| >His point is that Americans are broadly wrong when we condemn secessionists as traitors. According to our own founding document. And he'd be wrong. They betrayed their nation, the United States of America. What's more, the Declaration of Independence didn't found anything. It was a declaration of rebellion with broad, well understood at the time, political arguments designed to rile folks up against George III. The U.S.'s first "founding document" was the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union[0], approved by the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and ratified by all 13 colonies (cum states) by 1781, followed by its replacement in 1789 by the US Constitution. While the Declaration does lay out political arguments for secession, it has no legal force. Rather, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land[1]. What clause in that document grants the several states the right to secede? I'll save you the effort. It ain't there. You can absolutely make the philosophical argument that a society can, and in some cases, should, create a separate political entity. As was elucidated in Robert Heinlein's lunar retelling of the American Revolution in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress[2]. But that's a philosophical argument, not a legal one. That said, there's nothing stopping you or anyone else from advocating/organizing secession from the Unites States (or the relevant political entity wherever you might be), but governments tend to frown on that sort of thing. As such, no matter the malicious motives and/or provocations of said government, if you attempt to overthrow its authority, you are a traitor (or a 'freedom fighter', I'm not picky about labels). But you are perfectly able to do so. But things might not end so well. Governments tend to be less pleasant to those who take up arms against them than they might be. As the Confederacy[3] found out, during the American Civil War. Relatedly, Kermit Roosevelt[4] persuasively argues[5] that the members of the Confederacy were the true inheritors of the political arguments embodied by the Declaration of Independence, not the Union. His point being that our nation as it exists is the product of the evolution of our constitutional order, and not simply the natural rights arguments laid out in the Declaration. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation [1] https://constitutionus.com/constitution/the-supreme-law-of-t... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Roosevelt_III [5] https://www.c-span.org/video/?469938-1/rethinking-americas-f... |