From an early age, American children are inaccurately taught that the United States of America is one big, happy nation and that keeping the union together is the ultimate American priority. Many teachers impress upon children the idea that, while individual states retain their own identities, cultures, laws, accents, industries, and appearances, those differences comprise the diversity that makes America so strong. As children grow up and turn into voters, they often rationalize the relatively futile practice of voting against perpetual opposition by insisting that ‘in THIS election, we just need to elect the right people to represent us in DC, and then we can really fix this nation!’ Ironically, most Americans would probably agree that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
Though the United States is actually a federation of many different peoples, norms, and cultures, the education that children in the US receive is controlled by one central government. This government trains students to be obedient (and even to love, respect, and defend) the government while neglecting to teach them about the merits of independence, individualism, personal liberty, skepticism, and decentralization.
One of the greatest grievances one can have against the government’s education system may be their neglecting to teach children that ‘State’ is and always has been a synonym with ‘Country’. Nearly every American adult to whom I’ve mentioned this was shocked to hear it. While it may seem like irrelevant semantics to some, this distinction is extremely important. The founders created the US Constitution with careful deliberation, debate, and foresight, and the document created a very weak, small central government, with the intent that each State would continue to govern itself in almost every aspect of life.
The US government was hardly even supposed to be a government, rather it was formed as a weak union among all of the states, essentially for the purposes of having generals who could lead one US military and arbiters who could settle disputes regarding interstate trade. The US government has grown to become much more than a weak union; it is now an omnipotent monstrosity that creates billions of laws, collects $4 trillion and spends $5 trillion a year, and employs millions of agents who further abuse Americans.
Related article: The Non-Representative Republic
How do individual Americans feel about the central government?
Let’s review the basics of civics for those who are not yet familiar with the US governmental structure. The central government is comprised of:
The Executive branch, which includes the president, his cabinet, and most of the 400+ federal agencies.
The Legislative branch (Congress), which includes the US House and US Senate. The House is comprised of 435 Representatives who are elected by districts in each State depending on the population. The Senate is comprised of 2 Senators from each State.
The Judicial branch, which is comprised of the Supreme Court and all federal courts.
The US House and Senate are thought by naive voters to represent the American people extremely well. Elections seem much better in theory than their results ever seem to be, though. Would you believe that nearly every American hates Congress? The US House elects a Speaker, who controls the House. ‘Americans’ hate her, and they always seem to hate the Speaker. The US Senate’s majority and minority parties (currently Republicans and Democrats) each elect a leader. The two current leaders – McConnell and Schumer – are hated by nearly every human in ‘America’. The president always seems to be hated by Americans, and even their general election opponent seems to be hated by their own party!
In a randomized, scientific poll of 134,000 Americans, Civiqs found that 67% of people believe that the ‘nation’ is headed in the wrong direction, while only 26% believe that America is headed in the right direction. Learning about all of the surveys on their site may help you realize that ‘Americans’ are beyond divided and unsatisfied with their lives under one central government. Though the majority of them do not realize it yet, nearly all Americans want their government to be much more local and accountable to them than the current government in Washington DC. Every time the government harms us, more people ask themselves: Maybe a few out of touch leaders can’t truly represent 330 million individual people who live in 50 individual nations?
In addition to Americans being thoroughly disgusted with every new wave of leaders in Washington DC, the ever-increasing number of federal agencies (currently over 400), and the ever-increasing federal spending and debt, individuals in different States really are much too different to live peacefully as one nation.
How drastically do individuals differ on major issues?
Abortion
The right to abort a fetus vs. the protection of the lives of babies has been an extremely intense debate among Americans for at least a few decades, and for good reason. In recent weeks, a few conservative States have passed laws that restrict abortions much more than their previous laws did. The outcry from pro-abortion individuals in those conservative States and in progressive States has been tremendous. Due to the United States government taking ultimate control of abortion laws (generally via the Supreme Court) which determine how over 300 million unique individuals in 50 distinct States could legally navigate a complex issue, even the most progressive, pro-abortion states are forced to worry that the Supreme Court may revisit the issue. If the five “Republican” judges rule that the Alabama law is legal, abortion could be totally banned in all 50 States. The only way that the Democratic States would then be able to continue to allow women to have abortions would be to separate (secede) from the United States.
