Atlanta suburbs mulls seccession: Maybe America should consider it too

Part of Fulton County, a suburb of Atlanta, is threatening to split off and form its own county. Charges of racial motivations are flying because the possibly-future Milton County would be white-majority and more economically affluent than what would be left of Fulton County.

Reading this and doing a little more research into the situation, I can't really see where race is a factor here. It seems more like one part of the population is tired of waste and mis-management and is wanting more accountability over how its tax money is being used. I could see a very strong argument being made on those terms for the return (it originally merged with Fulton in the 1930s) of Milton County.

Maybe this should be a model of what we could be doing nationwide.

No, I'm not talking about succession from the United States. But I am suggesting that the more government is localized, the more efficient it is and the more answerable to the citizenry it becomes.

America is too centralized a country. The more power and money that has flown into Washington, the weaker this nation has become as a result. It has made us corrupted, and it has made us vulnerable. A smart terrorist would detonate a small-yield nuke in the vicinity of the Capitol building tonight while President Bush is delivering the State of the Union speech, with the Speaker of the House and Vice-President right behind him (aren't these people supposed to be kept away from each other during things like this, all because taking those three out in one fell swoop would wreck havoc with the Presidential chain of succession?). With those killed along with a full joint session of the House and Senate, not to mention the Supreme Court justices... well, to say that this country would be running around like a chicken with its head cut off would be putting it mildly.

I hope something like that doesn't happen. But if it does, this country would be in trouble, all because we have invested too much of our strength and leadership in the federal core. And it's taken our nation's vitality with it.

What's the answer? Maybe confederacy.

Give each state its own unique identity back. Quit sending so much money from the states and into Washington. Rescind the 17th Amendment so that once again it will be state legislatures that elect the Senators. Abolish federal departments like Education.

Centralized directing of a country's path inevitably leads that country into rot and stagnation. Consider what happened to the Soviet Union, and Rome before that. The only cure for corruption from power is to be willing to give up that power.

The state and local governments should be what hold most of the power in this country, not the federal government. Federal government is only really useful for national defense and not too many other things.

I'm not saying we give up our identity as Americans. That can not happen. Being an "American" is not dependent upon what form our government exists in.

But the quality of being an American certainly does.

The major political parties will not like this idea. They want the power to be centralized in Washington. That's what makes it so easy to seize power and then take more power. Neither will members of the mainstream press: they like the current power structure, because they love the role they have in maintaining it. Most Americans currently will not want this, because they have grown too comfortable with being wards of an all-encompassing State.

One day, it will all topple. It may even be starting now...

"The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

(Ten bonus points to whoever can say where that quote is from without Googling it.)

We can either let it fall, probably sooner rather than later... or we start spreading all that excess weight around before the whole thing collapses in on itself.

The people of the once-and-future Milton County in Georgia may be doing a very wise thing, indeed. Perhaps the rest of us should be paying some keen attention to them.