Tomorrow Scotland will hold a referendum to decide if they will remain part of the United Kingdom or if they will sue for independence and become their own sovereign nation once more. I really have no comment one way or the other on this [1] — my ancestors were forced out of Scotland back in the late 1700s after the Battle of Culloden so my descent from them is fairly remote. I wish them and all the people of the island nothing but the best and I hope that, regardless of tomorrow’s decision, the US, UK, and Scotland will always be friends and allies.
That said, talk of Scotland possibly going independent after over three hundred years of being united with England and Wales has set some people to thinking that it might spur a secessionist movement in the United States and to speculate as to whether or not we’d fight to preserve the union as we did back in the Civil War. That’s the point I want to address here because it’s important and because I have no real desire to live through another Civil War so I’d like to do whatever I can to nip this in the bud before it blossoms to bear poisonous fruit.
The UK and the US have been allies since the end of the War of 1812. We’ve been friends since the beginning of the twentieth century. But we are very different countries for all that we speak the same language, have some cultural traits in common, and even have a shared history. The UK is, and has been since the fall of Rome, a kingdom. It arose and evolved from a tribal nation-state where allegiance was owed to a chieftain and then to an overlord (dux bellorum) to having nobility (a remnant of the tribe/clan system) who rule with a monarch above them (the overlord). Though the modern UK is very egalitarian, there are still structures in its societies that are reliant on the old caste system. One of those things is that the monarch has no equal. The monarch does not share sovereignty. The monarch is the monarch of England and of Wales and of North Ireland and of Scotland. All four countries are her subjects and are governed, chiefly, by her Parliament. Local affairs are governed by local authority but all authority derives from the monarch.
The United States, on the other hand, has no caste system. We do have socio-economic classes but you can fall or rise without the government having any say in the matter. And, being rich isn’t a prerequisite to becoming a Senator (though it does help a lot, especially since we changed the Senate from its original mission). You don’t have to be born to a certain family to hold power. You don’t have to attend certain schools to govern. No matter what the Ivy League elitists and the chattering classes who think that they should rule believe — in the United States, your birth has very little say over your destiny — legally and politically speaking.
The States, in turn, are not subject to the federal government. The States are fifty different laboratories of democracy and republicanism who can do whatever they want (that isn’t forbidden them by the Constitution) without having to ask Congress, the President, or anyone other than the citizens of that state for permission. Some states have no income tax. Some states have no sales tax. Some states allow people to drive at sixteen. Some states allow first cousins to marry. Some states allow gay marriage. Some states make it easy to carry a concealed weapon. Ideally, under the Constitution, each state can do whatever it wants so long as it agrees to recognize the rights of the other states to do as they please and so long as it does not assume powers for itself that belong properly to the federal government [2]. Our Constitution clearly outlines the process by which a territory can become a state. We have procedures in place to expand our governance to include new regions, peoples, and territories if they choose to become part of us. New states have the same status as every other state. They are equal to all of the other states. None is subject to another.
In the UK, on the other hand, Scotland, England, Wales, and North Ireland are not equals in government. Scotland can’t say if a treaty should be signed or not. Wales can’t demand that Parliament leave it alone and let it do things in a Welsh manner. North Ireland can’t set its own tax rates. Everything in the UK goes through the Parliament in London. It has the final say over all policies across the UK. The four constituent countries aren’t laboratories of democracy where each can tinker with things, do their own thing, and not be beholden to the others. No, Wales, North Ireland, and Scotland are conquered nations who have been brought into the fold of the United Kingdom.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, these days. After all, the English are hardly going around oppressing the Scots, the Welsh, or the Irish. The Welsh, Irish, and Scots do get to vote for representation in Parliament and, through that, they do have some say in national policy. Some might argue that the Scots are, if anything, over-represented in Parliament but, again, that’s not my concern here.
The US isn’t going to face another secession crisis if Scotland goes free because the US isn’t the UK. Sure, sure, plenty of people have run their mouths over the past twenty years talking about “we should secede if X happens or if Q is elected.” That’s bullshit (sorry, Mom). I’m sure that the chattering classes and the elites would love to break away from the benighted and ignorant backwoods flyover states but those people would very quickly realize that they need those redneck gun-toters to, you know, actually do shit for them that they don’t want to dirty their soft, well-manicured hands doing. And, the super conservative Bible thumpers might want to break away from the immoral and godless heathens in the big cities but they would very quickly learn that they need those people’s creativity to keep their own culture going.
And, even if a state seceded, the rest of the United States would fight to end the rebellion. Guys, we settled this already. It cost us over half a million good men on both sides. Once you’re in, you’re in. That’s it. There is no leaving the union because you don’t like the direction things are going or because someone you hate is the President or because a court case wasn’t decided the way you think it should have been. Congress, the President, the Supreme Court — none of them have the authority to ignore a rebellion and none of them have the authority to permit a state to leave the union. Any of them who tried would probably find themselves hanging from the nearest handy tree.
The US won’t break up strictly because we’re used to being disunited. We’re used to having very different cultures, people, languages, and religions living close to each other. In the US, if you’re not happy with the people around you, you can pack up and move somewhere with people better suited to you. And, moving won’t mean giving up anything. You’ll have the same rights and powers over the national government in any state you move to.
We won’t break up because none of us were forced, kicking and screaming, into a union. No, not even the rebellious Southern states who were Reconstructed back in weren’t forced to join in the first place. Aside from the Civil War, the people of one state have never fought the people of another state and forced them into subjugation. Sure, we’ll grouse about things not being the way we want them to be — especially now that the federal government seems to think that the fifty states should be subject to it instead of the other way around — but we’re not going to break apart. We need each other too much and, besides…
…you’d have to be insane to want to fight our Armed Forces on your front lawn.
— G.K.
[1]I find it unspeakably rude to voice an opinion on the private issues of a foreign nation. It’s a bit like getting in the middle of a friend’s divorce — it just shouldn’t be done. The most I will say is that I hope that, regardless of the outcome, the Scots people, the English people, the Welsh people, and the Irish people will always be friends to the people of the United States and that our countries will always be allies. Any non-Brit who says more than that is being, in my opinion, rude and uncouth and should be ignored or called out for it even if that person is the President of the United States. The business of the Scottish referendum for independence is none of our concern and we shouldn’t attempt to influence it one way or another unless the Scots suddenly start enslaving non-Scots or launching nukes at us or an ally or something like that.
[2]Yes, this is the idealized bit. I realize this isn’t how it plays out in reality but that’s because we Americans have let the federal government assume too much power since the days of FDR.
No, it won’t. Here’s why: http://t.co/8dqGvCGwxQ RT .@instapundit WILL SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE CREATE A BANDWAGON EFFECT?