Secession and the Power of the Sword

As I mentioned in the Power of the Purse article, you may have seen Edwin Vieira’s three-part series at DumpDC.com, which was a dissenting opinion about secession. His analysis is wrong in all but two points. The point he makes, besides the “Purse” is also unarguable. That is the absolute requirement of a seceding state to wield the Power of the Sword.

The Power of the Sword I speak of here is the State Militia. A seceding state MUST FIRST establish its own military, and the best form of a military for a new nation is a citizen militia.¹

Over the past 20-30 years, the only stories you might have seen in the media about militias were slanted toward gun-toting, camo-wearing crazies who preach white power, or overthrow of Washington, or some other nutty philosophy. But you will be hard pressed to find a serious treatment of the function of a state militia anywhere in the media. So, the very word “militia” has been tainted and associated with kooks. Believe me, that was their very intent.

Anyone who believes in big government cannot abide the idea that each state should have a “well-regulated militia.” The two entities…big government and state sovereignty exhibited through military resistance…are forever at enmity with each other. Brute force wins every time, and big government is the personification of brute force.

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution was supposed to guarantee the existence of state militias. Instead, Washington has inundated Americans with the very laws and regulations that violated the Amendment and purposely infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms. But Washington has always been much less concerned with citizens’ rights to carry concealed weapons than they are committed to stripping the states of their militias. It’s simply that they pulled a Harry Houdini sleight-of-hand ploy. They diverted the attention of the masses over weapons bans, assault rifle restrictions and concealed carry laws…and all the while, militias disappeared in all 50 states.

And the secessionists are deathly afraid of the topic of militias as armed resistance. Serious, substantive discussion about the re-formation and revitalization of the state militia is off-limits in most circles of the secessionist movement. I have likened this fear to posting a “No Guns In Our House” sign in your front lawn. You may be committed to non-violence, but the criminals aren’t.

It is not reasonable to believe that Washington will simply benignly accept the secession of ANY state. It is not reasonable to believe that DC’s lawyers and bureaucrats will negotiate with ANY seceding state in good faith to accomplish a peaceful separation. It is not reasonable to believe that Federal courts will uphold any legal effort at secession. It is whistling past the graveyard.

By the secessionists assuming the kneeling, cowering position of non-resistance, DC already knows that talk about state secession is an example of “big hat, no cattle.” This is also the main reason that Washington is not threatened by the “Tea Party” rallies. When Washington calls the bluff of the secessionists and says “put up or shut up,” all you will hear is crickets chirping from the state secession movements.

That is, secession movements in states without well-regulated militias.

The Founders of the United States, those men who signed the Declaration of Independence, knew that by affixing their signatures to that sacred document, they had signed their own death warrants. They knew that they would be hung for treason if captured. In this present-day environment in which Washington sees a terrorist lurking in every shadow, and each terrorist perceived as a threat to Washington’s very existence, secessionist leaders in every state will have a bulls-eye on their chests.

Washington’s going to take secession efforts very personally. Obama already said so in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

I’ve said time and time again that the timing of secession is everything. I’ve said that the best time for secession is after the coming economic meltdown. True enough. But no matter what happens with the dollar, no matter how bad the economy gets, Washington will still have a core of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel that will obey orders. They will still own tanks and helicopter gunships and jet fighters and warships. There will be a core of law enforcement personnel in every state that are willing to enforce Federal law.

In the past, I have focused your attention on the secession of 1989, when the Soviet Union dissolved and the 15 republics of the USSR became sovereign nations once again. I have held hope that such a relatively non-violent separation could occur here in the United States. But that faint hope is fast ebbing in me. I fear that the criminal class in Washington is staffed with much more desperate criminals than the ones that held together the Soviet Union.

I do not believe that there is a chance in Hell that secession from the United States of America can succeed without any seceding state FIRST revitalizing its citizen militia. Brute force only respects the resistance of an equal or superior brute force. Ladies and gentlemen, there will be blood spilled for liberty again.

If you disagree with me, I invite you to write with your arguments.

Then the future will show us which of us is right.

Secession is the Hope for Mankind. Who will be first…and wisest?

¹Vieira also wrote compellingly about militias. Find his articles at: News With Views. There are a bunch of them.

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© Copyright 2010, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.