Conversely, if the Court rules that abortion ought to be legal, conservative States would likely have to leave the union in order to protect the lives of babies. Abortion is extremely complicated and involves religion, medicine, ethics, finances, law, and so much more. What is not complicated is that if States do not want to be governed by a few old, out-of-touch lawyers who live in DC, their only solution may be to peacefully exit the union, as the UK recently decided to do.
Gun Control
The debate whether firearms should be banned, heavily regulated, weakly regulated, or totally unregulated (which is what the founders supported) is another one of the many polarizing issues tearing the union apart. States like New Hampshire, Wyoming, Alaska, Arizona, and a few others have essentially no restrictions on firearms. In those states, the only restrictions on firearms are the federal laws, such as the NICS background check, the irrelevant prohibition of automatic firearms and suppressors, and short barreled rifle restrictions. Those States are consistently ranked as the safest in the nation because criminals are forced to consider that any random person may be armed. Sixteen US States currently do not force citizens to obtain permits before carrying firearms. Wyoming citizens love their firearms freedoms and likely don’t care whether NYC considers all guns illegal (which happens to be the case). However, Wyoming does not want to be forced to give up their firearms because the few politicians who run the central government want all US citizens to be disarmed, which would make any potential rebellion nearly impossible. As federal politicians pass laws that chip away at gun rights utilizing convoluted and inconspicuous methods, all Americans will continually lose more gun rights, until the entire ‘America’ has the same gun laws as NYC.
In this national poll, 53% of Americans favored stricter gun control, while 41% opposed stricter gun control. Looking at respondents in each political party paints a clear picture of this true distinction (Civiqs does not have a breakdown of each State for this survey). It is very obvious that individuals in conservatives States favor the freedom to own weapons and the individuals in progressive States want weapons to remain only in the hands of government/police officials. Currently, both sides are working against the monstrosity referred to as the federal government, so neither side is happy, and neither side will likely be satisfied unless the union is broken up.
Conservative States have a gun culture in which 8 year olds are often given their first .22 caliber rifle for Christmas. Progressive States have the opposite cultural view of firearms. From childhood, leftist parents and schools teach their children that firearms are bad and belong only in the hands of government agents.
California, Oregon, and Washington could attain their gun-control dreams by peacefully exiting the union, either individually or as a nation or union of their own. Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia could exit the union and decide for themselves whether to remain alone for a while or whether to seek a union with one or more other States. Conversely or additionally, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and maybe Texas ought to consider ditching the US government and taking freedom back for themselves. Ideally, every one of the 50 States would leave the union and tell the DC folks to go to hell.
Education
Individuals in each of the 50 States have very different wishes for how to educate their children. Unfortunately for all of them, a few elite politicians, judges, and bureaucrats in DC control education throughout ‘America’. There are over 150 federal dictates that control how American parents educate their children. Though it may seem like State and local laws regarding education do exist, they are impotent. Firstly, school districts and States could only control education within the federal scope of allowable conduct. Secondly, the federal government bullies smaller governments when they make decisions that do not please the federal politicians. Thirdly, even the laws, regulations, and standards that seem to come from the State or school districts are very often influenced by federal grants.
Progressive States seem to be increasingly inviting drag-queens to conduct story-time with young children, encouraging children to transition to the opposite gender, and they are allowing increasing amounts of biological males to compete in female athletics simply because they claim to ‘identify’ as females. In response to this massive change in athletic competition between the two genders, the United State House of Representatives recently passed the ‘Equality Act’, which would force every school in the US to allow boys to compete with girls in every sport if they ‘identify’ as girls, should the bill become law. The bill would also effect massive expansions in the Civil Rights Act, taking away many more liberties from Americans under the guise of ‘opposing discrimination’.
