Thursday, January 30, 2014

Obama to Expand Executive Authority, Says Ezra Klein

by Brian T. Lynch - January 30, 2014

Yesterday evening Ezra Klein spoke at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, as their guest lecturer. Ezra Klein is a journalist, blogger (Wonk Blog), political analyst and occasional guest star on MSNBC's news opinion shows. At age 29 he is one of the most influential journalists in Washington, and he is currently creating his own internet news organization in collaboration with Vox Media.

Klein focused his remarks on the broad structures of modern American politics that explain the context for President Obama's State of the Union address the night before. The President's address, he started, was notable for what it didn't contain. It didn't contain any reference to getting any big new initiatives passed in Congress.  President Obama has conceded that anything he proposes would be blocked from passage. Instead, Obama proposed plans to accomplish what he can through executive orders. He is using, and perhaps expanding his executive powers. The other remarkable feature of the President's address was the specificity and scope of these executive plans. Klein spoke to both of these issues.

By objective measures, according to Klein, the U.S. Congress is the most polarized it has been in a long time. He pointed out that polarization is not synonymous with rancorous debates or disagreements. Polarization is a measure of the overlap between two political parties, the less overlap, the greater the polarization. He pointed out that in the 1950's and early '60's the Democratic party was comprised of moderates, liberals from the North and conservatives from the South. The Republican party was also a blend of conservatives, liberals and moderates. Under these conditions there were pitched debates both between and within both parties. There were also ways to forge compromises between like minded representatives within each party.

The dynamic that blended the two parties this way was race, according to historians Klein cited. Once the civil rights act was passed and progress was made in racial integration, the Democrats lost the South and the two parties began reshuffling. Liberals moved into the Democratic Party and conservatives moved into the Republican Party. This resulted in less overlap and lead to the polarization we have today.  In Klein's view, the most conservative Democrat today has less in common with the most liberal Republican in that party, and vice versa. There is so little overlap that compromise is nearly impossible to achieve.

Party polarization and the inability to compromise leads directly to congressional stalemate (which Klein begrudging called "gridlock").  Under current conditions, when a minority party helps the majority pass legislation it makes the majority party look strong and effective, thereby improving their chances of being re-elected. Conversely, when the minority party obstructs the majority, it makes the majority party look ineffective and powerless causing voters to switch allegiances and elect the minority party.  This, according to Klein, explains why the current congress is unable to act.

Without structural changes, such as the rise of a third party, Klein sees little hope for improvements in congress. The most powerful branch of government, the legislative branch, is at an impasse. According to Klein, that doesn't mean nothing will be getting done. As he sees it, when congress can't exercise its powers, the authority and power of the other two branches of government grows to fill the void.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing (but it does seem to require greater vigilance on our part). This brought Klein to his second observation about Obama's State-of-the-Union address; the detailed account of where the Administration would be taking actions without the Congress.

The first two years of the Obama presidency saw the passage of more huge and important pieces of legislation than at any other time since the Lyndon Johnson administration. These are game changing initiatives with far reaching implications for American society. For example, the ACA has many little noticed, but broadly stated provision that will eventually re-invent (and improve) how treatment of common illnesses will be approached by doctors in the future.  

Klein pointed out that most laws are written in general legalese that still requires Executive Branch interpretation and the creation of rules and policies to create an operating administrative framework. The 2,000 page Affordable Care Act, he said, has already generated tens of thousands of pages of rules, regulations and policies in a still unfolding process actuating the law. It is the creation of policy and administrative regulations that gives chief executives in state and federal government their most effective way to exercise power. 

President Obama just announce that this is exactly what he intends to do. I will uses his executive powers to permanently shape  the policies and interpretations of the legislation he got passed in his first term. He intends to accomplish the goals for which he was elected through the constitutional powers he has as the administrator-in-chief of the federal bureaucracy.

