AMERICAN SECESSIONIST MOVEMENTS

      The week prior to Independence Day, like the previous two years, saw another sweeping round of blows to civil liberties. But while the American Media is busy focusing on the antics of two unpopular presidential candidates and other flummeries, the foreign press is beginning to pick up on waves of discontent within the Prozac Nation itself.

       There are growing independence movements in several US States today. The question is whether or not these states could actually survive independently.

        Texas: has probably the strongest independence movement of all; with an estimated 1/4 million supporters. If independent from the United States, Texas would be among the top 10 world economies. Most Texans are tired of being treated as second-class citizens in the United States and want more local control over their own policies.

           There are problems with Texan Independence which would need to be addressed. Foremost of which is that the Bush Family has more or less run the state government for decades. Texas also has a severe drug problem, some infrastructure issues, a shaky record on human rights/law enforcement issues. If the Texan Independence Movement can address some of these issues, there may be some viability as a free country.

          California: is seeing a genuine surge in independence. California would have an even larger economy than Texas; and that is largely what is driving the independence movement there. California is a socially liberal state than Texas, but is seeing much of its wealth sucked out of the state to subsidize infrastructure and social spending elsewhere that California desperately. The cost-of-living in California is exorbitant; and federal obstructionism is damaging the state's agricultural system by preventing projects to alleviate the severe drought.

              California's biggest obstacle is that it is politically dominated by the ultra-Left San Francisco Bay Area. An independent California could have serious problems with social cohesion unless they found a way to create a greater balance of  power.

             Vermont: This state actually passed a secession bill in the early 1990s. It was vetoed by the governor under serious threats from Bush Senior. Vermont is small state, whose independence advocates see its future as an American version of Switzerland; an independent financial system and resort area.

               This is an ambitious, though not unrealistic, possibility. Vermont's Independence Movement has lost some momentum over the years, but could revive again.

              Hawaii: Hawaii has had independence movement since the islands were annexed in 1898. Recently, it has grown in strength, but its main support is among Native Hawaiians who are a minority there.

              There are other movements of note in Alaska and Puerto Rico.

             All of these initiatives are laboring under severe handicaps. The legal procedure for leaving the Union is complicated. These states will be free of federal oppression, but they also will be cut off from federal handouts; and that will include economic losses as military bases and other federal enterprises pull out. And it should also be borne in mind that the Beltway/Wall Street interests currently exploiting these states are unlikely to allow them to Exit quietly and peacefully.

           Nonetheless, both Texas and California are hoping to have a state referendum on the ballot by 2018. A 2014 poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos showed that 24% of Americans were open to the idea of their State's independence.

          The basic problem with supporting any of these domestic independence movements is that they all seem to lack any genuine commitment to democracy. Reading their various websites, we see considerable complaining about what the Federal Government is doing or not doing, and very few innovative proposals to do things better. This has been an ongoing problem with the United States as a whole during the last three decades; and it will likely not improve matters to localize the problem. 

         The reason why the Federal Government is out of control is because the American people have allowed it to happen. State governments legally could opt out of most of these objectionable federal controls simply by refusing federal block-grant funding. Objectionable Supreme Court decisions legally can be overturned by Congress.

        But that is not happening, because what Ameroboobs really want are handouts with no conditions attached. This attitude permeates the entire way of postmodernist American thinking. From personal relationships to business deals to academic standards---Americans essentially want all of the benefits and none of the responsibilities involved in any of these things. Hence we have high divorce rates, demands for higher minimum wages, and academic grade-inflation.

        If Americans really want change, they don't need to break up the Union to do it. They need to change their own attitudes. Stop thinking about drugs and diversions; and start thinking about how make positive contributions. Stop thinking about how to score the free lunch and how to stab your neighbor in the back; and start thinking about how to build a community and a country again.

       But it's unlikely any of those things will happen. The best option currently for those of us in America who really want a different culture is to find one outside of the US that approximates it and plan to go there. Expatting makes far more sense than trying to operate within the framework of this dysfunctional system.