Furthermore, individuals in States like Utah would likely want their religion (Christianity) to be the foundation for their education system. Progressive States like California, New York, and New Jersey are comprised of parents who want religion (especially Christianity) to be totally absent from schools. Parents in different States may also have unique approaches to vocational education, degrees, standards, athletics, and more. The only way to break free from outside, homogenous, harmful control over our children’s education must involve cutting ties with the DC politicians for good.
Drug Regulation
Have you spoken to anyone about cannabis recently? It seems that very few Americans believe that it should be illegal, doesn’t it? According to national scientific surveys, only 24% of Americans believe that it should be illegal. Yet, the unaccountable, unresponsive, out of touch central government still considers cannabis to be a schedule 1 controlled substance, which is the strictest, most illegal, dangerous category that the US government has. This is no surprise to those who understand how difficult it is to hold elite, powerful, apathetic, corrupt millionaires accountable when they live far away and literally own you.
Thirty-three States currently allow their citizens to use cannabis medicinally, and nine States allow its use recreationally. This act of defiance against the federal government may seem to be cause for optimism. While nullification of federal cannabis laws by some States may lead some to believe that States could retain some autonomy in this centrally-controlled, post-constitutional climate, federal politicians could decide at any moment to cut off funding/grants (paid for by federal taxes) to any State that does not enforce the federal prohibition of cannabis. Indeed, even Colorado’s incredible drug-legalization momentum could be thwarted by President Trump in an instant.
Federal politicians utilize nearly every one of their 400+ federal agencies to control and abuse individuals. The Food and Drug Administration is one of those agencies. Now that you are aware of the ‘representation-accountability ratio’ (local governments are more accountable than massive, faraway governments) it should come as no surprise that the FDA is one of the strictest drug approval agencies in the world. It is also extremely corrupt, as I point out in this article about the EpiPen scandal and as many others often prove. Simply put, politicians and regulators often utilize the FDA to approve drugs that benefit themselves and their friends and deny drugs that would harm their businesses. The agency also regulates food so strictly that even your cherry pie is subject to numerous federal laws. And you are forced by the threat of violence and criminal prosecution to pay more than $5,000,000,000 ($5 billion) every year to fund this abusive agency.
We could take the power back from politicians like Trump, Schumer, McConnell, Pelosi, and Feinstein by simply cutting ties with them – much like we would all recommend to our loved ones when they are in relationships with controlling and abusive partners.
Immigration
Perhaps no greater division exists between conservatives and progressives than their differing opinions on illegal immigration and border security. Conservatives elected Trump despite barely trusting him, because he seemed much tougher than Clinton on illegal immigration and because he made a border wall a primary campaign issue. Now that Trump is a politician, it’s no surprise that he has largely failed to deliver on his promise to quickly construct a ‘big, beautiful wall’ along the southern border of the US. Still, conservatives and progressive throughout the US who are forced to live under the same set of immigration laws continue to resent each other. Once in a while, someone wonders “Couldn’t some States invite illegal immigrants while others reject them? Why can’t individuals in each State consider whether their State should have a wall around it? What happened to the will of the people?”
Since federal politicians control immigration policy and redistribute the wealth of all Americans, each of us is forced to shoulder the financial burden of illegal immigrants pouring into the US, which currently costs over $54 billion per year, according to Heritage.org.
Surveys and common knowledge demonstrate the differences of opinion that each State has towards immigration policy. Among Californians, 68% of individuals oppose having a border wall for their nation. On the flip side, 67% of individuals in Wyoming support having a border wall around their nation. Of course, such polar differences on issues concerning national security, socialism, and human rights cannot be reconciled while being forced to live under one policy. The only scenario in which people in each State could be satisfied and feel safe involves peaceful separation from the corrupt, controlling, out-of-touch central government.
