“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”
"This system is broken so deeply that it cannot be repaired through traditional means."
I absolutely agree and have been saying it since before Trump 1.0. It is corrupt on both sides of the aisle...more so on the Republican side since Ronald Reagan. The Constitution only works when everyone buys into it, and today we see what happens when one side doesn't. The end of the "rule of law" as we knew it.
I refer readers to your "Soft Secession" article and booklets regularly now. More and more Americans are coming around to the idea that individual states and groups of states hold real power over the federal government if they choose to use it. Career politicians will resist a change that affects their power and status, so we need younger, more activist people elected and supported.
Keep up the drumbeat with your timely articles and solutions.
Is it worth also focusing on hyper local action? A city council, county commission, municipality, anywhere that has the ability to pass laws like the ones you're suggesting at a local level. Worth considering?
Has anyone been successful at getting FLOCK cameras removed from their city or county, because I know Norfolk Virginia is trying but they lost their last attempt? I'd like to try with mine and advice as to how to start hacking away at this as a problem would be useful. Less data fed to the machines-the better.
In WA some municipalities have had success. I don't have a reference for you, but your search engine should turn up something. It's kinda a big deal right now in that state.
Thank you for raising this, Linda! Even without soft secession, I'm fully expecting my Social Security benefits to end any day now. (I live in Mpls, MN)
Soft Secession response for this would be for state to create a replacement for SSI so that residents don't need to worry about it being taken away every time a Republican is elected.
I'm disabled and receiving Social Security Retirement. Is it realistic to think individual states could cover payments to beneficiaries of Social Security Retirement, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and SSI (Supplemental Security Income - a needs-based program which may be come out of the general fund, if I'm remembering correctly), without access to the Social Security Trust Fund? It might help if retirement benefits were means-tested, but many states are facing budget constraints, not to mention the demographics are against us.
Also, Medicare and Medicaid are involved in this equation.
Sorry - not throwing a wet blanket, but sincerely trying to better understand what's feasible, as someone whose survival is dependent on these federal programs.
I truly believe that soft secession is our only viable path through this mess.
With love and gratitude for all you do! (And kisses for your cats!)
Thank you for speaking so clearly on this subject. The time for successful action is rapidly slipping away. The very federalism that the right wing has worship for the last hundred years is the one tool we have left to save democracy.
I love your message about soft secession. I've been following your work recently. However, I am curious about your choice of Gavin Newsom to be at the opening of your article.
Indeed. As a California resident, I'm not that hopeful. He still thinks there's going to be a legit election in 2028 and is already running for POTUS. (P.S. There's no E at the end of his name, in case you want to edit your caption. 🙂)
Way to go Armitage! I also believe solutions will come at the state levels with state governors, laws and the state National Guards. I believe in succession of the states from the federal government and withholding taxes payed to the federal government once Trump suspends elections. Each state needs to start preparing now for what’s to come and govern its own. It’s going to be a rough ride because Trump and gang don’t plan on leaving peacefully.
I’ve spoken before about states establishing state escrow accounts as a defensive measure — a way to protect public funds from federal overreach, political retaliation, or economic coercion.
That idea may have sounded radical once. It doesn’t anymore.
A means-tested Corporate Welfare Act is another step in the same direction. If everyday people have to prove need to get basic assistance, then corporations should have to do the same before receiving a single dollar in subsidies, tax abatements, or bailout money. No more blank checks for stock buybacks, executive bonuses, and offshoring jobs. Public money should serve the public — not pad balance sheets.
These ideas fall under what some call “soft secession” — not disunion, not civil war, but a peaceful rebalancing of power where states assert their constitutional authority to shield their residents from reckless federal policy and corporate exploitation. I
t’s about federalism actually functioning the way it was designed: local control, local accountability, and economic self-determination.
But here’s the hard question we have to face:
Have we waited too long?
States today are financially entangled, politically pressured, and economically dependent in ways they weren’t generations ago. Corporations are larger than nations. Supply chains are centralized.
Critical infrastructure is privatized. Federal funding strings are tighter than ever. The leverage that states should have has been traded away piece by piece.
That doesn’t mean action is pointless — it means action must be smarter, coordinated, and bold. States acting alone are vulnerable. States acting together are powerful. Transparency in corporate subsidies.
Regional economic alliances. Public banking options. Escrow protections. Anti-corruption enforcement. These are not fringe ideas anymore; they are survival tools.
The window for easy reform may have closed. But the window for peaceful structural change is still open — barely. If states don’t begin reclaiming economic and legal ground now, the choice later won’t be between soft solutions and hard ones.
It will be between having power and having none.
And history shows what happens when people realize too late that the levers are already gone.
"This system is broken so deeply that it cannot be repaired through traditional means."
I absolutely agree and have been saying it since before Trump 1.0. It is corrupt on both sides of the aisle...more so on the Republican side since Ronald Reagan. The Constitution only works when everyone buys into it, and today we see what happens when one side doesn't. The end of the "rule of law" as we knew it.
I refer readers to your "Soft Secession" article and booklets regularly now. More and more Americans are coming around to the idea that individual states and groups of states hold real power over the federal government if they choose to use it. Career politicians will resist a change that affects their power and status, so we need younger, more activist people elected and supported.
Keep up the drumbeat with your timely articles and solutions.
Appreciate it, Stephen 🌲🌲🌲
Is it worth also focusing on hyper local action? A city council, county commission, municipality, anywhere that has the ability to pass laws like the ones you're suggesting at a local level. Worth considering?
Absolutely, yes. I need to write something on hyperlocal options.
