Civil War. There's been more than a little sniggering over the Texas secession plea, to the tune of "LOL. Kthxbuhbai" and so forth.

The part of New Mexico where we live is often considered an outpost of West Texas, and during various periods, it was claimed by Texas (and periodically invaded.) Everything up to the Rio Grande was once declared Texan, but Texas could never make the claim stick. Instead, there's been a slow migration of Texans into the eastern half of the state, and I wouldn't be surprised if they make up a majority of the population these days.

Nevertheless, Tejanos though they may be, they become New Mexicans once they settle in, and I would bet that given their druthers many of those trapped in the sink-hole that is Texas would dearly love to be adopted by New Mexico. Heh.

New Mexico's current governor is called "Susana la Tejana" because she was born and raised in El Paso and is not of the Old Spanish Stock that has long been prominent in New Mexican politics. But from appearances she's adapted pretty well to New Mexico's customs and ways, to the point where she's almost liked -- despite the fact that she's both a Texan and a Republican.

For myself, I've often encouraged secessionists to do it. Please. Go.

Arizona Continues Seceding

And getting away with it, too.

Make no mistake. That's what the crazies are doing. Next up, denying citizenship to "anchor babies." Mm. Sounds like a plan. Thing of it is, there's this "Constitution" that says anyone born in the US is a citizen. It would take an amendment to change it; little pissant fucktard states like Arizona can't do it by themselves. But I'll bet that if an amendment were proposed, it would pass overwhelmingly in the Congress, and in state legislatures, just to calm the rabble.

So why don't the no-accounts in Arizona do that instead? Oh, easy: the state, run by clowns and conmen, is seceding. They don't care about your stupid Constitution -- not that anybody but purists and eccentrics do any more -- they want OUT.

They're gonna keep pulling this shit until somebody forces them to stop. And who is that going to be? The Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Goldman Sachs and BP in the White House?

Not likely.

As I mentioned in my previous post on the Oil Catastrophe, I'm not really into Doomblogging. But... there are signs that the strain the nation has been under at least since the lawless Supreme Court ruling which decided the election of 2000 is reaching the critical point.

Chaos up next?

Well, as they say, "Never let a good crisis go to waste!"

Batten down. It's gonna be a rough ride.

Arizona Secession

The State of Arizona is for all intents and purposes shutting down, and is in the slow motion process of seceding from the Union. This has been clear to me as I've traveled across the state numerous times over the last few years. In previous posts, I've noted that the Interstate 40 rest stops are closed, most of the state parks are closed, and the state is motivated to sell its state buildings to raise cash. In addition, Arizona recently passed an open concealed carry gun law that essentially removes any restriction on the acquisition and open carrying of concealed firearms anywhere in the state under any circumstances without a permit.

All that, followed by the recent "Show Your Papers or Go To Jail" law -- which ultimately may never go into force, but we'll see -- is a form of defiance that comes naturally to some Arizonans, but which flies in the face of a developing national conscience and consensus about some basic principles of living together in a civilized society.

Arizona dissents.

Says, "Fuck you." The State Motto.

The point here is that the old (white) farts that have proliferated there don't want to pay taxes, don't think they should have to, don't want to follow rules imposed on them, and they are refusing to conform to the developing basic rules of American society. They are declaring their Independence from a society, and ultimately from a country, they loathe and despise, and they are in essence defying anyone to do anything about it.

The precipitating cause is the Endless Recession that Arizonans have no easier way of escaping than anyone else, but perhaps the model is that Cranky Old "Get Off My Lawn" Man, Sen. McCain. Who does nothing much but crab, complain, fuss, and preen on the TeeVee whenever he gets the chance.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been flirting with the Secessionists since the election of that Colored Man to the Presidency. Of course many other Southerners like to toy with Secessionist hoo-hah; it's what they do. It's who they are. But what's going on in Arizona, while as White Supremacist as anything in Dixie, is not from that same animus. Instead, Arizonans are acting on their Old West cussedness. It's their animosity toward being told what to do, or being prevented from doing what they want. Cf: Old Man McCain.

They continue on this route, Arizona will indeed secede. Set itself up as an independent republic (of some sort). The Devil take the hindmost.

Contrast with New Mexico next door, where the Neo-Liberal government of Bill Richardson and the Democrats (Dems all the way down) has decided to "stay the course" as it were, by taxing the poor. Smart. Some budget cuts, program tweaking, hours reduced, etc. But most everything is still open, the Welcome mat is still out, and things are going on pretty much the way they always have, only now shoppers are paying a sales tax on food and cigarettes cost $7 a pack and so on.

The point being to raise the cost of living for those least able to afford it, and to do everything possible to ensure the continued comfort and convenience for the rich.

A Del Webb community has just opened in Bernalillo. The first and so far only in New Mexico. Arizona is creeping into New Mexico, and I wonder if the locals have any idea....