Ron Paul: This weekend I got a couple of calls from the media asking me questions about Rick Perry, our governor here in Texas and the statements he made about possible secession. Now, he didn’t call for secession, but he was restating a principle that was long held and at least in the original time of our country, and that is that there was a right to secession.
Actually, after the Civil War, nobody believes there is a so-called right to secession, but it is a very legitimate issue to debate because all of the states that came into the Union before the Civil War believed they have a right to secede and New England in the early part of the 19th century actually considered it, and nobody questioned them about whether they had the right to do it or not.
Since the Civil War, it’s been sort of a dead issue, but he brought it up. It stirred the media and believe me, it really stirred some of the liberal media where they started really screaming about what is going on here. “This is un-American”, I heard one individual say, “This is treasonous to even talk about it.”
Well, they don’t know their history very well because if they think about it, it’s an American tradition. It’s very American to talk about secession. That’s how we came into being. Thirteen colonies seceded from the British and established a new country, so secession is very much an American principle.
What about all the strong endorsements we have given over the past decade or two of those republics that seceded from the Soviet system? We were delighted with this. We never said, “Oh no. Secession is treasonous”.
No. Secession is a good principle. Just think of the benefits that would have come over these last 230-some years if the principle of secession had existed. That means the federal government would always have been restrained, not to overburden the states with too much federalism, too many federal rules and regulations.
But since that was all wiped out with the Civil War, the federal government has grown by leaps and bounds and we have suffered the consequences, and we need to reconsider this. It’s not un-American to think about the possibility of secession. This is something that’s voluntary. We came together voluntarily. A free society means you can dissolve it voluntarily. That was the whole issue was about.
Just remember one of the reasons that Wilson drove us in unnecessarily into World War I. He talked about what we have to give, have every country in the world the benefit of self-determination, a good principle. Of course, I don’t think he really believed that. But self-determination is a good principle. It’s a very American principle, so to me it’s a shame that we can’t discuss this.
You know, it’s interesting that so many of us have been taught for so many years, and as long as I can remember from the first grade on up taking the pledge of allegiance that we have a republic that’s “indivisible” and we have been preached that and preached it. So therefore, there is no contest, no question since the Civil War that we have even the thought that this could happen.
But you know what a lot of people don’t talk about and they really don’t even know about is who wrote the pledge to the flag. The pledge to the flag came from, for instance, Bellamy, an avowed Socialist who wanted to put into concrete in the pledge this principle of being indivisible, and he did it, you know, for the celebration ironically 400 years of the celebration of the landing of Christopher Columbus, so it was in 1892.
I mean, the pledge of allegiance has not been here, you know, all our history. So I think it’s worth of discussion. I think people should discuss this because right now, the American people are sick and tired of it all and I think the time will come when people will consider it much more seriously is when the federal government can no longer deliver. That time will come when the dollar collapses.
No matter what they do and how many promises they have and how many bailouts they have, they can’t do it if the money doesn’t work. So then, the independence of the states will come back and it doesn’t mean that you’ll be un-American to even contemplate what might have to be done once the dollar crashes.
While this video was originally recorded on 4/19/2009, Ron Paul spokeswoman Rachel Mills confirmed earlier today (11/13/2012) that Ron Paul “feels the same now” about secession as he did in this video.
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As per US rules it is not treason..in Sweden and other countries it might be…Currently, after election, 25+K (the critical limit) folks signed to secede from US..so now the current administration officially has to respond to that…not that anything big will happen..but there is such process for that..BTW, pls. dont call people names just becuz u dont agree with them..it shows your lack of mental strength to discuss anything meaningful
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Yeah, the heroic Sovjets stopped them after their infamous Hitler-Stalin-pact wasn’t honoured by Hitler – when they faced the choice between actual annihalation and biting back, they finally bit back. Before that, they were allies. – And yes, the average education is better in Europe (at least northern Europe) than it is in the US. As I said, the Third Reich also had a better average education than the US had back then. If that’s you’re standard, it sure as hell isn’t mine.
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Ahem, no. The Nazis were defeated by the Soviets.
And I’m not talking about inventions, I’m talking about standards of living.
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Nazism, the scum that was my ancestors, were defeated by Americans. And to your superiority delusion: The Americans invented basically every major innovation in the last 50 years, including the most important internet innovations like facebook and google.
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We ARE superior to Americans, at least in the sense that our standards of living are far better. Also, how the FUCK did the Americans force us to “come to our senses”? Are you high or something?