Why Conservatives Should Support Secession
If you are a conservative who has hope that that ‘America will survive’, take a look at this poll, which shows that 46% of Americans not only love Obamacare but want to expand it. Only 39% of those surveyed wanted the massive, strict healthcare doctrine to be repealed. Unfortunately for those who support gun rights, there are many strict federal gun laws, yet 53% of Americans want even stricter gun control, while only 41% support more firearms freedom. Optimistic conservatives might also be disappointed to learn that the next generation (18-29 year olds) has a negative view of capitalism. You may only know middle America, but the increasing coastal and city populations are comprised of increasingly active young voters who are progressive, pro-LGBT, authoritarian socialists who wish to force their big-government policies onto you. If you do not want to be forced to live increasingly similar lifestyles to theirs, congratulations – you support State independence!
Why Progressives Should Support Secession
If you are a progressive who believes that the whole ‘America’ would be happy as ‘one united socialist nation’, you would be disappointed to learn that when it comes to making meaningful decisions (like choosing a State to live in) Americans are fleeing progressive states and moving to conservative/low tax states. The US Census next year will count the number of Americans in each State, which is likely the primary reason that Democrats are pushing so hard to begin counting illegal aliens in the next Census. If they do not change the rules, California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois may lose congressional seats due to their massive population losses since the 2010 Census. Additionally, only 41% of Americans approve of the Democratic party. Not everyone in ‘America’ is ‘just like you’. Other than the few million Americans in the large cities, nearly every American is actually pretty much your complete opposite. Around half of the people in America are religious, gun-toting, conservative capitalists. If you do not want to be forced to live increasingly similar lifestyles to theirs, congratulations – you support State independence!
Both sides of the political spectrum could truly be satisfied simply by living among like-minded people. Why would you remain in a hostile environment where you believe your culture is under perpetual attack?
Secession Vs. Slavery
Some foolish individuals, including many conservatives, mistakenly believe that because slavery was claimed by the winner of the civil war (the strong central government) to be a major issue contributing to the Confederacy’s desire to secede, all future attempts by States on Earth to peacefully divorce from oppressive and/or corrupt strong central governments must be due to their desire to enslave Africans. Of course, this is a ridiculous notion, especially because the pro-freedom States would secede in order to respect property rights and individual freedom more than the current government does.
The Military Issue
One of the most difficult realities for people to reconcile when considering the inevitable fracture of the Union is the military. While it is true that the US military is by far the strongest force on the planet (possibly by a factor of a few hundred) and that its strength is related to its drawing from 50 powerful States, it is hardly true that independence would change that. Even if the central government were to be entirely dissolved, nothing is to stop Governors (commanders-in-chief of each State National Guard, even according to current laws) from working together with other State militaries on a perpetual or occasional basis. Currently, the US military may work together with over 100 other militaries in 150 foreign nations due to their massive amounts of military operations. The militaries that they work with often speak different languages and train differently because they are literally from other parts of the world. It would be infinitely easier for State militaries in post-union America to work together. Keep in mind that once American soldiers stop intervening in every single issue on Earth, very little has to be done militarily. All we need to do is play defense.
The Trade Issue
Without a corrupt, oppressive central government creating and enforcing millions of laws restricting free trade, interstate commerce would prosper enormously. Businesses and consumers would save billions or maybe even trillions of dollars annually without the federal government controlling interstate trade. In the event of a conflict between individuals or businesses from different States, courts, contracts, and arbitrations could settle disputes just like they do now.
In addition to the above issues, the numerous cultures among the 50 States surely differ dramatically on many more policies. The founders cited ‘irreconcilable differences’ in their grievances to the British King when they declared independence from his tyranny. In 2019, there are much more extreme and irreconcilable differences between the States and the US government is much more tyrannical than the British government ever was. The solution is simple: Each of us must work to empower our States to peacefully divorce themselves from the abusive authoritarian politicians who are destroying our lives. Once we are governed only by local and accountable officials, we will see a rapid increase in the amount of freedom and the quality of life that we all enjoy.
If you support freedom and oppose central government tyranny, please sign and share this petition.
If you want to learn more about why independence is the only solution, please read this book.