In the comment-thread to our previous post, we see in microcosm the tremendous fissure in American culture and politics. It goes far deeper than mere disagreements about policy; it has reached the point in which the two sides have entirely different conceptions of moral, political, cultural, social, historical, and even human reality — views that are not only incommensurable, but mutually and bitterly antagonistic.
This would be bad enough if the parties were engaged in a merely social dispute, but they are not: they are implacable rivals in a great contest for sovereignty over the entire American nation.
The problem is exacerbated by the ever-increasing centralization of American sovereignty in the Federal government, control of which meant far less in the early days of the Republic, but which has now become a struggle with truly existential stakes for the nation’s future. (Imagine a fully loaded tractor-trailer careening down a mountain road, with two mortal enemies in the cab fighting for the wheel, and you will have a sense of American political society in the early decades of the new millennium.)
This centralization, which has raised the stakes of political struggle to such dangerous heights, is itself a central battleground in our cold civil war. Were we able to return to the vision of government that the Framers intended — a federation of States, operating on the subsidiarian premise that government should be as local as possible, with the Federal apparatus limited to powers and responsibilities that are few and carefully enumerated — control of Washington would matter so little that there would be almost nothing there to fight over.
The singular exception to this, in America’s history, was of course the great question of slavery, now resolved at the cost of 600,000 lives and the subjugation of the South. That great civil war was a chastening lesson in the limits of comity and the willingness of Americans — and all people everywhere — to shed each other’s blood over incommensurable political and cultural axioms. (It left a terrible wound that was very slow to heal — to the extent that it healed at all — and that is now, in an ominous symptom of accumulated tectonic stress, being torn open again.)
Another crisis of comity now threatens us all: one that is, perhaps, even more ominous than that of the 1800s, in that there can be no geographical solution. I am not alone in thinking that we are already far closer to the breaking point than most of us realize.
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It must be 1860 all over again. John C. Calhoun is looking down at America in disbelief that it is not the American South in a state of insurrection, but California and a few smaller players. More ironic, we have a president from New York and his Attorney General is from Alabama of all places. California Governor Brown seems to be the late governor Faubus of Arkansas.
Where I live and was raised in North Carolina has reminders of the War of Rebellion all around here. Famous battlefields are not far away and just over the line in Virginia, the birthplace of several Confederate generals are found.
Is Washington supposed to wait for a “Fort Sumter” event or will Washington Federalize California National Guard to bring the state government into compliance with the Constitution and Federal law? All this struggle today is not caused by the moral question of slavery and its justification under state’s rights. Today the fight is between a “progressive” disorder vs a traditional workable Constitutional order. The “progressives” have pushed too far and will not back down until force is brought to bear by Federalized troops. It can get ugly and there may be violence and arrests and fatalities. If so, the “progressives” can rethink their untenable position as they bury their dead.
If anyone has not yet done so, please look at some civil war monuments and battle fields while you still can.
Here we go again. First of all, the south peacefully succeeded and was then illegally invaded by Lincoln. Here’s where the North screwed up: If the North wanted to free the slaves (there is mounds of evidence against this “theory”) then why didn’t they just beat the south and take the Negroes back with them and then let us, the South, go our own way in peace? That’s what the South was attempting to do in the first place before being illegally invaded by Lincoln. Why didn’t Lincoln emancipate the northern slaves? Why did Lincoln repeatedly say he wanted them sent back to Africa? Why did Lincoln say they couldn’t function in a high trust society? (my paraphrasing)
Anyway, why do you want to force communists in California to be free. That’s, well, I don’t want to name call here but really, honestly, that’s not all that bright an idea now is it? Screw ’em. Let them go. Rescind their statehood. They’ve violated the national trust and our laws. California has lost it’s privilege to be in the union. Goodbye!
Now, isn’t that a better solution than war? Than trying to make commies into republicans? Honestly!
And while we’re on the subject, The bad news is that the Republicans are now going full tilt gun control, but the good news is, the number of viable targets just doubled, so that’s handy. In the coming war I’ll be one side; me and mine.
Force California commies to be free, at gunpoint? Seriously? That’s absurd.
Stop conflating country with nation. They aren’t the same thing. Find your nation, the one you love, the one you would die for and let the rest go.
California? Bye bye!
Fred,
There is no precedent, nor any Constitutional mechanism, for rescinding statehood.
There is a secession movement afoot in California, and if they do decide to secede, they shall have my blessing. Till then, however, they are a part of this Union, and as such cannot be permitted to obstruct or nullify Federal law.
And we arrive at the full damage done by Lincoln. The union is a covenant, before God and men. Those in violation of the covenant should be removed or if they deem the feds to be the violator then they should succeed.
Every article of the constitution is willfully violated every second of every day by every government in the country. The people have never read it, nobody follows it, and nobody cares what it says. It’s not even a topic in Constitutional Law Schools. A contract which nobody has read and nobody follows is no contract at all. The constitution is null. The union is void. This is Lincoln’s legacy. This is what he wrought when he invaded his own country. The biggest tyrant and killer always gets the biggest statue in an empires capital city. America is no more.
And I disagree with you on nullification. This is how we find our way without bloodshed.
Look, you can’t force California to be like you. They aren’t like us. We are different nations. Are you going to repress them by force? Screw ’em. They’re commies, who cares about them?
It’s not going to go along party or regionals lines. There are too many counter parties to the contract that have been wronged. We are at least 6 or 7 different peoples. When this thing goes sideways it will be ugly.
Fred,
Exactly how do you imagine, in practical terms, that California will “be removed”?