It seems that every cloud really does have a silver lining. The current recession and the federal government’s unpardonable reaction to it have sparked debates on that just last year would have been unthinkable, the most notable recent one being the debate over secession.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry made national waves at an April 15 Tea Party when he seemed to express sympathy for Texas secession, but even before that, a spirit of decentralism has been slowly creeping into the national discourse. The 10th Amendment movement has been urging states to pass state sovereignty declarations — with surprising success — asserting the constitutional power of the 50 states in the face of federal usurpation. Even Bob Barr, quite the milquetoast libertarian, said at a recent speech at Emory that he believes states have the right to secede from the Union.

The idea of secession seems alien to us; it seems un-American, maybe even evil. It shouldn’t. Secession is based on inherently American values. We believe in the right to choose our own rulers and the right of self-determination; why then do we not believe that a free people can leave their country when they would rather be ruled by someone else? The American Revolution was fought by people to do just that, to secede from Great Britain. Secession is the greatest safeguard of liberty that we could possibly devise. There is nothing that should scare central power more than the idea that, if it doesn’t behave, then a huge section of the country can just get up and leave.

Of course, there are those who think secession is anarchic and dangerous. But is it really? Look at the barbarism of the Soviet Union, at the gulags, the state-enforced starvation and wars of conquest. It was the secession of the Eastern European governments that brought that to an end, allowing for the economic integration of East and West.

This brings us to another point. A world dominated by small states, with more able to splinter off at any time, is one much more conducive to peace than a world of large states. Smallness necessitates free trade, which can only be carried on in stable conditions of peace. States must stay on good terms with their neighbors, because they need their goods, creating mutual dependency. A large state has no such incentive; it can quite easily turn autarkical, and concentrate its resources on militarism, espionage and social control. There is a reason, in other words, why Iceland and Malta are open and peaceful and the U.S. and Russia, historically, have not been.

But there is another objection to secession, and this, I think, is the most important one. It explains the apoplexy we see in modern-day liberals — and even in some statist conservatives — whenever the topic of secession is broached. The Progressive philosophy, the foundation of modern-day liberalism, is built on a belief in the efficacy of central power—that the government possesses the means of curing any social affliction, if only we get the right people in power. Heaven is only an election away!

Secession threatens that view because it is a radical attack on central power as such. How often do we hear of those “backwards Christians” or those “redneck reactionaries” who won’t accept Roe v. Wade, the War on Poverty, or whatever other socially transformative project the Washington establishment is peddling?

Progressivism can only work if those rubes out in the countryside just shut up and go along. It’s always the fault of those obstructionists — they never gave Roosevelt or Johnson or Obama the chance to make the change we needed.

The problem becomes much worse when those rubes out in the countryside can just walk away. The social transformers begin to see that the society they wish to transform is growing ever smaller. The Progressives cry foul. And so they should. They do not value liberty; they value only ideology, and they seek to force the world to conform to their ideology at gunpoint.

The secessionists, however, will not be forced. For one who values liberty, that is a great thing. What is wrong with deciding you don’t want the central government’s “salvation.” But for the Progressive, who seeks to transform and renew, choice must take a backseat to the current ideological pretensions. Such are the people who control Washington now, and who have controlled it for decades. I hope I can find a job in the Second Republic of Texas.

Kelse Moen is a College senior from Sharon, Mass.