Secessionism ≠ Racism
Digg 
Stumble Upon 
Newsvine 
Slashdot 
Mixx 
Diigo 
Delicious 
Reddit 
Facebook
Though I have used the term “socialist” to describe President Obama and his party’s agenda many times, I recognize that most Democrats do not consider themselves socialists, only concerned Americans who have no problem embracing big government to solve problems. While there’s nothing wrong with using “socialist”—a term justified and critical enough—attempts by some on the Right to portray Democrats as communist dictators or worse is silly, bullying and only undermines conservatives’ arguments. Liberals are not necessarily monsters–just wrong.
Still, slander is often used in political debate and is often effective, and it has certainly been effective in preventing any rational discussion about nullification and secession in today’s United States.
Last weekend I attended a conference in Charleston, South Carolina dedicated to these ideas, the Eighth Annual Abbeville Institute, where about 100 people gathered in the cradle of Southern secession to discuss how this American nation born of secession might be better managed if broken up into smaller parts. Talks ranged from Emory University professor Donald Livingston’s examination of decentralist thought and its practical application, to secession activist Thomas Naylor, whose Left-leaning “Second Vermont Republic” movement has been successful in generating popular support for that state’s independence. Another man of the Left, author Kirkpatrick Sale, discussed the “human scale of secession,” and perhaps most interesting was a lecture by former aide to Mikhail Gorbachev, Yuri Maltsev, who explained how the gargantuan size of the former Soviet Union was a primary reason for its demise.
I attended virtually every lecture and only the heard the subject of race mentioned once—when professor Maltsev explained that Karl Marx believed socialism was not suitable for “lesser races,” namely Scots, Irish, Poles and other Europeans. Still, an AOL News story on the gathering noted “the presence of men like Sale and Maltsev will do little to persuade some from declaring that the conference and its attendees have merely opted for a more-erudite, better-mannered white power movement.”
Watching MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews this week, the host did a segment on the rumblings about nullification and secession currently taking place in Texas, particularly in the Republican governor’s race. Matthews reminded viewers that “secession and nullification are the words of Jim Crow.” Appearing on Hardball, Dallas Morning News columnist Wayne Slater agreed with Matthews and said of Texas governor Rick Perry “when I see Rick Perry on the stump talking about the tenth amendment and say ‘states’ rights, states’ rights, states’ rights,’ and the crowd cheers, it kind of gives you a shiver.” When Matthews asked guest and author James Moore if the secessionist language being used in Texas was code for racism, Moore replied without hesitation “I don’t think there’s any question about it.”
For the record, Perry and other gubernatorial candidates’ mentions of nullification and secession have centered almost entirely on the possibility of Texas opting out of national healthcare and federal stimulus.
Matthews devotes significant television time to mocking tea partiers, talk radio hosts and other conservatives who portray the president as Joseph Stalin and the Democrats’ agenda as Red Revolution–yet automatically assumes anyone who mentions nullification or secession must be secret Ku Klux Klansmen. Liberals like Matthews, and others, who criticize states’ rights and secession rhetoric as “racist” point to history to justify their venom—so do conservatives who condemn the president’s agenda, seeing shades of Marx in each new Democratic proposal. Both consider the other side’s allegations too outrageous to take seriously, while remaining blind to their own, particular outrageousness.
Here is what most people who talk about nullification or secession are basically saying—America is too big. Speakers at the Abbeville Institute conference wondered aloud whether a nation of 300 million people with trillions of dollars of debt, thousands of troops stationed across the globe, an increasingly weakening dollar, hopelessly bankrupt social services (Social Security and Medicare) and damn near irreconcilable differences on everything from healthcare to marijuana—is perhaps too large to be governed by one central government.
Those interested in seriously decentralizing government are not calling for the return of slavery or segregation anymore than Obama and the Democrats’ desire to grow government means they will soon begin throwing Americans in Soviet-style gulags, yet such vicious slander against the concept of nullification or secession persists in the mainstream press, virtually unchallenged.
Appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s FOX News program last week, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart scolded the Right-leaning cable news channel, saying “Here’s what Fox has done… they have taken reasonable concerns about this president and this economy and turned it into full-fledged panic attack about the next coming of Chairman Mao.”
Here’s what the mainstream media has done to those who embrace nullification and secession—taken the reasonable concerns of a small, but growing minority and tried to paint them as “racists” as a marginalization tactic. This is on par with conservatives who compare Obama to Stalin or Mao. And if opponents of nullification and secession think the idea is ridiculous, too radical or just wrong, I wish they’d man-up and say so–instead of continuing to call rational, intelligent and thoughtful people concerned about the size of government something they’re not.
As Foreign Minister of the 2nd VT Republic, and now as
organizer of our move to run for ALL 30 seats in our Vermont
Senate…..I give my word there is not a single racist in our
membership, nor would any such be tolerated.
Thus Chris Matthews, and AOL et al….who must certainly be working for somebody with an agenda of Bigness and
War and Empire, must also have inserted their heads into some warm dark place…..not content with licking around the outside of said location….
Diplomacy…
Dennis Morrisseau
West Pawlet, VT
802 645 9727
dmorso1@netzero.net
Read
“Secession: The Solution For the Washington Debt Threat” at http://www.lewrockwell.com/holland/holland13.1.html
[...] Read the full text here. [...]
As a political science major who happens to be Republican, I am, at best, irritated by the constant
I want to see some consistency, FOR ONCE, from the right wing in America. If you are against government actions (except in the case of abortion and preventing gay marriage, obviously- first contradictions), I want to see you folks pursue the following steps:
1. End the public school system. Funded by tax payers- those damn socialist kids get their education for free or darn near it!!
2. End Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security.
3. Stop Congressmen (even ‘anti-socialist’ ones) from receiving a salary from the public. Public funds paying the salaries of congressmen is SOCIALIST!!!!!!
4. Privatize the military. Redistribution of wealth supporting the military= SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!!
Just some thougts people! I want to see the rght-wing be consistent for once.
“I want to see some consistency, FOR ONCE, from the right wing in America. If you are against government actions (except in the case of abortion and preventing gay marriage, obviously- first contradictions), I want to see you folks pursue the following steps:…”
Benjamin, all these things would be pursued by the right but for the incessant, shrill cries of “racism!” and “disparate impact!” that would certainly follow any serious attempt to dismantle the welfare state. Charges, leveled by the left, that these positions can only be motivated by racism–not the republican principles of the founders–is the seemingly insurmountable stumbling block for conservatives. If you perceive the right to be inconsistent, it is due to no small part of the left being complicit in the right’s hypocrisy through the support for neocons and disregard for the alternative right.
I think part of the problem is that the “secessionist are racist historically narrative” isn’t being effectively challenged with a deep counter narrative, dispelling fears, promising a better government, and organization of society.
“I think part of the problem is that the “secessionist are racist historically narrative” isn’t being effectively challenged with a deep counter narrative, dispelling fears, promising a better government, and organization of society.”
Very true and counter narratives need to be crafted with more frequency. As a preliminary one, conservatives can employ the points contained within Dylan Hales’ article “The New Left was Right”:
“Though ethnic identity movements are often seen as antithetical to libertarian ideas, this myopic view only serves those who wish to stymie real challenges to entrenched power. In the early days of the radical civil rights movement, one could find a communitarian spirit sorely lacking in most of the establishment politics of the era, liberal or otherwise. Though contemporary accounts tend to separate the predominantly white New Left from the Black Power movement, the spirit of anti-authoritarianism was a shared and primary trait of both. Though the bombastic attitudes and Maoist mania of the Black Panthers eventually led to that group coming to define the very worst aspects of the time, the early Panthers embodied the self-determinist localism envisioned by many early American conservative icons. The ten-point program of the party included many overtly socialist proposals, to be sure, but its framework and implementation were a separate matter. In organizing at the community level, the radical movements of the ’60s touched on a principle often fetishized by conservatives but rarely practiced. “
I think the idea of secession is fatally flawed, but I understand the desire of some for decentralization and can embrace some of it. I agree with the author that it’s not fair to brand as racists those entertaining ideas of secession. Better to take their ideas seriously and engage them than to just dismiss them out of hand.
