Give It a Rest

Frustrated by their losses at the polls last week, Tea Party types are now turning their focus to secession from the United States.  The buzz is building for petitions on the White House website asking for the "peaceful secession" of dozens of states--with Texas getting the largest response so far.  Apparently, Texans have forgotten how things went for them the last time they were an independent nation.  Maybe John Tyler will rise from the grave to remind them.

I have a question for the "Secessionists": Where are you going to go?  Canada--with its single-payer medical system and its higher taxes?  I thought that was what you are trying to "escape"?  What will you use for currency?  Are you going to trade the gold you bought on the recommendation of G. Gordon Liddy and William DeVane?  Who will serve as your military?  Are you going to join the Posse Comitatus and train for battle with your hunting rifles out in the backwoods?

And is being forced to buy health insurance going to be what you base your entire "revolution"?  Granted, its not as heinous as southern Democrats seceeding to preserve slavery--but you do realize you are arguing the same "states" and "individual" rights that the Confederacy tried to use as well.

There is this romanticized version of history that imagines Union armies marching upon the South in a great crusade to free the slaves.  In reality, the vast majority of the soldiers and their commanders didn't give a hoot about slavery--and most likely did not consider blacks, free or slave, to be their equals.  (And Abraham Lincoln took great steps to not include the slavery issue in his war rhetoric--until the Emancipation Proclamation--which he issued THREE YEARS INTO THE WAR!) But what they did believe was that the land between the 49th Parallel and the Rio Grande should be the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

And you know what?  There are still a lot of us who believe that same thing today.  Sure, we're going to be a little more Socialist than we were before--and we aren't going to be as rich as previous generations--but that was the (small "d") democratic decision of the people--and we all have to live with it, until the next time we exercise our right to decide our own fate.

If the Tea Party types want to start a "revolution" maybe they should follow the example of those they oppose so much--and really do it on the grassroots level.  Run for City Councils, School Boards and County Boards.  Work in education and social services fields.  Research what "community organizers" actually do--and do that too.  The victories of the Left are the results of concerted efforts 20, 30 even 50 years in the making--but there is no reason those on the Right can't do the same things to "save the country".

It sure beats thinking you can just quit and go somewhere else.