(Note: Once in place, the rules and administrative codes created to animate laws are, by intentional design, hard to alter. This is actually the role and purpose of a bureaucracy, to be a bulwark against the capricious dictates of power or transient swings of populist politics. Bureaucracies are often maligned for being cumbersome and slow to change, yet this is also their greatest contribution towards stable and coherent governance. This fact is little understood and seldom appreciated.)


Much of the beltway media has interpreted the President's address as an admission that he is already a lame duck president, but nothing could be further from the truth. Klein believes that the rest of his term will produce enormous changes and benefits through executive actions. Because these changes will be happening in the nitty-gritty of agency bureaucracies it will be difficult for the beltway press to report on the changes. The Washington media, according to Klein, has a structural bias towards the much easier reporting on Congress. The legislative branch is centralized, accessible and filled with characters and conflicts that sell the news. Administrative law is dry, decentralized and much less accessible. Still, this is where Klein sees the real action over the next few years. Perhaps this is where he intends to focus his attentions as he moves to create his new internet news venture with Vox Media. Time will tell.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

WORLD MOVING FROM ECONOMIC CLASS TO CASTE SYSTEM

WORLD MOVING FROM ECONOMIC CLASS SYSTEM TO ECONOMIC CASTE SYSTEM

Oxfam: World's Richest 1 Percent Control Half Of Global Wealth

by SCOTT NEUMANJanuary 20, 2014 3:04 PM

Just 1 percent of the world's population controls nearly half of the planet's wealth, according to a new study published by Oxfam ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

The study says this tiny slice of humanity controls $110 trillion, or 65 times the total wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion people.

Other key findings in the report:

— The world's 85 richest people own as much as the poorest 50 percent of humanity.

— 70 percent of the world's people live in a country where income inequality has increased in the past three decades.

— In the U.S., where the gap between rich and poor has grown at a faster rate than any other developed country, the top 1 percent captured 95 percent of post-recession growth (since 2009), while 90 percent of Americans became poorer.

"Oxfam is concerned that, left unchecked, the effects are potentially immutable, and will lead to 'opportunity capture' — in which the lowest tax rates, the best education, and the best healthcare are claimed by the children of the rich," the relief agency writes. "This creates dynamic and mutually reinforcing cycles of advantage that are transmitted across generations."

Can U.S. Business Afford Raises or Higher Minimum Wages?

Question... In these hard times, do American corporations have enough cash on hand to offer their workers, especially their lower paid workers, a decent raise? Can they even afford a bump in the minimum wage without hurting their business? The single graph below answers the question better than words can say.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Hazards of Handing Out Hurricane Sandy Funds

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

The Hoboken mayor was disappointed by the small amount of federal funds received after Hurricane Sandy. Looking at how Mitigation Grants were distributed I don't blame her. These funds were spread out a mile wide and an inch deep. 

It's common sense. When limited funds are received to prepare for future storms, the money should be targeted to do the most good. Here was an opportunity to help save our coast from a rising ocean.

Hoboken sits on the tidal estuary of the Hudson River.  Over a thousand buildings were seriously damaged by tide waters laced with sewerage, yet Hoboken received the same funding as East Hanover, a town 23 miles inland. 

Dover is even smaller and further inland. Storm damage was far less severe, yet it received nearly as much funding as Hoboken.  This made no sense until I remembered the shocking endorsement of Christie for Governor by Dover Democrats. Could it be related?  Should we be looking into whether Sandy Relief funds were influenced more by political calculations than storm related issues?

A state executive said funds were distributed in a "methodical way with stakeholder input." How were these stakeholders chosen?  Was it based on future storm hazards or future political ambitions? I have questions.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Hoboken storm funding: The programs at the center of the controversy

The Star-Ledger January 21, 2014

By Erin O'Neill

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/hoboken_storm_funding_the_programs_at_the_center_of_the_controversy.html

The governor’s office claims nearly $70 million in disaster relief has funneled into Hoboken since Hurricane Sandy.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer says her flood-ravaged city has been awarded only $342,000 in recovery aid.

Both are right.

They’re right because they’re talking apples and oranges.