Has anyone been successful at getting FLOCK cameras removed from their city or county, because I know Norfolk Virginia is trying but they lost their last attempt? I'd like to try with mine and advice as to how to start hacking away at this as a problem would be useful. Less data fed to the machines-the better.
In WA some municipalities have had success. I don't have a reference for you, but your search engine should turn up something. It's kinda a big deal right now in that state.
Thanks. That's at least a start to what I'm looking for.
Try Eugene, OR as Flock was shut down there fairly recently.
We are in a critical moment in pierce county Wa with our charter review and trying to get the sheriff (a maga bootlicker) recalled.
But we don’t want to lose sight of the big picture either. How do we balance both goals?
Juggling isn't easy, regular action points are good though. I try to never let 72 hours go by without making tangible progress on a target.
It's easiest to get involved at the local level and we see the results faster, too; because they affect us directly.
Yet another superb post, Christopher!
And consider instituting proportional representation to weaken the effect of gerrymandering!
If we were to do a soft secession would I continue to receive my Social Security benefits??
Thank you for raising this, Linda! Even without soft secession, I'm fully expecting my Social Security benefits to end any day now. (I live in Mpls, MN)
Christopher, do you have an answer for this?
Soft Secession response for this would be for state to create a replacement for SSI so that residents don't need to worry about it being taken away every time a Republican is elected.
Thanks for asking 🌲🌲🌲
Thanks, Christopher!
I'm disabled and receiving Social Security Retirement. Is it realistic to think individual states could cover payments to beneficiaries of Social Security Retirement, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and SSI (Supplemental Security Income - a needs-based program which may be come out of the general fund, if I'm remembering correctly), without access to the Social Security Trust Fund? It might help if retirement benefits were means-tested, but many states are facing budget constraints, not to mention the demographics are against us.
Also, Medicare and Medicaid are involved in this equation.
Sorry - not throwing a wet blanket, but sincerely trying to better understand what's feasible, as someone whose survival is dependent on these federal programs.
I truly believe that soft secession is our only viable path through this mess.
With love and gratitude for all you do! (And kisses for your cats!)
I'm going to write up more about non-tax revenue soon but that's the term for how we pay for these things.
Also and thank you for the kind words, Mary
My cats and I send our best 🌲🌲🌲
Could Republican lead states be trusted to pay a SSI replacement to their citizens?
They could not but they have bigger problems to solve first. We can't solve all the problems in all the places, unfortunately.
Thank you for speaking so clearly on this subject. The time for successful action is rapidly slipping away. The very federalism that the right wing has worship for the last hundred years is the one tool we have left to save democracy.
The more modern expression for what Thomas Paine is saying (or at least one of them) is "trying to play chess with a pigeon."
I love your message about soft secession. I've been following your work recently. However, I am curious about your choice of Gavin Newsom to be at the opening of your article.
I know he is regularly sent my articles, hoping he might take the hint.
Indeed. As a California resident, I'm not that hopeful. He still thinks there's going to be a legit election in 2028 and is already running for POTUS. (P.S. There's no E at the end of his name, in case you want to edit your caption. 🙂)
He is useless.
"...and the only reason it sounds extreme is that we have spent so long **accepting the unacceptable** that basic accountability feels revolutionary."
That's a face tattoo, or at least a t-shirt. Thanks Christopher. It's nice to have some company in the thoughts department.
And indeed, let's get after it...
Way to go Armitage! I also believe solutions will come at the state levels with state governors, laws and the state National Guards. I believe in succession of the states from the federal government and withholding taxes payed to the federal government once Trump suspends elections. Each state needs to start preparing now for what’s to come and govern its own. It’s going to be a rough ride because Trump and gang don’t plan on leaving peacefully.
I’ve spoken before about states establishing state escrow accounts as a defensive measure — a way to protect public funds from federal overreach, political retaliation, or economic coercion.
That idea may have sounded radical once. It doesn’t anymore.
A means-tested Corporate Welfare Act is another step in the same direction. If everyday people have to prove need to get basic assistance, then corporations should have to do the same before receiving a single dollar in subsidies, tax abatements, or bailout money. No more blank checks for stock buybacks, executive bonuses, and offshoring jobs. Public money should serve the public — not pad balance sheets.
These ideas fall under what some call “soft secession” — not disunion, not civil war, but a peaceful rebalancing of power where states assert their constitutional authority to shield their residents from reckless federal policy and corporate exploitation. I
t’s about federalism actually functioning the way it was designed: local control, local accountability, and economic self-determination.
But here’s the hard question we have to face:
Have we waited too long?
States today are financially entangled, politically pressured, and economically dependent in ways they weren’t generations ago. Corporations are larger than nations. Supply chains are centralized.
Critical infrastructure is privatized. Federal funding strings are tighter than ever. The leverage that states should have has been traded away piece by piece.
That doesn’t mean action is pointless — it means action must be smarter, coordinated, and bold. States acting alone are vulnerable. States acting together are powerful. Transparency in corporate subsidies.
Regional economic alliances. Public banking options. Escrow protections. Anti-corruption enforcement. These are not fringe ideas anymore; they are survival tools.
The window for easy reform may have closed. But the window for peaceful structural change is still open — barely. If states don’t begin reclaiming economic and legal ground now, the choice later won’t be between soft solutions and hard ones.
It will be between having power and having none.
And history shows what happens when people realize too late that the levers are already gone.
The Means Testing Act gave me the political tinglies. I am so in love with this idea!
Thanks so much Chris for another informative and helpful article!!
The quote with which you start this post is everything. It’s exactly our world. Good ol’ T. Paine! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Peach it, brother!!!
Thanks for restating your important, clear "Common Sense" methods to regain American democracy.
As you state, "Justice isn't protected through acquiesce under authoritarian threats."