Opinion

Why I Wrote A Book About Secession In America

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Though it was unsuccessful, because of the recent referendum in Scotland, secession is all the rage in Europe. But not just there, even here in the United States. With the hopes and desires of those Scots seeking independence in mind, the Reuters news agency commissioned a poll and found that one of four Americans would be open to secession. One in four.

When you stop to realize that equates to about 84 million people, that’s a red flag number if ever there was one. Tens of millions of Americans are rightfully fearful of where their government and country are headed, and are quickly losing all hope.

For me, the subject of secession is one that I have researched off and on for years. That said, it is one thing to research it, and quite another to put your name on a book that most will consider controversial at best, with some even considering treasonous. Especially considering that I worked in the White House and Pentagon.

As I was writing the book, my wife, family members, and a few close friends implored me to at least use a pseudonym instead of my real name. I considered the suggestion but quickly cast it aside. Exactly because of the controversial nature of this book, I very well may pay a professional or even personal price for writing it. I understand that but felt strongly that my real name had to go on the book, for two reasons. The first is that precisely because of the precarious situation of our nation and the world, I felt it important to try to begin a dialogue that would resonate with those who cherish traditional values. The second reason is that because of my professional and real-life experience – including poverty and being homeless as a child – I felt my name might add some credibility to the effort.

So, how does one begin a discussion regarding the highly controversial subject of seceding from the Union? Well for me, it began about four years ago at an outdoor café at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. I had gone there to catch-up with a friend recently back from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like me – and tens of millions of other Americans – he was conservative and a strong believer in traditional values. Also like me and those tens of millions of Americans, he felt our nation was in a death spiral as it was exponentially accelerating away from them.

Our discussion then – and now – centered on the question of what any citizen can do when a growing number of our leaders seem determined to erase our borders, do away with the rule-of-law, expand the nanny state into a theology, bankrupt or punish American companies in the name of fighting climate change, or doing away with the 2nd Amendment. Or when our intellectual betters are intent to censor or demonize the history of western civilization and replace it with multiculturalism, give every kid a trophy and turn them into wimps, continue to support the completely unfunded public-employee pensions which are destroying the financial solvency of cities, counties, and states across our nation. Or when our experts advise adding to our $17 trillion in debt, destroying our health-care system to substitute socialized medicine, vilifying fossil fuels, and attacking all faith in God with a particular and unhinged bias against the Christian faith.

The more my friend and I talked about the problem, the more we wanted and needed to talk about possible solutions. As we did, over the following months, we expanded our group to include a constitutional law expert, two former military officers, a couple of diplomats, a minister, another special operator, and experts on banking, energy, farming, and infrastructure.

We quickly decided that in least in theory, the solution which made the most sense was secession. We also decided that as the First Amendment rights of conservatives and Christians were constantly under attack, we had better put pen to paper as quickly as possible.

Hence, The Secessionist States of America, which outlines the why, where, how, and when such a new republic based on traditional values could be established. Not surprisingly, the book will either be ignored, censored, or vilified by most on the left and most in the mainstream media.

Knowing that, I simply want those who are concerned about the direction of the country to know that an option to preserve those values does exist. That some folks with a great deal of real-world experience felt it was their responsibility to at least explore the possibility of secession.

It was a controversial solution about 240 years ago and it is no less so now. Let the dialogue, and vilification, begin.