The mayor is referring to money that has been awarded to the city’s government. The governor’s office cites the large pool of federal money directly given to businesses and residents.

The back and forth between the mayor and the state highlights the confusion over the billions of dollars flowing into New Jersey in Sandy’s wake. There are no fewer than 50 state-administered recovery programs, along with big federal programs that have provided the bulk of the aid. [snip]

Read more at the link above.

  1. Dover mayor, 5 aldermen latest Democrats to endorse Christie

    www.dailyrecord.com/article/20131018/NJNEWS/310180052/

    Oct 19, 2013 - Chris Christie campaigns in Dover: Gov. Chris Christie was in Dover on Friday Oct. 18 to collect endorsements from Democratic Mayor James ...

  2. Governor Chris Christie Nets 58th Democrat Endorsement | The ...

    savejersey.com/.../chris-christie-governor-democrat-endorsemen...

    Oct 18, 2013 - Governor Christie welcome the endorsement of Mayor James Dodd (D-Dover) along with all five Dover Township Democrat Aldermen (yeah, ...

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Victims of the Third Column of American Politics

BLOGGER'S COMMENTARY
He has been a friend of mine for years. We worked well together on school projects when both are children attended the same high school and our families socialized together. Outside of politics we have a lot in common, yet in the past five or six years we have become estranged. It isn't our fault. We are victims of the rising tide of political partisanship.

It's a damn shame that the billionaire puppet masters pumping money into politics to create divided, dysfunctional government have also driven a political wedge between him and me. I suspect there are many other friendships that have fallen victim to divisive politics. I tried to repair our friendship by explaining that the politics dividing us is actually a result of a third party attack on democracy, a third column, as I see it. But my friend is too firmly embedded in conservative doctrine to trust my arguments.

The larger truth is that there is a third column in American politics. It is the hidden hand of unprecedented wealth and corporate ownership. The only force in the world big enough to control corporate power  is civil governments. The power elites don't what to be told what they can and can't do, especially by one person, one vote majority rule. They are accustomed to corporate governance which boils down to one dollar, one vote. Their intent is to cripple civil control over our democracy and make government do its bidding. They have already overwhelmed most states and many countries around the world. Whether you are conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, it is the ultra privileged elite that is controlling the media and writing the scripts. THIS really is the big picture. What was once the conservatives/ liberal continuum was ruptured and is now this great divide. We were never so different before, my conservative friend and I. This is all a grand scheme and we are all caught up in it.

The wealthy oligarchs donate to the Republican Party in a ratio of at least 2 to 1 over Democrats. Moreover, their strategy with the two parties is very different. On the Democrats side they only support targeted seats and spend money on targeted issues. They buy specific votes when they need to kill or pass legislation important to them (making Democrats look sleazy in the process). This appears like the traditional way we think about lobbying and government, and both sides to it. This targeted strategy also happens leaves room for Democrats to champion other popular causes that don't harm the oligarchs interests. This helps to preserve the facade of a democratic republic.

On the Republican side the Oligarch's mostly own the whole party. They have put together an unlikely coalition of fundamentalist Christians, libertarians, small and large business owners, conservative special interest groups, neo-confederate separatists and anyone else who harbors antipathy towards the federal government. In fact, antipathy towards the federal government is the common thread that hold this coalition together. 

To gain support of the fundamentalist Christians, who oppose secular government, the elite ruling class spends lots of money ginning up social conservative causes, like abortion or same sex marriage. To libertarians they serve up small government rhetoric, incite Second Amendment fears and promote "big brother" narratives. To businessmen they rant about government regulations and pro-labor policies. To white cultural warriors they attack immigration, welfare queens and exploit racial animus. To neo-confederates they clamor for stricter interpretations of the constitution and direct verbal animosity towards the federal system. To hold on to bread and butter Republicans they demonize liberals and the Democrats to raise fears about voting for them. To all of these groups they rail about taxes, but the whole time their real goal is to control the levers of power for their own gain. There is no longer any room left in the Republican Party for politicians who loves government and wants it to succeed in improving the lives of ordinary Americans (i.e.: moderates).


In the end, the wealthy power elite are neither Democrats nor Republicans, neither conservatives nor liberals. They are out for themselves and their own financial interests. This is the third column of American politics and the hidden hand behind the growing dissatisfaction with our system of government.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Time for Workers to Re-Organize!

ORGANIZED LABOR?

Regardless of what you have been lead to believe about the evils of unions, there is no question that organized labor is responsible for creatiing the middle class and the good life as we know it today. But all that is in decline as anti-union sentiment grew in response to organized business interests in the 1070's. I say this because I don't see anyone else point out these facts. Here is another graphic view of how middle class income has declined in lock step with union membership over the years. Also, you will see that the savings in employee wages have gone directlty to the top 1% creating the huge income and wealth disparity we have today. Check it out:



It is clear to me, at least, that the heart of our economic woes is due to 40 years of wage suppression. This results in a declining middle class, a growing number of people falling into poverty, a decline in federal income tax revenue and an added burden on government to support a growing number of poor, working poor and unemployed Americans. You can't separate chronically lower wages from our declining consumer spending. Regardless of what the economists say, if people don't have money to spend the economy slows down and jobs disappear. Stocks are doing so well because so much of our financial sector is based on even more depressed foreign labor, yes, but also on depressed wages here at home. 

If corporations what to stimulate consumer spending here, and make America attractive to foreign investors, they need to raise wages. They won't do that because they personally benefit, financially, by keeping labor costs down. Their corporations benefit from the artificially cheap US labor pool created by government aid to the working poor for housing assistance, WIC, food stamps, daycare, etc. And then these bastards making all the money have the nerve to pit us against each other by promoting the lie that the working poor are somehow less worthy, or that they are stealing from us. If corporate leaders don't see the light then the only alternative is for the work force to re-organize itself and demand higher wages.

Graphic Truths about Debt and Deficits

NATIONAL DEBT?
Republican's increase our public debt by lowering taxes on the wealthy, raising corporate welfare and starting wars. If you are surprised by this bar graph then you then you need to shop around for a more reliable news source.

WAR SPENDING?
chart 1


CORPORATE WELFARE?

Corporate Welfare Grows to $154 Billion even in Midst of Major Government Cuts

The Embodiment of Corporate Welfare Himself - Mr. Moneybags
Editor’s Note: Even as the federal government executes major cutbacks, it’s giving huge subsidies in the form of tax breaks to industry, a fact legislators rarely acknowledge. The Boston Globe recently published a thorough and eye-popping report detailing the nature and extent of these breaks. We think it’s a must-read. 
By Pete Marovich
First published in the Boston Globe
WASHINGTON — Lobbying for special tax treatment produced a spectacular return for Whirlpool Corp., courtesy of Congress and those who pay the bills, the American taxpayers.
By investing just $1.8 million over two years in payments for Washington lobbyists, Whirlpool secured the renewal of lucrative energy tax credits for making high-efficiency appliances that it estimates will be worth a combined $120 million for 2012 and 2013. Such breaks have helped the company keep its total tax expenses below zero in recent years.
The return on that lobbying investment: about 6,700 percent.
These are the sort of returns that have attracted growing swarms of corporate tax lobbyists to the Capitol over the last decade — the sorts of payoffs typically reserved for gamblers and gold miners. Even as Congress says it is digging for every penny of savings, lobbyists are anything but sequestered; they are ratcheting up their efforts to protect and even increase their clients’ tax breaks. [snip] http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate-welfare-tax-breaks-subsidies/
______________________________________________________________________________
Here is how the rise of corporate welfare looks in my state of New Jersey, and note in particular how it has grown under Gov. Chris Christie: 


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Does Higher Taxes Hurt Job Growth? Answer: NO

In his State-of-the-State address, Governor Chris Christie stated and often repeated claim that increased taxes hurts job growth. But is that true? What does the actual data suggest? 

Below is an abridged (not a Christie pun) answer to this question. It may be that other economists can point to other contradictory data, but when GDP growth is plotted against higher marginal tax rates for the rich, the resulting correlation strongly suggests that higher taxes on the rich are associated with expanding GDP and job growth. Please visit Mark Thoma's excellent Website, "Economists View", and read Ethan Kaplan's article in full.

Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Does Taxing the Wealthy Hurt Growth? (ABRIDGED)

by Ethan Kaplan

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/10/does-taxing-the-wealthy-hurt-growth.html (original article in full)

Much of the argument over tax policy in the United States is focused on whether the rich should be taxed at a higher or lower rate than they are today. The argument against higher rates is that raising taxes on wealthy would disincentivize the people most likely to create economic growth and thus jobs. This debate, however, is largely based on ideology rather than evidence. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to figure out the impact of taxation on growth.

Nevertheless, looking at the raw correlation between top marginal tax rates and growth can be helpful for getting a rough sense of the likely impacts of higher taxation on growth. One recent paper by Pikkety, Saez, and Stantcheva looks at the correlation between top marginal tax rates and growth and finds the growth is higher when top marginal tax rates are higher. I restrict myself to the historical experience of the United States and go back to 1930. In particular, I took real chained per capita GDP growth from 1930 to the present from the Bureau of Economic Analysis' (BEA) website. The correlation over this period between the top marginal tax rate and output growth is strong and positive as can be seen below:



While we cannot say that there is a robust significant positive relationship between tax rates and growth, it is still interesting that regardless of when we start the sample, higher top marginal tax rates are associated with higher not lower growth. 

Moreover, a narrative reading of postwar US economic history leads to the same conclusion. The period of highest growth in the United States was in the post-war era when top marginal tax rates were 94% (under President Truman) and 91% (through 1963). As top marginal rates dropped, so did growth. Moreover, except for 1984, a recovery year, the highest per capita growth rates since 1980 were all in the late 1990s, after the top marginal tax rate had been increased from 28% under President Reagan to 31% under the first President Bush and then 39.6% under President Clinton.
... it seems likely that if raising top marginal rates did have a large negative impact on growth, we should be able to see it in the correlations. Thus, it also seems silly to argue that higher taxes on the rich have a large negative impact on growth, given that historically growth is, if anything, positively correlated with the top [higher] marginal rate.

What does this mean for public policy? ... if the historical evidence tells us that it is unlikely that taxing the wealthy has a large negative impact on growth (and it might even have a positive impact), shouldn't we increase rates on the wealthy from their current top rates of 35%?

p.s. the data used to analyze the time series is available on my website: econweb.econ.umd.edu/~kaplan

Sunday, January 5, 2014

November was the Hottest on Record

Here are some fun facts to keep you warm during this nasty cold snap:

Global November average temperature highest on record; Year-to-date global average temperature ties for fourth highest on recordhttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2013/11/

Global Highlights

Global Highlights

  • The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for November 2013 was record highest for the 134-year period of record, at 0.78°C (1.40°F) above the 20th century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F).
  • The global land surface temperature was 1.43°C (2.57°F) above the 20th century average of 5.9°C (42.6°F), the second highest for November on record, behind 2010. For the global oceans, the November average sea surface temperature was 0.54°C (0.97°F) above the 20th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F), tying with 2009 as the third highest for November.
  • The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the September–November period was 0.68°C (1.22°F) above the 20th century average of 14.0°C (57.1°F), the second warmest such period on record, behind only 2005.
  • The September–November worldwide land surface temperature was 1.08°C (1.94°F) above the 20th century average, the third warmest such period on record. The global ocean surface temperature for the same period was 0.52°C (0.94°F) above the 20th century average, tying with 2009 and 2012 as the fourth warmest September–November on record.
  • The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the year-to-date (January–November) was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20th century average of 14.0°C (57.2°F), tying with 2002 as the fourth warmest such period on record.

The combined average temperature over global ...See More

Monday, December 30, 2013

Root of Our Economic Mess

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Our federal government's problem is that we have a minority run government. Majority rule has been taken from us. Special interest groups with lots of money and ideologues with lots of organizational energy have taken control. Most of what the majority of Americans dislike about our federal government's policies are the result of minority influences.

