Secession Making a Comeback?

From Yahoo News:

Separated by hundreds of miles and divergent political philosophies, the Middlebury Institute and the League of the South are hosting a two-day Secessionist Convention starting Wednesday in Chattanooga.

They expect to attract supporters from California, Alaska and Hawaii, inviting anyone who wants to dissolve the Union so states can save themselves from an overbearing federal government.

If allowed to go their own way, New Englanders "probably would allow abortion and have gun control," Hill said, while Southerners "would probably crack down on illegal immigration harder than it is being now."

The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly prohibit secession, but few people think it is politically viable.

I agree that it's unlikely to succeed (remember the last attempt some 150 years ago?). But such a strong desire should tell us something: there is deep dissatisfaction all across the country with the way things are going, for a number of often divergent reasons.

There is a solution, though. And while I admit it would also be an uphill battle, it has two things going for it: (1) it would preserve the union and (2) unlike many things that go on today would actually be Constitutional.

It's called "federalism." It's how our country was designed to operate, and it's how we did operate until about 60 years ago when FDR radically expanded the power of the central/federal government.

The serious student of American history knows that for decades after the United States became a nation, the states saw themselves with great autonomy from the government in Washington, D.C. For example, people in Virginia saw themselves as Virginians first, and saw Virginia as their "country." In this, they were not being rebellious or radical, merely reflective of the autonomy guaranteed to the states by our U.S. Constitution.

We see the doctrine of shared powers or co-sovereignty not only in the voluminous writings of the Founders, but in even more concrete pillars of our government.

The Tenth Amendment, after all, states "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Sadly, in the last 60 years this has been reinterpreted to essentially say, "The powers not prohibited to the United States by the Constitution, regardless of what the states or the people have to say, are reserved to the federal government."

Consider also that the electoral college, the system by which we elect presidents, as opposed to popular vote, is specifically designed to empower the states. Presidents are not elected by an across-the-board vote of all U.S. citizens, but are elected by blocks of electoral votes that belong specifically to each state based on the state's population. The Founders saw the need for the states to have specific and substantive powers in order for federalism to work...and to provide a check on central government.

Recall, too, that prior to the 17th Amendment, United States senators were NOT elected by a vote of the people, but by the state legislatures. This was yet another instance of sway and co-power between the states and the central (federal) government.

But now the states have no direct influence on the federal legislative body, and some are very eager to do away with the electoral college. Beyond that, the 10th Amendment is so much toilet paper, and federalism has devolved from "shared power" to a situation where the only power the states have is in matters that the federal government doesn't deem worthy of it's magnificent consideration. In other words, the states get the crumbs that fall from the table of the federal government.

A return to federalism would be good, not only to disarm secessionist talk like that cited above, but would restore health to our nation. The Founders saw the grave dangers of a powerful central government and accordingly they set up our system of federalism to combat that danger. But this federalist protection has been short-circuited and disabled, and we are suffering for it.

We get one-size-fits-all solutions imposed from Washington that really don't fit the various states well at all (some are populous, some are sparse, some are urban, some are rural, some are manufacturing states, some are ag states, some are liberal, some are conservative). And we have imperial edicts handed down from Washington that were once decided state by state according to the needs and dispositions of each state.

Do I think it'll be easy to return to federalism? No, not at all; in fact, it's sadly unlikely. But all movements invariably start with a handful of people. And they build as people see the need. If we don't turn back to the way things were supposed to be, we're going to end up with the solidification of the shadow of oligarchy we currently live under. Or we'll end up a fragmented continent, as the secessionists want. Or both in succession.