Can the North secede from the Union?

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Check out Free State Project.

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Oh, cool, the officially picked NH. I remember when they started it up and were still deciding on a state. Should be interesting, but I can't see it working.

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If it doesn't catch on and spread, it would still be nice to have a large voting block for individual liberty within a state. Have to start somewhere.

[HtotheNootch]

Barring some drastic changes, a breakup of the current US is inevitable.

[tylerdurden]

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could the heads of each of these states get together and decide to withdraw from the US?

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This would be consistent with the Declaration of Independence.

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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, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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States are (were) supposedly soverign political entities and the union was a voluntary collection of these states. Lincoln had a different opinion, that the states were dependent units of the greater union, and that has been the prevailing opinion since then.

Before Lincoln, the "United States" was a plural - i.e. people would say "The United States are located in North America" whereas since Lincoln it has been a singluar - "The United States is located in North America."

[vulturesrow]

This didnt start with Lincoln.

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I think CA seceding would be a little more realistic. We could do it easily.

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Don't let the door hit you on the way out. And the sooner the better, please.

[kurto]

[bobman0330]

Secession is entirely incompatible with the principle of majority rule, and government in general.

[tylerdurden]

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Secession is entirely incompatible with the principle of majority rule, and government in general.

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Why should the majority be able to dominate the minority?

[Easy E]

If for no other reason, revenge for the late 1800's

[LomU]

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I always wondered about this. Looking at a map of the last 2 presedential electoral results and comparing it to a map of the Confederacy and Union cerca 1864 reveals similiar results. Hypothetically speaking, after a 2008 presedential loss in which the former Union states vote similarly, could the heads of each of these states get together and decide to withdraw from the US?

I suppose an important question would be what to do with Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, California, the Pacific Northwest, and Hawaii. For arguements sake, let's say that the goal would be to form a unified Southern border along Illinois and Indiana stretching to Maryland, with Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, and Minnesota included. Hawaii, the PN, and Calfornia would not be immediately involved.

As I understand it, this action from Northern States would not be legal, but wouldn't they be violating a domestic statute rather than an international treaty? Hypothetically, couldn't each resident of these states emigrate from the US, if they really were concerned with the Constitution? What would happen if a state containing zero American citizens laid claim to that area?

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i am of the FIRM OPINION that the red states need the blue states more than vice versa.

the nasty sadist in me would love to see how the red states got on without the blue states.

this is an excellent scenario for libertarians, how would they handle the sucession of a state or two? their ideology would have some serious conflicts of interest me thinks.