Please, just leave: Right-wing crackpots plot to abandon the union (says we're the problem)

"What kind of revolution appeals most to you?" read the now-deleted poll question on Sean Hannity's message board: "Military Coup, Armed Rebellion, or War for Secession?"

Barely two months into the Obama administration, wing-nuts across the land are frothing at the mouth, talking feverishly of secession, violent revolution, tax revolt, "going Galt," and national divorce. It would be hilarious if it weren't so creepy.

We all had a good laugh this past December when Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats, predicted that the financial crisis would eventually lead to widespread unrest, martial law, and, by 2010, a civil war in the US — the end result of which would be a motley collection of rump states like "Atlantic America" and the "Texas Republic," that then glom onto countries such as Canada and Mexico. It's an absurd idea.

Or is it? Perusing some of the sheer insanity spewed on rightist blogs, message boards, and comment threads — the pitchfork-shaking anger directed at this so-called socialist government — one has to wonder just what's percolating in this country. Maybe the big break-up is coming sooner than we think?

Obama talks a lot about his affinity for Abraham Lincoln. Let's just hope he doesn't end up having too much in common with the guy — that in addition to saving the economy, winning two wars, and curbing global warming, he doesn't find himself having to preserve the Union, too.

People are pissed. New faux-populist hero Rick Santelli has been enjoining citizens to register their disgust with the stimulus plan and budget by bombarding the White House and Capitol with tea bags — get it?! (The phenomenon has apparently caused headaches for workers charged with the safety screening of DC mail.) Meanwhile, 4000 people gathered this past Saturday for a so-called "Cincinnati Tea Party." Read one sign: HONK IF I'M PAYING YOUR MORTGAGE.

But protests do only so much. More and more, it seems, nothing less than outright secession will satisfy some of these cranks. The right-wing Web is all atwitter over a recent open letter, spreading from blog to blog like a hanta virus, by one "John J. Wall, Law Student and an American." In it, Wall puts it plainly: he wants a divorce.

"Let's just end it on friendly terms," he writes. "We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. . . . Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA, and the military." (What they'll do with all the guns he doesn't say.)

Ironically, when not busy fomenting revolution or concocting a plan to carve up the continental US, conservatives act a lot like the "hippies" that Wall went on to lambaste in his letter — thumbing their nose at authority and threatening to drop out of society.

It was reported on military.com last month that a soldier, First Lieutenant Scott Easterling, who is stationed in Iraq, has balked at following orders: "Until Mr. Obama releases a 'vault copy' of his original birth certificate for public review," he declared, "I will consider him neither my commander in chief nor my president, but rather, a usurper to the office — an impostor."

And the latest bit of in(s)anity making the rounds in conservative circles in is the notion of "going Galt," in which angry rich people protest Obama's fiscal policies by following the lead of John Galt —übermensch protagonist of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged — and removing their ostensibly valuable productivity from society.

Why? Because "a general strike among the wealth producers," as Michelle Malkin calls it, will help keep that wealth out of the grubby hands of the lower classes — those "moochers who claim your product by tears," in Rand's piquant description. Sigh.

Are we fated to fracture into Jesus Land and the People's Republic of Massafornia? Probably not. But maybe! Until and unless that day arrives, however, ours remains a riven nation. But if Malkin and their ilk want to "drop out" in the meantime, more power to 'em. It'll be nice, frankly, not to have to hear them talk for a while.

So many questions.

Were copperheads not found all over the North during the Civil War?

Wherever there are democrats there will be traitors. Only the name changes with the flow of history - copperheads, peace activists, progressives, they're all the same. That however is irrelevant in a discussion of the American Civil War. The cause, as stated by so many Southern supporters at the time was "The South".

Conversely, Unionists were all over the South. Whose to say what each individual state legislature(s) would do under duress of civil uprising?

True enough. There was at least one white Union regiment from every Confederate state except as I recall South Carolina. That also is irrelevant. The cause of the secessionists was "The South" by their own words.

I certainly don't know? Would you consider Texas a region?

A glance at the map would suggest that Texas is still a state - at least until Mexican barbarians finish doing to it what they are doing to California, Arizona and a number of other current US states.

How can you say these things?

I live around a lot of leftists and often find myself discussing politics them. "How can you say those things" is usually the last thing they say before they stalk off muttering about racism and homophobia. I go to great lengths to avoid using the phrase myself.

You have no crystal ball. Maybe you don't want it to be regional, you might be projecting here. I am discussing the theoretical and I envision alot of regionality in this political season we find ourselves in. If you call secessionist idiots what then the Patriot?

The Patriot is the one who stands up for their country and the values that it stands for and in my book the terms "Conservative" and "Patriot" are virtually synonymous when applied to the US. The problem is, conservatism is loosing. It has been loosing since 1989. Since Reagan left office conservatism has been without an effective national leader. The liberals now control the RNC and if they can they will use open primaries to make sure that no conservative can win nomination. Conservatism's greatest need now is a strong, effective national leader.

The other thing that conservatism needs right now is unity. We cannot let ourselves be diverted and divided by false issues. You may think that in your little "red" region you can pull the covers up over your head and just pretend that things will be fine but you live in a state that is going "blue" in a hurry. Before long you will be one of those "blue state" conservatives you hold in such low esteem. What then - run to the next bolt hole, Texas maybe? Or stand and fight for the values you believe in, in the place you were born even though you've watched it turn into a pile of excrement before your very eyes? I don't have a crystal ball but I have studied a lot of history and lived a few years. Think about it, I've watched California go from the home of Ronald Reagan to being the home of Arnold Schwarzenegger. From that perspective it looks like Virginia is on a very similar track.

If you choose option one you'll eventually run out of places to run and either face reality or drink the Kool Aid. If you choose option two you'll need the support of every other conservative you can find to work with to turn the situation around or at least try, no matter where they come from.

You seem like an intelligent person, however I see no political solution at this point. Those, like yourself, who haven't given up on trying to duke it out politically should be commended. I OTH hold no illusions anymore. What you say about VA is true, nothing to stop it. There is only ONE way to really get there attention, you are not there yet. When you finally get there my FRiend, I'll be waiting to welcome you. So fight on, tilt at wind turbines if you must my Quixotic FRiend.

We want to get the same place, we travel different roads however.

If it is not about he South, then maybe it should be.

You may think that in your little "red" region you can pull the covers up over your head and just pretend that things will be fine but you live in a state that is going "blue" in a hurry.

Look Bunker hero, the blue states are pulling the red states into the toilet. Why should a red state conservative care about the fate of a blue state conservative, to artificially hold together this abomination of a mess the US has become? When the surgeon cuts off a diseased limb, yeah their is some good tissue mixed in there with the bad, but so what? In like manner, why wouldn't the red state body politic want to cut off the diseased state, CA for example?

Unfortunately, VA is going down the toilet, it may be to late. Another example of the disease of socialism consuming the host.

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