Secession

Some New Hampshire legislators have made headlines recently by introducing bills advocating for secession:

  1. CACR32 in 2022, that would declare independence from the United States.
  2. CACR20 in 2024, that would declare independence from the United States if the national debt reaches $40 trillion.

I opposed both bills because the secession they're requesting is unilateral. That is, they would declare independence without negotiating any agreement with the United States. Unilateral secession was ruled illegal in Texas v. White. As a practical matter, it almost always leads to war, which I don't want.

I do eventually want New Hampshire to be an independent country, because as long as we're paying federal income tax, our government can never truly be classical liberal. But I want to achieve secession legally, maintaining excellent relations with the United States. This will require a massive campaign to convince the American people that it's reasonable for us to want secession.

I'd first like to point out that America was born out of secession. On July 4, we should remember what it is we're celebrating: our own secession from Britain in 1776. Presumably you would agree this secession was justified.

Now consider some secessions that have happened over the last 40 years:

  1. East Timor from Indonesia
  2. South Sudan from Sudan
  3. Eritrea from Ethiopia
  4. Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia
  5. Lithuania from the Soviet Union

The United Nations eventually recognized all of these secessions. Presumably you would agree they were justified.

If I accomplish nothing else with my campaign, I'd like the American people and world leaders everywhere to think long and hard about this question: when is secession justified?

In my view, when the federal government no longer has the consent of the governed in a given state, as shown by a properly conducted referendum, it's time to begin negotiating in good faith for peaceful secession. I'd like to implement this via a United States constitutional amendment, using Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union as a model.

I've devoted a separate project to this idea, the Club 75 Alliance. Here, Club 75 refers to people whose adjusted gross income is $75,000 or more. This group constitutes 29% of taxpayers but they're paying 90% of all federal income tax, according to IRS Publication 1304 for tax year 2019. So the people I'm targeting don't necessarily think of themselves as libertarian. But their income is a little above average, and they'd prefer to opt out of federal income tax.

Check out all the details in the manifesto.