I begin with, and Rep. Mauch concludes his article with the following quote of Patrick Henry, “The first thing I have at heart is American liberty; the second thing is American union.” In a liberty-based society, liberty always trumps government! (Bravo, Rep. Mauch!)

Extricating a number of Rep. Mauch’s statements regarding secession and the U.S. Constitution, recall at each juncture those words of Patrick Henry and make a determination where the American citizen position’s himself referencing Patrick Henry’s utterings.

Rep. Mauch quoted Thomas Jefferson in his writings of the Declaration of Independence “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government…”

All states have the right to secede and some reserve the right to secede in their constitutions, for instance Texas, Virginia, New York, and Connecticut.
Rep. Mauch alludes to a prolific author, William Rawle of Pennsylvania, friend and confidant of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Rawke stated in oratory and the written word that secession is decided by the will of the people of their respective states and not by congress or a president.

It is patently obvious that President Abraham Lincoln willfully violated the U.S. Constitution in any number of instances, but most flagrantly in his war against the south. When the South surrendered in 1865 Lincoln continued his brutal killings & destruction by ordering Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan to burn the South to the ground and further pursuing with his vicious attacks on Indian tribes. 

Arkansas did not recover from the War Between the States until the 1980’s and still suffers the stigma. The war was not a war to free slaves, it was about taxes & control…sound familiar? Freedom for slaves without bloodshed was rapidly evolving.
Quoting again from Rep. Mauch, “the folly of the secession petitions is it seems citizens are requesting permission to divorce themselves from the federal government. No state needs this authorization from their respective partners, and if one does not have the right to secede it is no longer free.”

The question now becomes, should any number of the several states implement secession? Are transgressions against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights substantive enough to institute the process of secession?  In that same vein, is the U.S. Federal Government, top down, constitutionally and morally fit to serve American citizens?

Following is a partial list of constitutional criminality and in many cases criminal, impeachable offenses that appear to be more than enough for a citizen-led effort to secede.

Most of the U.S. Congress & Senators have served decades in their respective bodies and the past two presidents, specifically, are primarily responsible for the economic & military quagmire in which we find ourselves. With that said it is sheer folly to believe the 3 self-serving, anti-constitutional  aforementioned bodies will solve the multiple crises where we find ourselves.  Therefore; the list begins:

1.    A $16.4 Trillion debt, coupled with $75-100 Trillion unfunded mandates, i.e. Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security…while the bloating escalates.

2.    Undeclared nation building wars under the guise of “wars on terrorism”, which are in fact nothing more than unilateral murdering.  Recall the military strike on Libya that President Obama unilaterally started and said would last days not weeks. The destruction has reached nearly a year, with Syria and Iran in the sights of the federal government.  Our republic is  nothing more than a warmongering machine.  Neo-conservative Republicans (e.g. McCain & Graham) are the current driving force for “eternal war for eternal peace”.  The Republican Party has earned the name “the party of irrelevancy” and further note the Republican Party, and why not, revels in stating they are the Party of Lincoln.  Lincoln was responsible for killing at least 600,000.
3.    The Patriot Acts—The Military Commissions Act—Posse Comitatas—Habeas Corpus—either dissolved or instituted against Americans, removing freedoms, privacy, the right of legal recourse.
4.    The National Defense Authorization Act—as horrific as anything Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin had to offer (a price tag of $640.5 Billion—an unfathomable figure): Citizen surveillance and assassination by drones, removal in the dark of night, imprisonment for undetermined amount of time, no legal recourse, etc. etc. etc. (What kind of an American would engage in this type of heinous behavior?) These activities can be and are used against American citizens. President Barack Obama has ordained himself as our country’s number one Assassinator.  The Act is in no way a defensive Act…it funds a killing machine.
5.    If the above were truly a defense authorization Act, why is our Southern border as open as a sieve allowing millions of Mexican and 3rd world OTM’s to invade our sovereignty?
6.    Why does the U.S. Federal Government not enforce U.S. law 8 USC, Section 1325, 1324a, 1324c, & 1644?  There are between 25-35 million illegal 3rd World nationals residing in the U.S. and drawing down on every welfare program known to Americans and others specially crafted for illegals.  Now the Ark. State House & Senate, with all the above in full view, are poised to put another ¼ million Medicaid deadbeats on the backs of suffering middleclass Arkansans.
7.    National Socialized Medicine (Obamacare) encompassing huge costs, rationing of health care, and necessarily enormous tax increases on everyone.
8.    President Obama is a Marxist Communist with undergirding provided by the Democrat Party and enabled by the spineless Republican Party, i.e. the Party of Irrelevancy.
9.    Our citizens suffering mightily while federal officials & electees dump billions in what they call “foreign aid” e.g. $3 billion dispensed to that postage stamp of terror Israel, Dec. 5, 2012.
10.    The United Nations  influences on the U.S. behavior, e.g. Agenda 21
11.    The Anti-terrorism surveillance law…60,000 drones overflying the U.S.  (By the way, who are the terrorists?  This act along with others has made a farce of the 4th & 10th amendments.

Does the above, either individually or collectively, merit the attention of Arkansans specifically and Americans generally, to seriously, objectively debate the idea of secession?  Unfortunately, huge segments of our society are ignorant, lazy, dumbed-down, self-satisfied, and/or married to one or the other corrupt political parties—then ask yourself, why do citizens continue to reelect cycle after cycle incumbent legislative zeroes who have authored & constructed all of the attacks against Arkansans/Americans, e.g. Ark. Senators Boozman & Pryor, and our 3 congressional incumbents?

Secession anyone?
Joe McCutchen

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See below to read Rep. Loy Mauch’s guest editorial