That is simply not possible.

I would also argue the limits of politics and what the government wants and deems appropriate. There is a difference between high order political theory and reality. People who often hear about my ideas of economics and ethics often say that I am only talking ‘high theory’ and not practicality and common sense.

My response is terse and might help a little bit in this discussion; it is the people who view the Constitution and democracy as being ‘laws of the land’ and governing all the realm of reality as being impractical. They believe that political theory applies, if voted by the majority, is not only just, but also implies truth and reality. For example, in an argument over minimum wage laws and the Department of Education, my professor whom I am arguing with said “do we have a right to education? Not sure, the Supreme Court hasn’t decided so.”

This amounts to the greatest amount of sillyness that I can think of at the moment. To argue that the Constitution, the Supreme Court, or democracy governs what is a ‘right’, or what is ‘real’, is about as silly as deciding solutions to calculus problems by arm wrestling.

How does this apply to the right to secession? Well, politically (theory), we don’t have a ‘right’ to leave the Union. But in reality it is a very real possibility once things get bad enough.

To wit; imagine that five to ten years from now, Texans are quite pissed at the State of the Union, and decide that they want to leave. Imagine that most, if not all, decide this.

Do you really think that the United States government, with it’s one million man Army, would be able or willing to wage war against, say, 10 or 15 million angry Texas males who wanted to defend their homes and families from Leviathan? I think that it would be political and military suicide for U.S. to engage in such a policy. Unlike the Civil War, which is sometimes justified today by the need to end slavery, this could not be used as an example in contemporary times. What justification would the U.S. use if they decided to war on Texas? ‘We are doing this to promote public education’ before bombing Austin and killing thousands of people? I highly doubt it.

For this reason, I think that secession is still possible.

Sorry for the long post, Ilana.

Things will likely still have to get a little worse before it becomes viable. But I think we are reaching a demarcation point. While most Americans are stupid or evil, there are some who are becoming more angry at the State.

I see a little bit of it in my poly science class.

Also, I think that if, say, Texas left the Union, and dramatically rolled back the State, the effects of greater prosperity and less political faction could be seen as being positive by other States.

This is probably just positive thinking, but at least the word is out there. Imagine how the now legendary von Mises must have felt when times were even worse, and Austrian economic theory was thought to be dead?