Walter Williams is right

Let me be the first political pundit to congratulate

columnist
Walter Williams for raising a fundamental question that must be addressed by freedom-loving people -- a question far more important than who becomes the next president of the United States.

In

his most recent weekly commentary, Williams says it's time for us to reconsider the idea of secession. I agree.

I know it's radical. I know it's not a topic being discussed on the Sunday morning talk shows. I know it's not a subject of op-eds in the New York Times. But, the more I think about it, the more I agree it's the only political solution that makes sense for an America that has lost its sense of mission and the original intent of those who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

"If one group of people prefers government control and management of people's lives, and another prefers liberty and a desire to be left alone, should they be required to fight, antagonize one another, and risk bloodshed and loss of life in order to impose their preferences, or should they be able to peaceably part company and go their separate ways?" Williams asks.

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I say it's time to part company. So does Williams.

"Like a marriage that has gone bad, I believe there are enough irreconcilable differences between those who want to control and those want to be left alone that divorce is the only peaceable alternative," he writes. "Just as in a marriage, where vows are broken, our human rights protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them. Americans who are responsible for and support constitutional abrogation have no intention of mending their ways."

As we listen to the two leading presidential candidates debate which one has the better programs to deepen the federal government's illegitimate role in education, health and dozens of other aspects of American life, it's clear that those who cherish liberty and the Constitution have no choice in most elections anymore.

That leaves only one alternative -- breaking the bands that tie us together. Actually, to be honest, those bands have already been broken -- by those who have, over time, grabbed control of our lives in a thousand insidious ways over the last 200-plus years.

Williams gets right down to basics by citing Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which enumerates the activities for which Congress is authorized to tax and spend, and the words of the man who wrote it, James Madison.

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined," Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers. "Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the state."

Seems clear to me. So where's the argument?

"Nowhere among the enumerated powers of Congress is there authority to tax and spend for: Social Security, public education, farm subsidies, bank bailouts, food stamps and other activities that represent roughly two-thirds of the federal budget," writes Williams. "Neither is there authority for Congress' mandates to the states and people about how they may use their land, the speed at which they can drive, whether a library has wheelchair ramps and the gallons of water used per toilet flush. A list of congressional violations of the letter and spirit of the Constitution is virtually without end."

He continues: "Americans who wish to live free have two options: We can resist, fight and risk bloodshed to force America's tyrants to respect our liberties and human rights, or we can seek a peaceful resolution of our irreconcilable differences by separating. That can be done by people in several states, say Texas and Louisiana, controlling their legislatures and then issuing a unilateral declaration of independence just as the Founders did in 1776."

Can such a result be achieved through the ballot box? No, Williams says. And, more importantly, he adds, "Liberty shouldn't require a vote. It's a God-given or natural right."

I've quoted Williams extensively here for a reason. I couldn't say it any better than he has.

It's time to move this debate forward -- front and center. It's time to begin asking the real questions. It's time to restore liberty to America.