Vindication

A decade ago I began talking seriously about nullification and secession as realistic -- even peremptory -- measures to rescue what America is meant to be from what it has become. Nobody welcomed such talk at the time.  "Conservatives" worshiped George W. Bush as the second coming, and "liberals" always have despised secession because it allows people to escape from their social experiments.  Despite this, I wrote and self-published books making these arguments, virtually throwing away any future I had in mainstream political discourse.  It was a crossroads, and I chose the path less traveled because I knew that on my deathbed it would make all the difference (yes, Robert Frost inspired me).  I never expected any reward.

Now I have it:  almost 1 million Americans from across all 50 states have petitioned to secede from the United States.  I have no idea whether secession will happen in my lifetime, or ever.  As I've already stated on this blog, I don't think the petition is a good idea because it presupposes that the White House has a say in the matter, which it does not.  But I am vindicated.  Public discourse has accommodated itself to me; I did not have to sell out my principles to accommodate myself to it, and I am on the public record from before all this happened.  The joy I feel at this moment is far sweeter than anything I have ever experienced.  I imagine that abolitionists felt this way upon passage of the 13th Amendment, after they had spent many years apparently wasting their lives as crazed voices in the wilderness.

And best of all, I'm not done yet.  I will keep up the drumbeat on this blog, in everyday life, and perhaps in further books.  I am a student of history and know full well that the system of government we confront today is illegal, immoral, and destructive.  I have said it before, and I will say it again:

Although I once struggled to reconcile this conclusion with my patriotism, I now understand that my patriotism demands nothing less. Our Founders never contemplated, and no duly-considered amendment ever authorized, that the federal government would extend its reach so deeply into our lives or so far across the face of the globe. I am not made an outlaw by refusing to embrace such outlaw behavior. To sit idly by while the federal government routinely desecrates the Constitution and imperils our lives and our posterity would itself be criminal, and it would require me to deny my adherence to the rule of law; my lawyer’s oath to uphold the Constitution; my respect for the truth; and my very nature as a man.

I am grateful that the remnant of Americans who understand this are speaking out.