Do national ambitions negatively affect State officials?
In the wonderful discussion we had with Daniel Miller, the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement on Liberty Block’s EJS podcast (December 30, 2020), every question posed to him was answered to my satisfaction. One of his assertions may not have gotten the attention it should have, though. Mr. Miller mentioned that almost all State politicians, whether Representatives, Senators or even the Governor have “higher” ambitions, i.e., they all eventually want to be Congressmen, U.S. Senators or the President of the United States. Secession would take away this ambition and with it the negative influence this ambition has on the health of a State.
As long as a politician seeks “higher” office, his/her eyes will not be primarily focused on the health and welfare of their own State, nor on that of its citizens. It will almost always be tempered by “what will the national media say about me?” and “what will the leaders of my Party think about me?”. Considering how difficult it is to attain national office without the help of Party leaders (financially and otherwise), it is not realistic to expect any politician to not always bear this in mind when considering any laws or issue in their own State. We have seen this in nearly 100% of cases, with even our own team members experiencing this when being involved in local elections.
Would you want to be married to someone who spends more time looking at other potential partners than they do looking at you?
So, in essence, the growing power of the Federal Government, way beyond what it was designed to be, has changed the relationship of State officials to their own citizens. Other than this power somehow devolving back to the States, secession seems to be the only way to change this.This is not to say that secession does not have many more advantages for citizens of a State, just to point out how the changing dynamic between the Federal Government and those of individual States has made it almost impossible for State officials to concern themselves only with State issues. Simply put, if you want your state government to be most concerned with your State, you should support secession. Adding to this is the 17th Amendment, whereby concern with only one’s State is no longer a promising path to being elected as a U.S. Senator by one’s State and the reality is now totally different. At least when U.S. senators were elected by State Legislatures, loyalty to one’s State would have had to have been much greater.
