Congressman Ron Paul Defends Concept Of Secession

[struggle4progress]

Defines principle as an American tradition

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

... “It’s a very good principle, it’s a principle of a free society and it’s a shame we don’t have it anymore.” Paul said ... http://www.prisonplanet.com/congressman-ron-paul-defends-concept-of-secession.html

[polysciguy420]

1. well

in theory he sort of has a point. While I disagree with his position on the particular issue of secession, free societies by definition should be free to do whatever they damn well please! Our free society is the exact reason why we are even able to debate the issue in public. If we start placing exclusions on the concept of "free" in circumstances where we disagree, we run the risk of having some of our convictions excluded by a majority who may find our viewpoint disagreeable.

[struggle4progress]

2. I am increasingly of the opinion that such theoretical and ideological discussions make no sense,

except in the context of actual facts

As a clear statement of the ideal issues, one perhaps cannot do better than Thoreau's brilliant 1849 essay on Civil Disobedience:

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have

But even that essay at least considers the abstract questions in the context of the particular issues of his time, namely, slavery and the 1846 Mexican war, or state support of the church, or the poll tax: so he writes

All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable ... In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army ... This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people

and similarly writes

Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said, "or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay ... I have paid no poll tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night ... I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow countrymen now

The current Republican secessionist chic is, however, not supported by any actual grievances, nor by the idealism that motivated Thoreau -- it is simply an attempt to ensure that certain extremists continue to vote with the Republican bloc

Poll shows only 18% of Texans back secession
http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/04/17/poll-shows-only-18-of-texans-back-secession-governor-backpedals/#-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5481210&mesg_id=5481684

[johnlal]

3. Maybe, but this guy wanted to be president...

Why would anybody want to elect a leader who wants to destroy the union he's in charge of?