Tom Woods writes:
We all heard about their sudden interest in secession following the Trump victory. A movement called Yes California wants that state to withdraw from the Union.
All of a sudden they’ve discovered the sacred principles of independence, self-determination, etc.
Blech.
PROBLEM #1: If these are such sacred principles, why were they mocked and ridiculed when other people (such as a certain podcast host you know) tried to advance them, and why were those people portrayed as “racists,” “neo-Confederates,” and the usual laundry list of sinister people?
But my favorite is….
PROBLEM #2: Because Yes California is a leftist organization, even when it’s right it’s wrong. The group claims it could not secede from the Union unless a constitutional amendment were ratified to allow it.
It goes on to cite the ludicrous Texas v. White (1869), which declared secession unconstitutional without deigning to employ such coarse instruments as reason or evidence.
In fact, (1) secession is perfectly constitutional, and (2) in the last resort the states, which created the Union, can’t be held hostage by a court they themselves established, as James Madison explained in his Report of 1800.
The Yes California group would know all the constitutional arguments in favor of state secession if they could bring themselves to read — or indeed were aware of the existence of — the various antebellum and postbellum southern constitutional commentaries that dealt with this question.
Since southerners are the very kind of people Yes California wants to separate from, they cannot even bring themselves to consider these sources. In other words, it’s the usual arrogance.
