Secession in the 21st Century

While many dopes in American still hold this view–see the “Naming Commission” and Ty Seidule–the term has found new life in the 21st century.

There are multiple secession movements across the United States and people around the world are looking to decentralization as a remedy for the out of control State.

The desirability and efficacy of secession can be debated, but no one in the United States should think secession is treason or illegal.

The compact fact of the Constitution and the reserved powers of the States to secede is easily discernible.

Many libertarians have jumped on the secession train, including Ryan McMaken at the Mises Institute.

He has a new book out on the subject, and gave a nice talk about secession at the Mises 40th Anniversary event last year.

My most substantial critique concerns his avoidance of John C. Calhoun as a real American political thinker concerned with the “tyranny of the majority.” McMaken correctly identifies the root problem of American government, namely numerical majorities, but does not mention the one man who provided a real proposal to give the 10th Amendment teeth.

Why? Slavery and racism, of course. It’s better to cite Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard than John C. Calhoun, even though left libertarians like to claim Mises was a Nazi and Rothbard a Klan member.

Go figure. You should never try to appease those people.

Secession should be discussed, but Americans, in my estimation, are not ready for it, particularly when you have large segments of the population who can’t get out of their own way without hoisting a Ukrainian flag while wearing a mask.

These sheep love the State, and if the State says secession is treason and racist, it is.

Yet, McMaken’s talk was great Podcast fodder, so I discuss it on Episode 756 of The Brion McClanahan Show.