uicksilver workshop"Dude. To hell with moving to Canada. I'm not giving up that easily. This may not be the best time to be a liberal, but why concede? Secede! With the 5th largest economy in the world, prodigious industry, a diverse population, rich natural resources, and a growing rift with the federal government, why is California sharing a budget with the unbeautiful when we could be enjoying our very own Republic? Is it for lack of leadership? Or lack of a clue?California? California!? What about New England?
posted by scarabic at 5:24 PM PST [trackback] (27 comments total)"
Here we are: Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and of course the two Behemoths – Massachusetts and Connecticut – just waiting for the chance to start anew. For fuck’s sake I thought we had pretty much taken control of the situation back in 1861. Apparently not.
Yes, by all means, let California secede the Union, and let the rest of us do it too. It’s not as if we can do a worse job on our own. According to the original argument we needed a strong centralized, federal government to protect us from foreign powers…to keep our individual rights as free citizens intact, but now it’s that same government that threatens to curb our rights and freedoms. This is unacceptable; In fact it is intolerable.
If the current configuration of the United States of America – a simple matter of relative form and function which itself would seem utterly strange and alien to the Founders – no longer meets the needs of the people, then it should be altered.
This right was guaranteed to us by the Founders decision to recognize the Constitution as an imperfect, living document. They understood the fundamental importance of change within a democracy. It is time for a change worthy of that understanding to occur.
We want equity. We want justice. We want a system in which one individual human being has as much say in our governance as any other human being. Granted, this thought scared the living shit out of the founders – indeed it might scare the shit out of any one of us after viewing a few hours of NASCAR or a professional wrestling event – but it is time to accept democracy in earnest…warts and all.
But not nationally. The founders were correct – at least in that respect – in assuming that a complete democracy would lead only to complete ruin. Therefore I propose a compromise; a re-evaluation of the original democratic experiment that was the United States of America.
Once upon a time there were the Articles of Confederation. They existed for a few short years, and were later replaced by the system of governance under which we now reside. Times have changed; we have matured as a nation.
There are many, many forms of democracy available to us. All of them are 100% “legal” under the U.S. Constitution. All it takes – as with any great deed – is the will and the patience to make it happen. Just as our nation survived the transition from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution, so too must our system of governance evolve into something new before is it torn asunder.
If California wishes to leave the union I wish them well, but I would first ask the citizens of that state to consider this: If we as U.S. citizens are willing to take so bold a step as to consider such a proposition, would it not be equally as sound to consider even bolder alternatives to our current means of experiencing democracy?
If we are going to change this nation, then let's fucking change it. Let’s build this thing to last. Let’s take the broken dreams and promises of the Founders and make them real. It’s not as if we have anything to loose.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, one must agree that there's never been a nation more wealthy or more powerful than the United States of America at this very moment. Our nation is – in fact – so rich and so mighty that each and every American citizen should be experiencing the spoils of our success. All I propose is that we do just that.
A change is necessary. I believe that a radical change in the way in which we continue this experiment of democracy, started so long ago, would be a welcome one. Let us reconsider these arbitrary lines on maps that we call “State Lines,” and instead view ourselves as we really are: As citizens of small, distinct nations bound together by common ideals, not imaginary borders.
“California” is no more or less unique than any other region of our nation. It just happens to be encompassed within the boundaries of a “state” (a divided one at that). New England is no different; nor is any other geo-political region of the land-mass within the area known as the United States of America.
Let this union of peoples and places recast itself in the crucible of freedom before we shatter it on the anvil of tyranny.
