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Dr. Clyde N. Wilson

CALEXIT: California, Adios!

11/30/2018

7 Comments

 
Picture

It seems that out in California an impressively large number of people are petitioning for a referendum on secession. While I don’t think much of their motive, I say more power to them.

The motivation is, of course, fear by California  leftists and foreigners that the 2016 federal election has deprived them of the excessive influence  they have exercised over American domestic policies at least since a movie actor was elected President in 1980.  The secession move amounts to an adolescent tantrum at not getting their way. This reflects a widespread defect of the Yankee national character---a tendency  to reduce public matters to self-centered personal emotions.

However, there is a principle involved here.  The basic principle of the Declaration of Independence that Americans claim to admire (though seldom exercising it):  just governments must derive their being from “the consent of the governed.”  If a majority of the real citizens of California want to be independent of the U.S., they should be and have every right to decide so.  Frankly, I would be delighted to be rid of them---far happier, I suspect, than they would be in getting rid of me.  I do not need them at all.  They need me to boss around and feel superior to.

We are in a new millennium. The ruling classes in the U.S. and Europe have clearly lost their grip---they are ever more selfish, clueless, and incompetent. They cannot think of anything except to keep on doing what they have been doing, no matter how disastrous the results. The 2016 election and other signs indicate that good people everywhere are ready for a new, more democratic and more responsible way of governing.    

It is time to think the unthinkable. To rise really  to the  new challenges of a changing world that politicians are always gassing on about.  

These California secessionists are our “discontented fellow citizens,” to use the label that Lincoln placed on Southerners who solemnly and democratically voted to get out from under his rule. Let us hope that if it comes to a real act of secession today, the U.S. government will act more rationally and humanely than it did in 1861. Then the ruling capitalist interests of the Northern States knew that an independent free trade South would critically reduce their profits and deprive them of captive markets and resources.  Rivers of blood were preferable.  There was a lot of noise about the “glorious eternal Union,”  that is, forcible imposition of the false idea that Americans all  belong under one government. And a lot  of insincere babble about “slavery.”
 
Doubtless, if Southerners were talking about secession today, the Special  Forces and tactical nukes would already be deployed.  But Californians are not Southerners and cannot be treated that way.  I can’t see that the U.S. has anything to lose and much to gain.

Another unfortunate national defect is to look at nuts and bolts and lose sight of the whole machine. There will be wails about the impracticability of separation of California from the other States.  In 1861 there was good faith on only one side---  the South was willing to settle all issues of separation responsibly.  Where there is good faith on both sides, all issues can be negotiated to a satisfactory settlement.  For instance, the U.S. could keep a 99-year lease on its naval bases.  Californians entitled to Social Security retirement benefits could keep them, although not all the other welfare from the federal treasury that has made half the people wealthier than the rest of us.

California, as they are saying, is certainly “a country,”  as viable in separate nationhood as any other Latin American state.  I realize that there are many good Americans in California who do not want to be part of a declining Third World country.  The great sums that will be saved from supporting the bottomless welfare state of California can be used to resettle those good people in  America if they wish.  These folks will be a boon to the U.S. economy and culture.

Imagine the change for the better in reason and patriotism if there were 53 fewer members of the U.S. House of Representatives.  (Many of them are loyalists to other countries anyway.)  I would recommend putting heavy taxes on  importation of Hollywood productions that have destroyed the moral tone of what used to be a reasonably decent people.  We might even be able to build a truly American cinema of high quality.

One widespread characteristic  defect of the Yankee national character  I have mentioned---a tendency to reduce public matters to self-centered personal emotions.  There is a socialist  side to this that has become glaringly evident of late in California and elsewhere.  There is also a fascist side---people who react violently to any notion of breaking up the good ole U.S. of A., “the greatest nation on earth.”   This is what happens to people who have no culture and no religion and can only gain identity from their feeling of belonging to a powerful government.  Such people are unable to tell the difference between government-worship and real patriotism---the love of one’s land and people.  And they are out there, believe me.  Every time I write a little something in defense of the Confederacy I receive denunciations as a traitor who will soon meet my just demise.

California independence can bring with it some real problems.  For instance, as it collapses ever further into debt-ridden poverty, the government may try to prevent good Americans from leaving, as is the case now with white people in Southern Africa.  Parasites need their hosts.  Another genuine concern is that the vacuum will bring in dangerous Chinese influence.  Response will have to be made to such situations when they arise.  Decisions will be much easier without California distorting the national debate.

Some years ago I had a debate with a couple of libertarians who said that they were all for secession where people wanted it, but, of course, it could  not apply to the South because the South had immoral reasons for secession and because it was “holding hostages,” the slaves.  They displayed the usual ignorant distortion of  that portion of American history.  After the first wave of secession there were still more slaves in the U.S. than in the seceded States.  There were also more free black people in the South than in the North and they were in better condition. To assume that the black people were “hostages” presumes that the North was somehow being deprived of them or concerned about them.  That assumption is  a grievous lie.  If there was one  thing that all Northerners agreed upon it was that they did not want the black people, free or slave.  

Besides the historical ignorance, there is a more fundamental flaw  in their self-righteous philosophizing.   If I have a right to secession, then that right cannot be subject to the interference of some force that claims to reject my right on his own self-determined moral considerations.  That is  simply to  say that there is no right and there cannot be and never can be any right.  Its exercise will always be countered by some outside evaluation of its  bad motives.  The South declared honestly that it seceded to be free of exploitation and interference.  Its  independence could not be justly challenged by an opponent’s propaganda slogan that it was motivated by the evil motive of keeping slavery.  In fact, the North had never challenged slavery, only opposed its “extension” to new territory.

