Ah, what’s a little secession between states, eh? So a state is no longer under the auspices of the United States, it’ll be an orphan. Big deal. What do you think will happen? That the forlorn and forgotten former territory of the United State will sit in pathetic darkness like a shivering punished child at an Oliver Twist orphanage after ditching all of the other states to go off on its own, and now is no longer welcome? That trade will cease between the former compatriots, and an occasional border skirmish will break out like a resentful anthema on the blistered skin of envy? C’mon, that won’t happen…. okay maybe that will happen.
But if you’re one of those screaming “Secession!”, a little patience may serve you well. It might happen, maybe not officially, but in effect secession has a chance to occur if we do not soon take an exit from the economic road on which we are currently speeding. We’re $16,000,000,000,000 in debt, and nowhere in sight is there any curtailing indicator. As I and others have stated previously that once a dollar is payment on the debt, that same dollar cannot be then used for other things. As the debt begins to siphon funds from Federal Government responsibilities to the bondholders, that money cannot be used again, and choices must be made.
The debt crimped monetary arteries that would have pumped the economy, by then suffocating from voracious dependants, with cash and activity throughout the land will choke as a consequence of government profligacy and wither and wilt. The cash sucked from your wallet into Leviathan will serve only the essentials–essential as determined by the political and administrative classes of course. Like with a patient, you might need to sever the gangrene leg to save the body. So it will be with our country, as the debt diverts resources away from necessary (arguably and not) programs, bureaus, departments and agencies many of the non-essentials will be cut off from resources. If these non-essentials are to be maintained they’ll need to be done at more local levels if possible. It’s not as unbelievable as it sounds. Sure, towns and territories will be in the “United States of America”, but in effect it will be much different.
It’s already happening in some areas, and it has been happening for quite some time. Parts of Arizona, for example, have in effect seceded–not voluntarily, of course. It was more secession by math with a dash of history reasserting itself. The illegal drug trafficking and other problems simply overwhelmed the resources intended to control them. Now, when traveling a road in Arizona, you can see signs that read, “DANGER PUBLIC WARNING TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED… Visitors may encounter Armed Criminals…”. That’s effectively saying the writ of the United States does not apply in this area, so heads up! Some of these areas are quite large. “3,500 acres of southern Arizona have been closed off to U.S. citizens due to increased violence…”. It truly is the Wild West in those areas. You have no idea what you’ll come across if you enter.
Arizona is but one example, there are other more well known areas that U.S. citizens acknowledge with a wink and a nod. Detroit is an example. Gary, Indiana another. Even areas of Chicago. Remember Mayor Rahm “the Don” Emanuel telling gangbangers to, “Take your stuff away to the alley”? Did you ever wonder why he just didn’t tell them to stop it altogether? Because he knows, and they know, they won’t, and there isn’t anything the Mayor can do about it. Essentially, areas of that city are on their own, effectively lawless. In effect, the areas seceded from the city. Same goes for those parts of Arizona.
Do you expect more or less areas like these when the debt extracts more from everyone, and everyone has to get by with less and less? I suspect the amount of debt that continues to crush our country will result in more of these areas, which are just not a priority to patrol or invest in, so they’ll be contained, and outsiders will go on insouciantly. Areas of the republic will just atrophy and fall off without a single shot fired– well, not fired with the intent to secede, there will be plenty of shots fired for other reasons to be sure. A return to the Old West with some modern conveniences strewn throughout.
The ironic part is the states’ rights crowd might get their Federalist wish because of profligate nationalist Democrats, liberals, and other spendthrifts in office. Federalism may yet impose its will on the Republic by sheer math. But instead of control going from town, county, state, to the federal government, it just goes from town, county, to state… okay, maybe just from town to county. Whew, these next four years are going to be interesting. I wonder how many will be off the grid when the next quadrennial election comes around.