I don’t see the Civil War as being about states rights or slavery, but I guess it’s all a matter of interpretation. I see it as being about arrogance regarding one side of a political argument and the political system serving itself which only exacerbated public discourse. They are similar causes, but from two mutually exclusive ingredients that produce a toxic mix when combined and shaken.
I don’t have the answers to the position in which we find ourselves or the best course of action to regain all that we have lost. I have an opinion that maybe the problems that occurred as a result of the Articles of Confederation, a sort of chaos as a result of freedom is better than chaos and slavery that comes with a more powerful central government. But I do not believe that any resoultion to the situation we are in will be easy regardless of who is sent to Congress. Freedom isn’t free.
The South did have a similar point to that which the goverment is now asserting, and their point was a perversion of the idea of what is considered property and whom is entitled to the fruit thereof that was a direct contradiction to the principles of the founding. The issue we face is not whether it is right for one human being to enslave another this time around, but whether it is it right for the government to enslave its citizens and reward others for their labor. Instead of one human being enslaving another, it is the governemnt enslaving an entrire class of citizens for the sole purpose of providing for others who do not care to work for the reward.
As long as the argument is framed as a matter of difference of political opinion or all about abortion and the resistence is based on oratory there will be no change of heart. I have never heard anyone state ‘give me welfare or give me death’. Whatever there is to be gained will not be through argument or voting, but by what one is willing to sacrfice for what they hope to gain. Do we mean ‘No, we are not going to capitulate’, or do we mean ‘Hell, NO!’ and are willing to assert ourselves for our God given right to be left alone and to ensure that we are.
Your thoughtfulness is appreciated. It may well be that we have never been a free nation, only desirous of such. The necessary evil of government has been a monster that has grown to gargantuan proportions and continues to grow.
Government has long been the enemy. Now it is fanged and bloodthirsty.