Secession?

Reviving an issue that caused one war and was thought to be dead for the past 150 years, the Secessionist Convention was kicked off on Wednesday, October 3rd by two very unlikely bedfellows - the liberal Middlebury Institute and the conservative League of the South, giving credence to the saying that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and that the differences between the far left and right is only in name. These two very different organizations are advocating for the allowance of peaceful secession from the Union, and in some cases, a full dissolution of the Union that they consider to be too overbearing.

Aside from this idea being quite immature and unrealistic, and the fact that we as a country have been through this whole issue once before, this whole idea is ridiculous. Just quitting from the US and saying, “I don’t agree with you anymore, I’m seceding” should not be a reputable idea in the public forum. It is true, however, that the U.S. has grown very large over the past 150 years, starting with the beginning of the Civil War, and continuing to the New Deal and the Great Society, but there is no need to up and leave the Union simply because of this happening.

Although seperate nations in the South, New England, and the West Coast would be convenient to govern on an individual state basis, it would not be conducive to having the easy trade and travel that has allowed the U.S. to grow from thirteen tiny states into a major player on the world scene (of course, I’m not including the effects of two World Wars and the decline of the British Empire on the rise of the U.S.). The Balkanization of the United States would turn us into just another Europe (which would be quite ironic, seeing as how they are trying to consolidate into one power to rival us), which none of us, except apparently the secessionists, want.

Aside from all the logical reasons, we should keep in mind the regulatory reasons. Right now we have one annoying regulatory body - the Federal Government. Think, if we had fifty different regulatory governments, all setting up their own “red tape” to annoy the “conservative” states and the “liberal” states. What a utopia!