As for family economies, real wages stopped rising abruptly between 1976 and 1980. They have been nearly flat ever since. Before that workers shared in America's GDP growth, but after that wages only rose with inflation. COLA's are adjustments, not raises. And such a sudden change in the U.S. wage structure can only result from willful planning by the business elite, An evolving economic process, as many economist claim, would not so suddenly appear.  So American wages have been suppressed for 40 years.

Then beginning in 1980 the progressive tax structure was dismantled and the riches 0.1% started paying the same tax rates as people making $100k or so. These two indisputable facts ARE the root cause of our present economic woes and the reason income disparity today is the worse it has been since the turn of the last century. I could go on, but enough for now. Suffice it to say we have to stop treating the government as an "it" and start treating it as an "us" again. [ Feel free to browse my blog at www.aseyeseesit.blogspot.com ]

In Defense of Government Bureaucracy

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

People often accuse the Federal  government of being an entrenched bureaucracy, which it is. They blame the bureaucracy for all of the government's problems, but the truth is a bit more complex. After all, it isn't the bureaucracy passing sweetheart legislation, it is our elected un-representatives. The bureaucracy may write the rules but it does not runs the show.

Believe me, having worked in the bureaucracy my entire career, I can tell you it isn't in charge. It is subject to enormous political pressures from elected executives, representatives and even the courts. No rules are passed without political sign off. Elected official send their political appointees deeply into the bureaucratic hierarchy to infiltrate and transform their missions. Politicians often say one thing and do another, using the bureaucracy as their cover. In truth, bureaucracies are only as good as the politicians we elect to run them.

Obamacare is a great illustration of this. In states where the chief executive wants it to work the bureaucracy has created workable systems and overcome large obstacles to make it work.  In states where the chief executive would like to see it fail the bureaucracy has made a hash of things.  I call it planned incompetence. The bureaucrats were given a mixed mandate to create a faulty system to prove the politicians position that Obamacare doesn't work and that government doesn't work.  Bureaucracies are tools that can be used for good or evil by people in power. Bureaucracies are the interface between ordinary citizens and political rulers.

Did you know that the modern bureaucratic government structure was established by an enlightened English King (one of the Henry's) to assure that his erratic, sometimes irrational sons could not, on a whim, destroy the good government administration he created to serve his people?  We don't think much about it today, but bureaucracy still serves a vital, useful purpose in assuring the smooth and planful administration of government. 

The very characteristic most often criticized, its slowness to respond, is also its primary benefit.  It methodically operationalizes the dictates of our political rulers to maintain continuity and order in government administration, not that it always succeeds. But if we didn't have it we would be subject to every impulse  of the chief executives and this would lead to real chaos in government services. So while I am quick and well experienced to criticize the bureaucracy, I am less inclined to condemn it.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Fukushima Radiation Hits the Beach in California

It would appear that radiation from Fukushima has reached the California coast and is beginning to build up in the riparian zone on San Francisco beaches. Here is a You Tube video someone made and posted on December 23, 2013. There is a lower lever, more nearly background level, at waters edge. This might be due to changes in currents or the tides. There is a background level of radiation before coming onto the beach, but the riparian zone on the beach is over three times the background level.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQLxT49ZP0
L




















I have written several blog posts about the threat to the US from the continuous unfolding of the Fukushima disaster. You can find links to them below.


FukushimPacific Map 2013



Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Tyranny of the Minority - Part 2 The Neo-Confederate Secessionists

Graycoat Conservatives - The Neo-Confederate Secessionists

They are still small in number, but spread widely across the county. They are articulate, highly motivated and influential members within the Tea Party, the Christian right movement, Libertarians groups and nationalist groups in every state. They are the philosophic rear guard of the conservative movement  pulling conservatives ever further to the right. They may not have a central organization, but they do have a significant social media presence. They remain under the radar of the national press which fails to take them seriously. The best way to find them is to type "secessionist" into your internet search engine.  They are the Neo-Confederates, of whom some call themselves sovereign citizens.  Collectively they are a polarizing counter-force behind the growing rift in the Republican Party.   