I have to confess that my strongest feeling in favour of California secession is the precedent it can set.  I dream that some day my own brave and beautiful little country of South Carolina can be independent again, as we have been twice before in our history.  We have everything that we need and, from our imprisonment in the Union, a lot that we don’t need. Independence would remove the totally evil influence of the national Republican Party from our polity, and perhaps prompt the flight of a lot of discontented carpetbaggers.  (This latter may not work out.  I notice that while Yankees always put the South down, they all want to live here if they can.)

A beautiful little warm, coastal Switzerland we could be! Something truly valuable that I can leave my descendants.  There may be those who can love New York or Detroit or Las Vegas.  I cannot, but I am willing to live and let live if they will.  I certainly cannot love the politicians who govern us all.  South Carolina is quite enough for all the genuine patriotism anyone could want.
7 Comments
Clayton Smith
12/3/2018 11:14:30 pm


To the author, California is not a single geographic unity. It is in fact a least two geographic areas, divided by the mountains and deserts just south of Bakersfield. The center of the state is a river basin, surrounded by foothill communities. The north coastal and north inland mountain areas are an entire world of their own. The Feds own 47% of the land in the state. The cultures of the north, the south and the center are very incompatible. Yes, it would be complex, extremely so. Add to this the racial balkanization we have here and it could get violent in a hurry. Gavin is likely to be the last white european governor in its history. For us who came out here 50 years ago, the dream is dead. It is sad but true. You gotta be really rich to hangout and do much dreaming in the sunny money land of the left coast.

Reply
Cal
12/15/2018 02:02:50 pm

"The Feds own 47% of the land in the state."

US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;"

The feds are NOT allowed to own land beyond that which is delegated for them to have which is Washington DC, and any land PURCHASED from the states with the consent of the state legislature for the EXPRESS and ONLY purposes of "the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings".

You're correct about California being different. Plus the largest cities crammed with people LA/Orange Counties, SF/Bay areas politically control the rest of the state. The needs/wants of those in the above named areas are very different from the rest of the state's needs/wants.

We would like to split the state into three states, where the California name will stay with the southern part that wishes to leave the union. From about northern Sacramento County east to Inyo County, with the northern boundary Hunboldt, Glenn, Butte Plumas; with the northern most of the state of California and southern Oregon becoming the new state of Jefferson.

The new states of Northern California and Jefferson are constitutional republic states (mostly). They wish to stay with the Union becoming new states if/when the reduced California leaves taking most of the socialists and "others" with it.

They, having had to go through much, will be more free and constitutional as the framers was working towards because they understand the travails of living under the opposite.

Accountability of their reps who will serve within the federal House and Senate because it is written into the state Constitutions. I, myself, have read every state Constitution in the Union, plus the US Constitution because that is a REQUIREMENT of self governance, knowing what is allowed or forbidden to those who serve within our governments. Understanding that thought they are the Supreme Law (of this nation that REQUIRES that all legislation be in Pursuance thereof it) and Highest Laws (each state Constitution is the highest Law of that state) of this nation.

So I would say that your understanding of the "California problem" is lacking a bit.

Reply
ed smith
12/4/2018 05:55:35 am

Though I'm a damnyankee, I love your pieces. You write, "a widespread defect of the Yankee national character—a tendency to reduce public matters to self-centered personal emotions."

I wonder if this trait is relatively recent. It's certainly the case here in P.C.ville. I live next door to the town where Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, but I suspect that any bona fide Puritan would be revolted by the virtue signaling of the Gospel according to Liz Warren. The great demographic shift will likely increase anti-white sentiment in the land. (We detest white privilege in this lily white town but do nothing to part with it. On the other hand, #metoo is proving to be an effective means of intimidating the diminishing portion of the community that identifies as male.) What surprises me is the rise of anti-Southern prejudice here. Perhaps it shouldn't. The South is our symbol of white supremacy, an image that may be indelible no matter the evidence that may be marshaled to refute it. Well, the South did rise again and y'all may yet have the last laugh.

I have an ancestor that fought for the Union. When he got off the boat and made his way to Western Maryland, the Federals handed him a rifle, showed him how to use it and told him who to point it at. The tale, in my family, is that old Hans Schmidt wasn't very good at weapon pointing and ended up doing more harm to the Blue than the Gray, "not," said my grandfather, "that he would have known the difference."

Reply
Keith Haas
12/5/2018 06:42:01 am

Would the libertarians oppose American secession in 1776 for "holding hostages" or are we relying on the state's standard for what is justified secession?

Reply
TNFarmer
12/6/2018 08:51:30 am

Ohio is becoming the same way. That's why I'm outta here. The political landscape in the north is turning everyone (BLUE). I've plans for my relocation were the people still have sense, kneel to god and stand for our glorious FLAG!!!

Reply
Janet Wilie
12/6/2018 08:44:39 pm

Nice point, but why did you write BLUE and FLAG in full caps, but wrote god in lower case? He is God,

Reply
Roger D
12/7/2018 05:11:09 am

I’ll tell you something about Yankees.

How many times have you read of a conflict arising from one guy in the neighborhood wanting to display a flag? Typically a non-conforming vet is being persecuted by a home owners association; often in the South; Florida comes to mind. I guarantee you that in 99% of the cases the HOA is governed by transplanted Yankees. They are know-it-all control freaks.

Historian Dr. Brion McClanahan got it right, “A Yankee is a particular breed of person who believes that everyone should live as he does, and if not, he will force you to bend to his will.”

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    Author

    Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews

    Dr. Wilson is also is co-publisher of Shotwell Publishing, a source  for unreconstructed Southern books. 

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