Mike Tuggle, Wanted: Better Way to Govern

Wanted: Better way to govern
Secessionists, others seek freedom from burdens of big government
From Michael C. Tuggle of Charlotte, a member of the League of the South:

Readers unfamiliar with the actual goals of either Christian Exodus or the League of the South would judge both groups not only malevolent, but hopelessly out of touch with today's issues, and unable to propose serious, workable solutions to them -- that is, if their only information about them came from Kay McSpadden's June 16 column, "Conservative fringe targets South Carolina."

In fact, the emergence of local sovereignty movements is the defining political effort of the 21st century.

The 19th and 20th centuries were characterized by authoritarian, centralizing regimes that bound peoples together against their will in the name of a one-size-fits-all ideology. The new century is witnessing the growth of secession and autonomy movements around the world -- a clear signal that the age of ideological megastates is fast coming to a close, and that culture-based, human-scaled nation-states are replacing them.

The truth is that big government is inherently ambitious, wasteful and murderous. The age of the all-controlling central authority has passed, and smaller, human-scaled governments are taking its place. Independence and autonomous movements are active in Canada, Italy, Spain, Britain, and have redrawn the map throughout Eastern Europe and Asia. Here at home, such movements are just stirring to action as people rediscover the true American principle of the right of self-determination.

Eight states and over 400 local governments have nullified the unconstitutional USA-PATRIOT Act. Others are refusing to enforce the Orwellian REAL-ID act. Governments such as the State of Oklahoma have taken direct action to stop the flow of illegal aliens, a duty the federal government has refused to uphold. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair recently signed an agreement to form a new trans-Atlantic market in carbon dioxide emissions to fight global warming. Others have followed suit -- New England, for example, has signed on to the Kyoto Accords, despite opposition from D.C.

These developments reveal growing disgust with an unresponsive, hostile central government. New movements, such as the Second Vermont Republic, illustrate the increasing awareness that a new direction must be found, that an escape route must be found away from the imperial death spiral of more surveillance, more taxation, more domestic and global intervention.

The growing interest in reclaiming the powers delegated to the federal government is purely American in spirit, and in law, as the Declaration of Independence boldly proclaimed. What would the Founders think of a central government that consumes over a third of our incomes, that's actively importing a Third-World majority, that claims it can redefine any American as an "enemy combatant" who does not possess his birthright of habeas corpus?

What would the Founders say about a government that not only goes abroad in search of monsters, but even invents them when none can be found, to keep the military-industrial-congressional money-and-power machine grinding away? What would they say about a government that ignores its people's express desire to seal our porous borders, and put an end to a counter-productive, immoral war in Iraq?

There's a better way. Rather than seeking "a return to antebellum life," as your op-ed writer claimed, groups such as Christian Exodus, the League of the South and the Second Vermont Republic are seeking an alternative to an alien, remote central government that ignores its citizens. We act not out of nostalgia or ill-will toward anyone, but out of necessity.

Readers, take a look at Dixienet.org, christianexodus.org or vermontrepublic.org and decide for yourselves who we are and what we stand for.

Christian Exodus: Position Statement; Statement of Faith; Plan of Action; from its homepage:

ChristianExodus.org is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles. It is evident that the U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christian Constitutionalists to protect our liberties in a State like South Carolina by interposing the State's sovereign authority retained under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The foundations of the United States of America were laid upon these principles, that the rights of man are God-given and inviolate, that the sole purpose of government is to secure these rights, and that the only just powers of government are those specifically delegated by the people. The federal government is restrained by Constitutional Law, the Sovereign States, and the Citizens of those States, each one made in the image of God, with individual rights to life, liberty, and property.

The federal government was created to protect us from the very tyranny it now practices against us...

We are violated in our right to Life:
Unborn babies are subject to slaughter by abortionists and their own mothers under any pretext whatsoever.
The elderly, infirm, and disabled are subject to forced starvation and involuntary euthanasia.
Citizens are subjected to the perils of imperialist entanglements abroad, and left unprotected from alien invaders at home.

We are violated in our right to Liberty:

Abortion continues against the wishes of many States and in violation of the reserved powers of the States under the 10th Amendment.
Christians are denied their rights to free speech, freedom of the press, the display of religious monuments, and other expressions of faith in the public sphere.
Citizens are denied their rights to keep and bear arms sufficient for the restraint of tyranny.
Men, women, and children are involuntarily exposed to the corrupting influences of homosexuality, pornography, and other perversities protected and financed by the national government.
Sodomy is now legal and celebrated as "diversity" by order of the U.S. Supreme Court rather than condemned as perversion. Another usurpation of the rights of the States by the federal government.
Families are subject to the trauma of no-fault divorce, often used to unjustly deny fathers equal protection under law and fundamental family rights.
Children are seized from good parents arbitrarily and under false pretexts, and placed in the care of the state, as driven by federal funding.
Federal courts prevent children in public schools from freely practicing Christianity.
Children who pray in public schools are subject to prosecution.
Federal expenditures on education are unconstitutional and promote revisionist history and statist sociology. Our schools continue to teach the discredited theory of Darwinian evolution.

We are violated in our right to Property:
Private property is subject to unreasonable restrictions upon use and development by illegal federal environmental and zoning regulations.
Private homes may now be arbitrarily seized by government for any reason whatsoever.
Private commerce is restricted by overbearing and unwarranted government regulation and taxation.
Citizens are taxed without their consent in ways that are unjust, unreasonable, and contrary to the public welfare.
Christians have seen and known all these things, and yet we have been unable to stem the tide against our liberties and our families. The Republican Party, which once promised to reduce the overbearing size of government, after gaining the reins of power has expanded government to unprecedented reaches. Attempts at reform have proven futile for over three decades, and do not hold promise at the national level since Republicans and Democrats alike have abandoned regard for the Constitution and the proper role of government. ChristianExodus.org offers the opportunity to try a strategy not yet employed by millions of Christian conservatives who are geographically spread out and diluted at the national level. If we really mean to return to the Christian principles of constitutional American government, we must start at the local level and accelerate the process through mass migration. This is the Christian Exodus.

ChristianExodus.org is orchestrating the move of thousands of Christians to reacquire our Constitutional rights by electing State and local officials who will interpose on behalf of the people and refuse to enforce illegal federal acts. Click on our Plan of Action page to find out how we can experience God-honoring governance once again.

If you are tired of government-endorsed sin, then stand up and be counted! Join us