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Anti-Obama backlash: right-wingers broach "secession"
On the heels of talk about forming an an anti-Obama "underground," the right-wing talk radio set is now broaching actual secession from the union. The liberal blog Think Progress Nov. 25 posted an audio link from a recent broadcast by shock-jock Glenn Beck. Here's the offending quote:
So the question is, do states have the right to secede anymore? Because it was a compact. It's not perpetual. In fact, in the Declaration of Independence it says it is our right, it is our responsibility to get away from a government who doesn't listen to us any more.
Do you even have a right to do that as a state any more? Do you have the right to say, "You know what, you guys are going down a path that I don't even agree with"? Is that even possible?
"Anymore"? Nowhere in the Constitution does it say states have the rights to secede, and the question was settled rather definitively with the Civil War. As for the Declaration of Independence, the invocation is rather an irony. Many of the grievances enumerated there against King George III apply equally to George Bush. Read for yourself:
The History of the present King [George] is a history of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States... He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance [Homeland Security Department, PATRIOT Act]... He has affected to render the Military independent of, and superior to the Civil Power. [Guantánamo tribunals] He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws [violations of habeas corpus, Fourth Amendment (electronic snooping), separation of powers (Iraq security pact)]; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us [Northern Command, use of the military for domestic policing]; For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit [Military Commissions Act]... For depriving us in many cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury [declaring citizens "enemy combatants"]... For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences ["extraordinary rendition"]... He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People [Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.]... In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
Yet Beck didn't talk about secession under President Bush, or utter a peep of protest against any of these abuses. In fact, he appealed for national unity against terrorism (and the Islamic world generally) in what he called "World War III." But now that a Black man is going to be president—before he even takes office, Beck is preparing a new assault on Fort Sumter...
See our last posts on the emerging Obama era, the radical right and the politics of secession.









Threats against Obama soar
Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher has been keeping tabs, and reports his findings on Huffington Post Nov. 15:
Secession
Larry Kilgore won 225,000 votes running as a Texas Secession candiate while Bush was in office. Mr. Kilgore is running for Texas Governor 2010. As you stated in your post the constitution is silent on the issue of secession. Therefore the tenth ammendment whould allow a state to secede. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
"Texans have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.” Texas Constitution - Article 1- Section 2
"Yet Beck didn't talk about
"Yet Beck didn't talk about secession under President Bush"
Actually it's not even january yet, so yeah... he did talk about recession under President Bush
Anti-Obama backlash: right-wingers broach "secession"
Why can't you at least be honest? Beck has been screaming about these abuses from every moutaintop for a VERY long time. By the way, George Bush is STILL president, Senator O'Bama has not been sworn in yet - it is irrelevant WHO is president, it matters who will stop these abuses that make people think about their own rights.
Know the constitution, unite under the principles that formed this country and take the action that will PREVENT the next world war!
Your bias is showing.
Your bias is showing large dude. If you listened to Beck you would know he said all those things UNDER PRESIDENT BUSH! Your statement this is about Barack Obama is disingenuous and misleading. Beck was saying all these things over a year ago ABOUT GEORGE BUSH! But since that doesn't fit your agenda, you conveniently ignore that.
Your "list" comparing GWB with King George III is similarly misleading. If you were to critically look at the FDR administration your could make similar comparisons as well as with the Lincoln administration and many many other Presidents over the years.
While I'm not a huge Beck fan, at least you get opinion labeled as opinion, not whitewashed as journalism.
you are an idiot
You are an idiot. Obviously you don't listen to the show. Nice try left wing wacko.
Secession comments
You apparently don't listen to Glenn Beck's show. If you did, you'd understand that the comments he made are concerning the government in general. So the "peep" that you claim wasn't uttered under George Bush is an erroneous statement on your part. The last time I check George W. Bush was still the President and Beck's comments where made recently weren't they?
It doesn't matter who the person in the executive branch is so stop playing the race card. There is one race and that's the Human Race. Anyone who believes otherwise I pity. The crazy train is rolling and Joe Public doesn't seem to care that it's out of control as long as there are enough X-Box's on the shelves for Christmas. The Big Government system that has been allowed to fester since the early 1900's is going to destroy everything America was founded on. Have some guts and address that. Then address the Obama agenda and honestly say that it won't push us further done the wrong road as the Bush administration has.
the black guy's bailing out Wall Street
As Think Progress points out Beck is wondering about succession as a protest against the various Wall Street bailouts, not opposing Obama's election as implied above. However it is doubtful that Beck would be on the same rant with a Pres Elect McCain.
Actual News
It would be nice for a change if people who wrote in these blogs actually researched before they came about and slandered anyone wither it be President Elect Barak Obama or someone in the media.
1. Who in talk radio has ever talk about an Anti-Obama underground?
2. When we signed the Constitution we did away with the principles of the Declaration of Independence? If a government goes out of control we no longer have the right to peaceably to say we no longer want to be a part of this anymore. Does this leave us that we have to take up arms?