Given that you apparently mourned the loss of Andrew Breitbart, I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised …
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On a different note, “we” were also already more secular and better educated back when it was still the early 1940ties and “we” were killing each other off in the millions, “we” turned humans into lampshades and “we” had to be forced to come to senses by those uneducated Americans you feel you’re so superior to.
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I’m German, an atheist, a mathematician and I work in IT.
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I’m not antagonizing Americans, and us Europeans aren’t much different from you Americans, except that we’re more secular and far better educated.
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You might want to make a point I can say something meaningful to.
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How would I know whether you’re a collectivist? I know that you’re a European doche who enjoys antagonizing Americans, I know that most Europeans are collectivists and I explained to you what a collectivist is. But maybe I’m wrong. You only need to say so. But of course you won’t.
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Have you heard of the US Constitution?
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I generally support the death penalty and am usually delighted to see idiot occupiers being pepper-sprayed at. So I’m clearly not your garden variety anarchist but much rather a law-and-order supporter (more than anybody else I personally know). – Still, appeals to authority in the realm of *ideas* don’t impress me.
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So you’re just an anarchist. Gotcha.
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Appeals to authority don’t impress me.
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Well, Washington, DC is still the capital. And you haven’t really explained to me how I’m a collectivist, exactly?
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Wanting to secede is technically treason.
But if you want to leave, go ahead. Have fun in your little redneck theocracy (because that is what an independent Texas would be).
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It’s the states forcing the renegade state to remain in the Union, which is a natural right according to Thomas Jefferson.
“When any one state in the American Union refuses obedience to the Confederation by which they have bound themselves, the rest have a natural right to compel them to obedience.”
And James Madison shares similar sentiments.
“it was not necessary to find a right to coerce in the Federal Articles, that being inherent in the nature of a compact.”
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I agree. It’s the fact that that particular state is then forced to remain in the union that proves the tyrannical nature of that federal government. Obvious, really.
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wikipedia(.)org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States
We fought a big civil war about it…not having the ability to secede is slavery/coercion/bondage/abuse of power/dependece (as in opposite of independence) in American lingo…
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A collectivist is somebody who identifies himself with a group – a country, usually. Or Europe, or mankind, or “society”, or “the Umma”. Collectivism is more strong in Europe than in the US, hence the historical popularity of Nazism, Communism and, today, humanism and welfare-statism. To identify a group of people on a patch of land with the government or the capital of that patch of land is a typical way of thinking for a collectivist.
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What’s a “European collectivist”, exactly, and how am I one, whatever it is?
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And “being the capital of” doesn’t equal “being equal to”. It justifies no identification. You can be an Amercian patriot and hate the tyrants in Washington – no contradiction there, although that’s surely a notion difficult to get one’s head round for European collectivists.
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And “being the capital of” doesn’t equal “being equal to”. It justifies no identification. You can be an Amercian patriot and hate the tyrants in Washington – no contradiction there, although that’s surely a notion difficult to get one’s head round for European collectivists.
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Also, what do you mean, “till the rest of the world keeps buying the dollar”? (That sentence doesn’t even make grammatical sense.)
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How can LEAVING AMERICA not be un-American?
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If you only knew and your ilk could! BTW, why don’t you concentrate on your Swedish politics…We, Americans are fine till the rest of the worlld keep buying the dollar!
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Umm, it’s the capital of America?
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Just because a state claims the federal government is being tyrannical, doesn’t mean the federal government actually is being tyrannical.
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You’re right that they are the same, and it’s a very important point. Kicking out the parasite and leaving a tyranny and two ways at looking at the same thing.
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Washington, D.C., is not America.
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It can be argued that the seccession was successful just put on hold, There has never been a state expeled from the union. California, oralgun, new york and illinoise would be perfect states to expele from the union it also would save the treasury trillions.It would also neutralize the dictatorial edits and illegal mandates coming from non governmental oroganizations masqerating as kommisskupal councils
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Thanks, Paul, for being such a loser you brought Mitt Romney down with yu.
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Thanks, Paul, for being such a loser you brought Mitt Romney down with yu.
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“The compact being among individuals as imbodied into States, no State can at pleasure release itself therefrom, and set up for itself. The compact can only be dissolved by the consent of the other parties, or by usurpations or abuses of power justly having that effect. It will hardly be contended that there is anything in the terms or nature of the compact, authorizing a party to dissolve it at pleasure.”
– James Madison
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yes and and illegal aliens cant be given special status but they have!
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