The secessionists anti-government interests overlap with the corporate conservative wing of the  Republican Party, and both groups favor free market economics, but the graycoat conservatives envision a very different America. So while wealthy conservatives continue to fund the Tea Party, graycoat conservatives are busy winning over hearts and minds to their radical alternative.

The following graphic is taken from one of the many secessionist Websites. It maps the number of secessionist petitioners from around the country. In effect it shows where they are most active and how they are distributed across the country. It doesn't represent how popular or unpopular the movement might be.


Plotting whitehouse.gov secession petitions
Signers to White House secession petitions by county. Color based on proportion of residents signing, with darker colors showing higher levels of secession support. Current as of 9am on Saturday, November 24th. Works best in Chrome or Safari.

Update: It looks like the secession petition movement has peaked.
Since Election Day, more than 60 petitions have been posted on the White House's website requesting that states be allowed to withdraw from the United States and create their own government. As of November 13, 2012, the following states had active petitions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Virginias, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [http://www.unc.edu/~ncaren/secessionists/]


A 2009 Zogby poll quoted on a number of secessionist Websites found that 20% of Americans believe states have a right to secede from the Union. Just today (12/18/13) Michael Hill, President of one of the Southern groups called League of the South, posted ten reasons for secession. They are:


  1. The U. S. government is an organized criminal enterprise, secession is the only way to return to legitimate government
  2. The U. S. economy is failing, secession makes economic sense
  3. The South's unique history and culture is worth protecting
  4. The criminal nature of the bank bailouts and the Fed
  5. A dysfunctional national electoral system, secession may be the only way to restore integrity to elections
  6. Third World immigration into the South, secession removes the federal government's interference and lack of performance
  7. Organic community vs. the globalism of the elites
  8. The implementation of an American police/surveillance state
  9. The Christian South v. secular America, secession provides the opportunity to return to Our Founding Principles
  10. Because we think we can rule ourselves better than we are being ruled by DC, secession is a path to American Liberty http://dixienet.org/rights/2013/reasons_for_secession.php]


What  these secessionist groups most have in common is a desire  to facilitate the collapse of the Federal Government and the breakup of the Union of States.  They see this as the natural and inevitable course of history. As they see it, every great empire has followed this path.  

They oppose all forms of collectivism and eschew society as we know it. Among some groups there is a distinct "cultural" component. All groups seem to  reject  democratic majority rule.  As one of them put it to me, "  
According to one person who wrote me, they are, "... committed to the cause of individual liberty and [individual] sovereignty. [They] would prefer secession, to revolution."  But revolution it will be if the majority opinion of the Americans go against them. They have a strong patriotic connection to our founding fathers even though their commitment to our Union is weak. Pin them down and they reluctantly choose the union of states over a return to a confederacy, but only if the Federal governments control over the states is weakened and individuals are free from all federal interference.

If you start to pin these folks down in a debate they squirm away. They are viscerally opposed to the our system of government, their anti-federal rage concealed only by their passion for an extreme interpretation of individual rights and freedoms. These passions are covered over by a thin veneer of selective scholarship. Scratch the scholarship and their passion flares. Challenge their constitutional interpretations and they circle the wagons.

They have no sense of responsibility towards society and nothing but contempt for majority rule. They believe the majority of American's is just another special interest group, and one that is biased against minority rights. When majorities opinions prevail they force minorities to accede to their will which violates their rights. This is how they interpret the Constitution.  

The only legitimate role they see for the federal government is the protection of the individual's right to follow their conscience within Constitutionally defined boundaries. One major flashpoint seems to be taxes. They don't want to pay any federal taxes, but when pressed say they agree to contribute only for spending within the limits of their narrow interpretation of the governments enumerated powers.