3. It is true about the comparisons between then and now about George W. Bush vs. the Declaration of Independence and King George vs. the same. However, to say that Glenn has never spoken about recession during the presidency of George W. Bush kinda misses the mark as our current president is still George W. Bush. (The Inauguration of President Elect Obama happens NEXT year) Indeed it was over a year ago that he (Glenn) began to talk about how bad things are with the weasels in Washington at this magnitude.
So again it would be nice if before you wrote things you would get the facts first.
Responses
We should have mentioned that the secession comments were ostensibly about the Wall Street bailout, but Glenn was not talking about secession until after Obama was elected and we think that is a pretty clear subtext.
Sean Hannity spoke about forming a "underground." Click on the link, that's what it's there for.
Secession
"Nowhere in the Constitution does it say states have the rights to secede, and the question was settled rather definitively with the Civil War."
Whoa.
I suppose Ike Turner settled rather definitevely who's boss when he had to punch Tina to the ground, too. After all, she had make a vow of obedience to him.
Oh, and the Consitution wasn't designed to tell the sovereign States what they couldn't do -- it was rather a limit on the powers delegated to the Federal government. That's why the 9th and 10th amendments were made an integral part of the Constitution.
Bottom line: NOTHING in the ratification of the Constitution negated or surrendered the rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. NOTHING.
here come the wingnuts
What is it about a black guy getting elected that all of a sudden has right wing weirdos posting on a progressive blog? States rights arguments take on a lot of rhetoric but end up being about whether the Feds can force civil rights on the south, and, if you're Ron Paul, about whether the Federal government can enforce environmental regulations. Do you white guys really miss the Confederacy that much? Budget cuts limiting the civil war reenactor after parties?
'surrendered the rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence'
So you're worried that the libruls will turn us back over to the British? Taxation without representation may have been cheaper in the long run.
Obama
Why do allyou leftists insist on referring to Obama as a black man? He's half white and all raised white. You should be disgusted that he shuns his white heritage.
racist weirdos
Hangman, huh? You're a weirdo.
In America, half black half white equals black. Now be honest, you'd rather he sat in the back of the bus.
Secession Is Constitutional...
Now wait just a minute. So are you saying that secession would've been OK under the presidency of Bush? I mean, since you were comparing him to King George.
Secession from the u. s.
Anymore?? Answer: Yes, always.
The Declaration of Independence was a secession ordinance. You know.... 'WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,...'. So, secession is the primordial American political principle. Without it, there wouldn't have been a united States.
The 'union', or general government was created by the States via their individual, speaking only for themselves separately as States, ratifications of the compact we commonly call the Constitution. Via the 9th and 10th Amendments, the States made it abundantly clear that what they did not delegate to the general government, they retained. Secession is NOT expressly prohibited by the Constitution. As you say, the document is completely SILENT on the issue. Therefore, it logically follows that it must be one of the unenumerated rights protected by the 9th Amendment and irrevocably retained by the 10th Amendment. This understanding of things was well within the grasp of the people of the founding generation (and some of us yet today). Unfortunately, after 143 years of governemnt school brainwashing and 'ape' lincoln deification, the average American moron understands nothing and compliantly accepts the chains of slavery. God help us!!
As for the so-called 'civil war', it settled NOTHING except that a country of 22 million people (the u.s.) could invade, conquer, and subjugate a country of 9 million people (the CSA). As President Davis said, a question settled by violence or in disregard of the law remains unsettled forever. Only the atheist and barbarian holds that 'might makes right'.
Finally, we in the League of the South have been advocating
secession since 1994. We hold the two wings of the one, indivisible, and Marxist party in equal contempt. Barack Obama will change things? My ass!! Look at his actions so far. More of the status quo. It's time to board the dissolution wagon, folks.
Outer limits of irony
Being moron-baited by someone who thinks that the Republican Party is "Marxist" is too absurd to warrant comment. You guys understand Marx no better than the US Constitution or American history. But this level of hysterical irony doesn't come close that of Confederacy-nostalgists refering to US federal power with the highly ill-advised metaphor of chains of slavery. I almost dare to hope that this is satire. Almost.
Secession is a right, not a privlege
Specifically, it is an inalienable right, as inalienable as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, even if it isn't explicitly mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. And I can only speak for myself, but I have been pro-secession from Clinton through GW, to today. I think Obama is a better man the GW, but that doesn't change the fact that I believe that secession is a fundamental human right, and that those that deny my that right are abusing my human rights.
And its not just "right-wingers" advocating for secession. There are major secessionist groups in Vermont, Oregon & Washington State, and Hawaii, all three of which are pretty darned "leftist". A _lot_ of people think the United States of America is broken beyond repair, and wasn't such great shakes when it was functioning with what ounce of competence it once had. There's more people thinking that every day. And we will win.