Should They Stay or Should They Go?

Three Republican members of the South Carolina House of Representatives have introduced a bill calling on the legislature to debate secession from the Union in the event that the federal government begins messing with their guns:

The general assembly shall convene to consider whether to secede from the United States based upon the federal government's unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms in this state.

South Carolina is the state that pioneered both nullification and secession, and we all know how well that turned out the last time around. And there is a distressing familiarity to the new secession movement.  It is motivated, just like the previous one, by the idea that South Carolina has the right and power to define lawful property – first time slaves, this time “legally purchased firearms” – without regard to federal law.

The federal government already confiscates some firearms in South Carolina, of course, pursuant to the “felon in possession” statute (18 USC 922 (g)), even if they were otherwise legally purchased under state law. So the three sponsors of the GOP bill might actually be planning a secession debate sooner than rather than later.

Then again, even the most ambitious federal gun control legislation proposes nothing more than universal background checks, age restrictions, and maybe some limits on magazine size and bump stocks, so it doesn’t look as though confiscation is anywhere on the horizon.

Still, it is interesting to imagine the impact of South Carolina’s secession from the Union. Financially, it would be a net plus for the feds. According to the website WalletHub, South Carolina currently ranks number six in overall dependency on federal funds.  As of 2014 (the last year for which I could find figures), the Palmetto state was first – by a longshot – in receiving federal money as a percentage of federal tax payments, getting almost $4 back for every dollar paid.

Maybe more significantly, South Carolina’s secession would eliminate two Republican senators, which would throw the current Senate into a 49-49 deadlock, and vastly improve Democrats’ chances of taking control of the chamber in the next election. (South Carolina also has seven members of the House of Representatives, six of whom are Republicans.)

On the minus side, U.S. citizens would need passports to play golf at Hilton Head, but that seems to be about it.

For a small state, South Carolina has produced a great deal of history, not to mention a host of colorful political characters, starting with John C. Calhoun and continuing through today with Lindsay Graham, Tim Scott, Trey Gowdy, Nicki Haley, James Clyburn, Mick Mulvaney, trail-walking Mark Sanford, and gun-toting Ralph Norman.  I can't say that I like them all -- or even most of them -- but our discourse would be poorer if they suddenly became foreigners. So let's hope the Palmetto State sticks around.

Comments

[Anymouse]

This is just as bad as the kooks in California who want to #Resist and secede. Or are they somehow different?

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

There are a number of differences between the secessionists in in South Carolina and those in California. The most active or visible group within the latter (there are several such groups) wants to secede from California (as a new state, the ‘state of Jefferson,’ although earlier iterations included bits of Oregon!), not the U.S., there is, however, one fairly small group, Calexit, that wants our state “to secede from the Union entirely,” an idea that gained momentum after Trump’s election (further evidence that Trump has proven more adept at dividing the country than uniting it). They also have a considerable list of grievances (anxiety over gun rights being just one of them), prominent among them contending that illegal immigrants are responsible (and by implication, our immigration laws) for the bulk of their woes (low wages, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, etc.). The northern California counties that would make up this new state does not, in fact, resemble much of the rest of our Golden State: “The vast, sparsely-populated region is whiter, more rural and poorer than the rest of the state — and residents are more conservative.” The movement, such as it is, claims support in 21 counties in northern California yet, as “Eric McGhee, a political scientist at the Public Policy Institute of California, said ... ‘It’s easy to think that because there’s this large piece of territory, that it’s a large share of California in terms of the population,’ he said. ‘That’s just not the case. ... It’s an absolutely minuscule portion of the state’s population.’” The LA Times article by Hailey Branson-Potts from which this quoted material is taken, also notes that “[i]f Jefferson became a state, it would have 1.7 million residents, a population bigger than 13 other states. It would be 73% white. Present-day California has roughly the same number of whites and Latinos, at about 14.8 million each.”

Like Trump, “[s]upporters say overregulation has hobbled rural industries such as timber, mining and fishing and that the state’s high taxes and cost of living are driving young people away, quickening the decline of small towns.”

A committee of this group’s members are writing a new constitution for their proposed state.

[Steve L.]

The biggest difference is that the secessionists in South Carolina are in the state legislature, while the secessionists in California are out on the fringe.

[Anon]

Can anyone explain to me why the people who threaten secession and who hold guns so they can "fight the government" or whatever, are considered to be the patriotic ones in the United States? It's bizzaro world.

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

In the immortal words of John McLaughlin, "Buh Bye." You can take Nikki Haley with you on the way out.

[Joe Finorke]

anon at 12:22,

Whether it's Dukakis in the tank, Teresa Heinz Kerry and her "Cookies" or Clinton and her "deploreables," us libtards get bashed for asking questions like that. What the hell's wrong with you? They are the finest god fearing vaping Muricans around. A mass manufactured piece of extruded and stamped metal is the finest expression of America. Cliven Bundy and Kim Davis said so.

[Joe Finorke]

In honor of Republican Governor FAMILY values Mark Sanford, the HIKE and the Argentinian Hottie "Soul Mate," we should let them go....they can go find themselves...their spiritual quest. That sort of thing.