They resent being forced to pay taxes for national parks, education, environmental protection, food and drug administration, foreign diplomacy administration or anything else that isn't specifically named in our Constitution. They claim a sovereign right not to pay for anything outside of the federal governments enumerated powers, as they define it. They reject all collectivism. For example they resent that the Federal government spends any money on highways and bridges, believing federal spending should be restricted to "postal roads."

As one person wrote: " For [the federal government] to "do" it must take. That violates rights. The only function of [government] is protect rights, not "do."

Tenth Amendment: 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.

The 10th Amendment is the source of their narrow interpretation of federal powers. Their interpretation provides all the justification they require.  Below is a reprint from one of their Websites that lists the enumeration of federal powers which they feel the government has exceeded.  These powers are listed on the Tenth Amendment Center Website where the members call themselves "Tenthers.:  [http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/]

Disdain for the Federal Government or any large democracy is a central feature for these neo-confederate groups.  They see majority as a special interest and would strip the government of its ability to show any favoritism to all special interests. This suggests that the only role of government must be the protection of the individuals rights yet they may concede collective rights to businesses. Perhaps this is why it is so important that corporations be viewed as people. It gives them individual status while denying other types of organization status as a collective entity.  



MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE PAPER V

March 2007 
Introduction to "Minimal Rights and Freedoms of Individuals in a Sovereign State"

Because questions keep coming up as to the kinds of states that secessionist organizations are working toward, and because each organization in the movement has an interest in the objectives of any other organization, it seemed to us here that it might be appropriate to send out a suggested platform of the rights and freedoms that might be guaranteed to individuals in any future seceded state. [SNIP]

There are important issues here and we hope you take them seriously.

MINIMAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF INDIVIDUALS IN A SOVEREIGN STATE

Rights to
                     Life, liberty, security
                     Equality before the law
                     Trial before competent tribunal, due process, counsel, appeal
                     Possess property and not be arbitrarily deprived thereof
                     Periodic elections with universal adult suffrage
                     Secession by any coherent unit

Freedoms of
                     Speech, opinion, expression in any media
                     Peaceable assembly, association
                     Belief, thought, religion, worship
                     Movement within any state, and to leave and return

Freedoms from
                     Slavery or servitude
                     Discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion,  
 
                          political belief, nationality, property, or birth
                     Torture or degrading treatment
                     Arbitrary arrest or detention
                     Invasion of privacy
                     Arbitrary deprivation of citizenship
                     Any action by the state to destroy or deny any of these rights and freedoms

Signators:

Middlebury Institute, February 2007
Second Vermont Republic, March 2007
Southern National Congress Committee, March 2007


The role of a state to infringe on individual rights is not well thought out among members of this group. Because states are smaller they believe them to be inherently less intrusive in the lives of individuals. They consider themselves to have an individual right to not be "interfered with" by any government, but apparently feel that smaller, state governments would be easier to control.  In a large constitutional democracy, such as the United States, a majority opinion is viewed as a form of tyranny against individual dissenters, even if that majority opinion is deemed constitutional according the the Supreme Court. On the other hand, they don't see anything wrong with a minority group preventing the majority from governing in opposition to them. They see this as their right and duty as "soverigien citizens." It isn't clear whether this is true only when the minority feels the government is legislating beyond its enumerated powers, or if they claim this right under all circumstances.  As one person put it: 

"But you don't see that resisting (but not compelling) action from a majority isn't a tyranny of the minority? The minority isn't forcing the majority to do anything, only to refrain from forcing the minority to do something. The rights of any minority supersede the wants or needs of any majority."

In the face debt ceiling financial cliffs, government shut downs, and the nearly total inability of Congress to pass legislation, it is time to recognize that there are forces on the far right, and in Congress, who see this as successful strategy.  Their intentions are malevolent and quite contrary to the motivations most often attributed to them by political analysts in the main stream press. It is time to pay attention to these groups and their impact on American politics. A failure to open a public debate that directly confronts both the graycoat secessionists and the corporate elite now would be a huge mistake.

Return to Part 1 - Losing the Majority

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