This item on the history of Absaroka is pretty fascinating (h/t Andrew Sullivan).
UPDATE: If Texas can secede and Arizona can secede, why not Montana?
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"Our aim, to swat liars and leeches, hypocrites & humbugs, demagogs & dastards" -- The Yellow Jacket Moravian Falls, N.C., 1919
5 comments:
By treaty, Texas can split into up to five states. Maybe we should annex Mexico and end our immigration problems.
For years, some of the more extreme members of the GOP in the Arizona House of Representatives would (as a joke more than anything else) offer up a resolution declaring that Arizona would secede from the Union. The resolution would get a few laughs and usually lose by a 50-10 margin (we have only 60 members in the House and 30 in the Senate here in the Grand Canyon State).
But a few years ago, the joke was on the state. The resolution actually passed. The session was a strange one to begin with (a law legalizing Freon -- which had been banned by an act of Congress for over a decade -- made it through both chambers only to be vetoed by the Governor), as both houses were dominated by members of the GOP's lunatic fringe (which is alive and well here). Fortunately, the Articles of Secession were voted down decisively by the Senate, but if Obama beats McCain and chooses our Governor (Janet Napalitano) for a cabinet post (or as a running mate), look for it to resurface. (Governor Napalitano would be succeeded by Secretary of State Jan Brewer -- as AZ has no Lt. Governor -- who is a Republican, and the GOP would be smarting because the rest of the nation would have passed over yet another Arizonan in John McCain. Since this state has such a large inferiority complex as it is -- you'd swear the place had been founded by Canadians ;-) -- a rejection of another of our native sons -- although unlike Barry Goldwater, Mo Udall and Bruce Babbitt, Big John is more of a "carpetbagger" having parachuted in here in the early 1980s to win a safe GOP seat in the house while marrying into money -- would be almost more than this state could bear.)
Kirk,
Interesting. Do you know what theory Arizona would use to argue that it can secede? Chuck is right about Texas, as I understand it: It entered the U.S. as an independent country under a treaty that allowed it break up into as many as five states. The secession theory in Texas is that if it were to break up and Congress resisted, then it could argue that the treaty was no longer in effect. But I didn't know that any other states since the Civil War had a secession route.
David,
I'm not sure there was any theory that the folks who offered up our secession resolution thought of to justify their actions -- other than it always drew a good laugh. However, there were a few honorable members who were dead serious and probably thought it was a good idea (and still do).
The moderate wing of the GOP has a great deal of trouble getting elected to the legislature, since the only folks who vote in the primary are of the John Birch wing of the party (and given the fact that in many districts, the Democrats don't even bother to run any candidates -- I know, because I live in one -- the primary, which is the day after Labor Day, is the de facto general election). The gal who represents us in the Senate is a conspiracy buff who believes the World Trade Center was brought down with well placed explosives (the jets were drones, according to her), and wants students at our universities and community colleges to be allowed to pack heat (along with patrons in saloons -- oh, good). She has decided to retire from politics, and the guy who is favored to win the seat is from the KKK wing of the party -- and is in favor of sending all the Mexicans back home, in pine boxes, if necessary. Even the ones who were born here. (Rumor is that if we offered Arizona back to Mexico, the Mexicans would not-so-politely refuse the offer, the place is so screwed up.)
I'd like to move back to Montana (where the nuts are in Warm Springs), but I don't have the money to do so. (Donations will be gladly accepted. ;-) )
It has been suggested before that Montana should secede; the suggestion is that if we secede, the federal government will declare war on us and afterwards we will be the recipient of beaucoup dollars for restoration. Will that work?
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