Sen. Harkin (D-Iowa) Warns of Civil War

Earlier today on the Senate floor, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) assailed those attempting to defund Obamacare with these lofty and inspirational words:  "It's dangerous. It's very dangerous. I believe, Mr. President, we are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now. Every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War."

Aside from exposing his woeful ignorance of history--it wasn't a "civil war" by any academic stretch--he may have unwittingly probed the truth. In fact, we ARE, since Obama's election,  at "one of the most dangerous points in our history". But, it certainly isn't because the Conservatives or the Tea Partiers are irrationally pressing to repeal, defund or delay the Obamacare  horror. It is precisely because the Progressives are hellbent to "fundamentally transform the United States of America" into another failed utopian state.

Like it or not, Harkin and his verminous Progressive co-conspirators are totally responsible for the historic spike in State nullification actions around the country, to say nothing of the burgeoning secessionist sentiment now sweeping this once venerable union of States. Were we a Republic ideologically at peace with ourselves, this turmoil wouldn't be happening. Sadly, however, we are in the throes of a sinister and probably irremediable ideological struggle whose outcome, while still uncertain, is probably pre-ordained.

What Comrade Harkin and his Progressive apparatchiks are disinclined to appreciate is that not all Americans--especially those who are still alive, breathing and thinking--have any intention of going down with a sinking ship. Only suicidal and feckless ideologues of the neo-Marxist genre are willing to blindly follow that self-destructive path.

Over the years, we've been spoon-fed a lot of crap and drivel about secession and nullification--what it is and what it isn't; whether or not it is treasonous or legal. The short of it is that when all else fails to check tyranny both remedies are constitutional--no less so than rebellion and civil disobedience.

History and the wisdom of our Founders clearly demonstrate that  neither nullification nor secession is treasonous--unless, of course, you are one of the country's ruling elites today who disdainfully view the Constitution as a pesky document to be circumvented and violated if such actions advance one's self-serving ideological agenda and unquenchable thirst for power.

As I substantively explained in my book, "A Patriot's Call to Action", secession is absolutely, irrefutably, incontrovertibly constitutional and, therefore, lawful. Successful force of arms alone doesn't extinguish the unalienable rights of the People subjugated or the reserved powers of the States. (Note: there's a good reason why Confederate leaders weren't hauled into court for treason following the North's costly victory over the South. The North didn't want to lose in court what it thought it had won on the battlefield.)

Always remember that the union is based upon a contract between the sovereign States and the federal government, the former which created the latter. As in all contracts, if either party to that contract violates the terms of that contract (think Constitution), then the contract is null and void. Simple contract law. More precisely, those powers, stated or unstated, not specifically granted by the States to the federal government are, by virtue of the 9th and 10th Amendments, solely vested in the States and/or the People. And nowhere in the Constitution or in our founding documents are secession and nullification prohibited or subject to federal review or sanction. (It is important to note that three States--look it up--conditioned their ratification of the Constitution upon their reserved right to secede if the federal government usurped undelegated powers, or if the contract no longer adequately served the sovereign interests of the States.)

Though over the years the States have been lulled into a condition of servility by obscenely huge unconstitutional federal giveaways, the Constitution can be ignored, but it can't be bought off. As is, it remains the Supreme Law of the land, and only the People, the final arbiters, through their duly elected representatives can amend it.

So, again, Harkin was unwittingly more right than he was wrong. Where he erred was in conveying the dimwitted notion that the union's dissolution is the fault of Republicans, Conservatives and Tea Partiers who oppose Obamacare.

Going forward, we need to expunge the dangerous revisionism and misinformation which stigmatize or otherwise delegitimize secession and nullification. In these precarious times, let the Founders be our guide. We negate or otherwise ignore sacred constitutional remedies at our own peril.