Secession has become a topic of discussion again. Nikki Haley said rather inartfully earlier this week that Texas has a right to secede from the U.S., and she claimed that it is "their decision to make." Mkay.
Haley appeared on Charlamagne tha God's morning show and claimed that people had the right to decide.
"I believe in states' rights. I believe that everything should be as close to the people to decide," Haley said, adding that she supported Gov. Greg Abbott's (R-Texas) razor wire fencing that the Supreme Court temporarily ordered removed.
"If Texas decides they want to do that, they can do that. If that whole state says we don't want to be part of America anymore. I mean, that's their decision to make."
Haley walked the comment back on Thursday, telling Fox News, "It’s not about secession. Nobody’s going to do that. That’s not what people are talking about. What they are talking about is why isn’t the president there, keeping Texans safe," the former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador said Thursday in a Fox News Digital interview.
Most constitutional scholars will say the issue of whether a state has the right to secede was settled by the Civil War while others believe the issue that was settled had to do with the federal government's ability to enforce its will.
At any rate, it hardly matters. Haley is a campaign curiosity, and what she believes is not relevant. But what about New Hampshire?
Two years ago, a group of New Hampshire lawmakers introduced a secession proposal that didn't get very far. The Washington Times reports that "Some of the sponsors of that amendment also had signed a manifesto declaring New Hampshire’s government “illegitimate,” calling Gov. Chris Sununu a tyrant and insisting that the 2020 elections were invalid due to fraud."
Similar secession efforts have failed in other states, including Mississippi and South Carolina. Rep. Jason Gerhard, sponsor of the latest New Hampshire amendment, tried to align himself with secessionists in Texas with a letter sent Wednesday to the head of the Texas Nationalist Movement. For years, some far-right activists have promoted the fringe idea that Texas could leave the U.S. and become independent, but those efforts have not gained traction.
“Together, both states can uphold the principle of freedom and autonomy,” wrote Gerhard, a Republican from Northfield who spent 12 years in prison for helping a New Hampshire couple escape capture on tax evasion charges. Ed and Elaine Brown remained holed up in an armed standoff at their home in Plainfield for months before being arrested in 2007.
The significance of the secession talk is that it's evidence of deep dissatisfaction with the United States government. People are frustrated and have lost hope that the nation can recover.
That may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Does it really have to be that hopeless? I think something drastic has to happen for us to avoid a catastrophe. Otherwise, Russian historian and political scientist Igor Panarin, who predicted the break-up of the U.S., might be proved right.
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