The mechanism for a decentralized gov’t is already in place. The Constitution gives more power to the states – it’s just that they’ve been bullied into giving up that power by the Fed gov’t through the Fed income tax. I don’t know why an argument for states’ rights = seccession. Instead the pressure should be put on the Feds to release that power and return it to the states’ where it belongs.
And, to Benjamin – #1 and #2 are desires of those who wish a return to states’ power. The Dept of Ed is highly unconstitutional, and it may surprise you to learn that the public school system was put into place to serve the poorest members of our society, who had no other options, so that they would get a basic education and be ready for working in a factory when they left. It was never intended to handle the number of students that it currently does. Given the original goals, is it any wonder that our Ed system is in the state it is? Also, Medicare and Social Security have failed miserably.
As to #3 and #4, it is silly to expect these men and women to work for the good of all without paying them. It is not socialism to pay the people who work for you – and those people are working for the American people. But, the way that it is supposed to work, is that the Fed gov’t should be raising funds through tariffs – not by a direct tax on our people. This also helps to protect American interests in the global marketplace. Then, for additional funds if necessary for wars, etc… a bill would be given to the states’ based on their population, and then it was up to the states to decide how to raise that money.
The Fed gov’t only had 17 enumerated powers in the Constitution – and they are forbidden from taking others. What we have seen is a few people creating an elite ruling class in this country similar to what the colonists faced in the 1700s…
Secessionism does not equal racism, but both are symptoms of the same central problem.
As the poor whites of Jim Crow were manipulated by the Southern power elite, so the teapartiers are being manipulated by the Republicans and others to act against their own interests.
It does not help that in my experience, many of them are mentally weak and unable to deal with frustration.
You can’t have it both ways — a conservative return to “Western, Judeo-Christian”, 1950’s values is synonymous with religious institutionalized racism and lynching to many people. And considering our first and only experiment with secession came about as a result of many states attempting to preserve the right for some human beings to keep other human beings against their will for the purpose of labor (you may know it as “slavery”) doesn’t enamor people with the concept of secession. That little fiasco cost 500,000 American lives.
The sad thing is that many conservative concepts are valuable and substantial but the movement is mired in hypocrisy and, quite frankly, anti-intellectualism and all that entails (including, yes, RACISM). It is immediately assumed that any minority who achieves success in this country is the beneficiary of “affirmative action” which is kind of ironic considering white women have benefited primarily from it. Most people equate “conservative” with “old, rich white guy” and, if the assumption is that the country was better off under the beneficent guidance of that demographic, then who pray-tell has been responsible for this country falling off a cliff? Old, rich white guys have been in charge of this country since the beginning. Maybe it was the “bleeding hearts” who did it, huh? Those soft folks who thought that minorities and women weren’t really so different and maybe just wanted the same opportunities to live in peace and be productive.
The conservative movement is still the movement of scapegoats. It’s a movement that thrives on fear and bogeymen, scary brown people and those awful, awful gays. Conservatives cheer freedom while endorsing the police state because cops are great when they are locking up minorities but not so great when they start to hunt down “tax cheats.”
You can’t have it both ways. People will embrace “conservative” ideals when conservatives show that there is a place at the table for EVERYONE who wants to live a peaceful, productive life. Until then, “conservatism” is just advocacy for race wars and bigotry for many people.
Secession – yes we tried that. It didn’t work out.