If You Hate Living with the South, then Why Didn’t You Let Them Go?

Last updated on: March 24, 2017 at 5:55 pm by D. G. Hart

If You Hate Living with the South, then Why Didn’t You Let Them Go? 2017-03-24T17:55:26-04:00 D. G. Hart

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The ill will President Trump taps. Just when you thought that nationalism and Brexit and leaving the international liberal order were the province of the alt-Right, along comes a POTUS that winds up liberals and helps them find their separatist inner selves. Today’s specimen? Kevin Baker, a writer at the New Republic. He recently made the case for Blue States leaving the Union (sacred though it may be) that would have made John C. Calhoun proud:

We give up. You win. From now on, we’ll treat the animating ideal on which the United States was founded—out of many, one—as dead and buried. Federalism, true federalism, which you have vilified for the past century, is officially over, at least in spirit. You want to organize the nation around your cherished principle of states’ rights—the idea that pretty much everything except the U.S. military and paper currency and the national anthem should be decided at the local level? Fine. We won’t formally secede, in the Civil War sense of the word. We’ll still be a part of the United States, at least on paper. But we’ll turn our back on the federal government in every way we can, just like you’ve been urging everyone to do for years, and devote our hard-earned resources to building up our own cities and states. We’ll turn Blue America into a world-class incubator for progressive programs and policies, a laboratory for a guaranteed income and a high-speed public rail system and free public universities. We’ll focus on getting our own house in order, while yours falls into disrepair and ruin.

In short, we’ll take our arrogant, cosmopolitan, liberal-elite football—wait, make that soccer ball—and go home.

Hello. That’s what the South wanted before firing any shots at Ft. Sumter.

But that’s not what the greatest POTUS in the history of planet earth permitted. Abraham Lincoln rejected secession and put the sacral in the sacred UNITED States:

But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.

It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.

I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.

Of course, the problem that both Red and Blues States have is living with diversity, that is, living with those who disagree. Federalism was supposed to encourage diversity by allowing states autonomy in all matters not prescribed by the Constitution. What made such co-existence especially difficult was adding morality to politics, like the way that Lincoln said in his debates with Stephen Douglas, that slavery was a moral, social, and political evil. Hard to walk away from that. So is it hard to walk away from abortion in all cases is evil. So is the conviction that opposition to gay marriage or women’s ordination is evil.

So much morality, so little union in these United States. But morality does make America great.

Image

2016 Presidential Election

Previous Post

March 17, 2017

Some of Us Were Worried About America Before the Election (part 4)

Next Post

March 28, 2017 Advice for Russell Moore -- Don't Take Any from Sarah Posner

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2016 Presidential Election 2020 Presidential Election Apocalypse Bible in American Life Biblical authority Books and culture Calvinism Church Life Civil Religion Culture Wars Doctrine evangelicalism Gullibility Heaven and Hell Intellectual life Jesus Ministry modernity moralism Nationalism New Testament Old Testament Otherworldiness Otherworldliness Paul Peter Piety Popular culture Protestantism Psalms Puritans Race Roman Catholicism sacred/secular distinction Sex Shameless Self Promotion Sports Ten Commandments U.S. politics Uncategorized vulgarity worship

Select a Month January 2022 October 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz