Lately, there has been so much frustration with the last election and the direction of our country that some Trump supporters have been talking about “secession.” Many conservatives and libertarians are asking if it makes sense for certain states to leave the union the way South Carolina left in 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States.
Whether it makes “sense” or not, we can be assured that it will not happen. Although the South Carolina state legislature voted in November of 1860 to initiate the process of secession, no state legislature would do that today. This is because most modern state legislatures, even conservative ones, do not have many members who are angry enough at the federal government to support seceding from it.
Never forget that many individual state legislators are professional politicians. They may disagree with some of the policies that flow from Washington D.C., but they are not angry enough to vote for secession, and that is what is required to secede, anger. While an official secession will not happen, there will be a different type. In fact, it has already started in our country.
Instead of state legislatures, dominated by urban dwellers, voting for secession, Americans who live in rural and some suburban areas are executing a secession of their own. They are disassociating themselves from the lifestyles, cultural mores, laws, and self-inflicted wounds exhibited in our large cities.
Of course, rural Americans are already living in areas removed from large cities, but geography is only one of the many differences. An even more striking distinction involves political ideology and attitudes on an array of issues like criminal justice.
Citizens living outside of ultra-progressive urban areas do not accept what is going on in large cities. Surely, the thinking is, “I am not one of them. They are different from me. We do not agree on basic things, like what laws should govern human conduct.”
This mental disassociation did not exist in previous times of crisis in our country. There was much more national unity in December of 1941 or even September of 2001. At that time, rural Americans and city dwellers still had many shared values and followed the same laws. Clearly, the similarity in culture and politics between rural and urban Americans is dying, and the pace of its death march is quickening.
This same type of disassociation is also felt by many Americans living in suburban areas. They recognize their way of life is incompatible with that exhibited in large cities. This results in suburban dwellers venturing into cities less often. Once there, they feel unsafe and unwelcome. According to the FBI, crime rates in our urban areas are significantly higher than in suburban and rural areas.
More crime is not the only difference Americans notice in large cities. There are also different laws regarding decency, civility, and cleanliness. Unfortunately, manners and traditional customs are rarely, if ever, practiced.
Many horrific things can happen to you in a large city without warning. You can be struck from behind in a “Knockout Attack” or wounded by a stray bullet. You can be surrounded by violent demonstrators who scream at you and call you evil because of your wealth, race, religious views, or political beliefs. This is not a place that feels comfortable or feels like home.
Over the past few decades, millions of Americans who support traditional American values, and even some who value safety, have already left our large cities. They are disgusted with the political corruption, high taxes, racial politics, homelessness and, over the past year, the excessive Covid-19 lockdown orders.
People leaving are also those who value their second amendment rights. They do not want to be charged with a crime if they have to defend their home. Who can forget what happened to Mark and Patricia McCloskey in St. Louis?
On June 28, 2020, their neighborhood was overrun by protesters and a mob was descending on the McCloskey’s home. The couple waved firearms in front of their home to encourage the protesters to leave. No gun was ever fired at any of the trespassers. Incredibly, Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey were charged with the unlawful use of a weapon even though they feared for their lives. If convicted, they could face up to four years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
As this trend continues and cities like St. Louis, Detroit, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Washington D.C., and New York City decline even more, these areas will simultaneously become more similar. They already have much in common politically. Future cooperation will likely continue on issues such as drug legalization, the treatment of homelessness, gun control, permissive law enforcement, and providing a sanctuary and support for illegal aliens. With so much commonality, these cities will forge even closer bonds in the days ahead.
With unworkable policies and massive bureaucracies, these cities will need greater and greater subsidies from productive, tax-paying citizens living in rural and suburban America. Urban areas have been failing financially for many years, but as the policies become more progressive, the costs are escalating even higher.
In large cities, politicians spend vast sums of money on enormous municipal government systems which include inefficient departments featuring payrolls that are too large and too expensive. Other characteristics include broken infrastructure, rampant homelessness, and an overly generous municipal pension system.
How much longer will productive taxpayers living in rural and suburban communities agree to subsidize large cities? Sooner or later, these citizens will say “Enough is enough, we want out!” They will want the urban centers to form their own “United Cities of America” with their own laws and lifestyles.
Simultaneously, Americans living in non-urban areas will want to forge closer bonds of their own as similarities are recognized even more.
The secession of 1860 will not happen again, but a different kind is already taking place.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs nationally on Real America’s Voice Network, AmericasVoice.News weekdays at 7 a.m. CT and from 7-11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at [email protected]
Anything run by liberals should be walled off and then send in the people that remediate mold and fungus and those that destroy termites and cleanse the walled off areas, run by liberals.
I’d LOVE to make that tv show, Under the Dome, real, AND DOME OFF EVERY DAM liberal city.. NO MATTER WHAT STATE it is in.. AND leave that dome up, till NOTHING INSIDE is left alive.. not even cockroaches.
I will go with a state like Texas or Florida and yes it is time to divide the nation.
Unless Texas, KICKS OUT Austin, there’s no way, for them to GET RID OF THE ROT, right in the middle of their own state though.
Now would be a good time for the Western, MINERAL RICH STATES that had THEIR LANDS STOLEN AND HELD FOR RANSOM before Statehood was awarded to RECLAIM THOSE LANDS AND BOOT THE FEDS!
When the West was settled and Statehood became desirable, the ‘federal government’ (politicians from EXISTING STATES) contrived to STEAL THE MINERAL RICHES.
In order for Statehood, they REQUIRED “ALL LANDS NOT IN PRIVATE OWNERSHIP would be RETURNED TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!
Now the federal government STEALS THE PROFITS and SHUTS THEM DOWN AT WILL for PURELY POLITICAL REASONS.
Those States CAN DO A LOT BETTER with THEIR MINERAL DEPOSITS!
How’s about, ALL CONSERVATIVE STATES, cease doing ANY BUSINESS with liberal states. STOP ALL gas/oil/electrical transmissions TO THOSE liberal states.
Our country seems to be sharply divided. Part of the problem now is there are two vastly different versions of the truth spun by the news media. While Facebook has silenced one version, I’m not sure that is the best way to go. That basically creates a situation where some of us sees that we have the official propaganda and then we have the censored truth.
The Washington politicians could go a long way toward resolving this problem. Joe Biden did not win by a landslide, yet he is governing as such. He and the Democrats seem to be overturning every policy of the Trump administration. Now would be a good time to try to solve problems in a way that would come as close as possible to making everyone happy. For example, do the Democrats really think that we need to open our borders to every person who wants to illegally enter?
Actually, Joe Biden DIDN’T WIN AT ALL, yet he and his cronies are acting as if they got 100% of the votes.
What peeves me off, is the sheer # of tv personalities, who’re claiming he has a Mandate now, cause of the left controlling both houses, BUT A MANDATE WOULD HAVE MEANT THE DEMS won LOTS Of seats in BOTH HOUSES as well as the white house.. THEY BARELY HELD ON to their lead in the house of reps…
This nation is going the exact way these politicians are hoping for, complete division. As long as citizens are concerned about the bs being spewed from DC the politicians are in agreement that they can do their dirty deeds against us and we won’t know any better. The one draw back liberals face is that the majority of America knows and disagrees with the lefts agenda and there is not any amount of lip service that can change our minds.
Disagreeing is one thing. BUT CAN WE DO ANYTHING to stop them???