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Title: Libertarians Should NOT Support Texan Secession
Author: Eric Fleischmann
Date: 7/2/22
Language: en
Topics: left-libertarianism, libertarianism, secession, Texas, autonomy, Zapatistas
Source: Retrieved on 7/2/22 from https://c4ss.org/content/56965.

Eric Fleischmann

Libertarians Should NOT Support Texan Secession

Recently, the Republican Party of Texas released a brand new platform

stating that “Texas retains the right to secede from the United States,

and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum

consistent thereto” and calls “for the people of Texas to determine

whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an

independent nation.” On the surface, this may appear to be an ideal

situation to many libertarians as it would mean a reduction in the

authority of the federal government and would ultimately challenge the

legitimacy of the U.S. state. And there is a precedent for pro-secession

thinking among libertarians: paleolibertarian Lew Rockwell argues that

though “the idea of secession has been systematically demonized among

the American public” it is in fact a “libertarian principle” (while not

differentiating between state and individual secession), and Clifford F.

Thies and José Niño both write favorably of secession through the Mises

Institute, forwarding respectively that states have the right to secede

under “the inalienable right of secession, the international law of

secession, and the US law of secession” and that residents of the U.S.

should not “dismiss separatism just because their history textbooks said

it’s illegal, racist, or treasonous” and instead see it as a potential

solution to “[t]he hyperpolarized state of American politics.” More

disturbingly, as Johnathan Blanks identifies, there is even “a strain of

libertarian contrarianism that holds that the Confederate States of

America were within their ‘rights’ to secede from the Union.” And while

I have not witnessed many libertarians come out in support of this

specific move by the Texas GOP myself, I—as someone who supports the

dissolution of the U.S. Government—would like to preemptively outline in

this brief piece why libertarians should not support Texan secession.

First, it must be pointed out that (obviously) the call for secession

cannot be viewed in isolation from the Texas GOP’s overall platform, and

said platform is filled with extremely hateful and authoritarian

stances. It calls for the state government to “enact legislation to

abolish abortion by immediately securing the right to life and equal

proaction of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of

fertilization,” refers to homosexuality as an “abnormal lifestyle

choice” while calling for an end to same-sex marriage, and opposes “all

efforts to validate transgender identity.” Alongside this, Texas has

already become a hotbed for anti-trans legislation, has what essentially

amounts to a bounty system for people who get abortions, bans books on

race and sexuality from schools, and employs one of the most inhumane

and violent border patrols in the country—who have been documented

whipping Black migrants from Haiti and systematically separating migrant

children from their parents and placing them in cages. This is not even

to mention the long history of government-ignored and government-backed

white terrorism against BIPOC communities within the state. As a

left-wing anti-capitalist anarchist libertarian, I would oppose these

things even if they were (somehow) more ‘non-violent’ and not emerging

from various levels of government and decry both non-legislative bigotry

and anti-state reactionary separatists like national ‘anarchists’ and

certain far-right militias. But even from a thin right-libertarian

perspective—which holds non-aggression and individual property rights as

the only fundamental concerns of libertarianism—there is no good

libertarian reason to support Texan secession. All it will do is create

another government that already has a history of and plan for the

oppression of racial, sexual, and gender minorities.

The truth is that libertarians should not be defending some abstract

concept called ‘states’ rights’ at all whether that amounts to banning

abortion or outright secessionism. John McClaughry proclaims that “the

important goal [for libertarians] is not to preserve inviolate some

magical balance of countervailing governmental powers, but to protect

and enlarge liberty. ‘States’ rights’ in our time has meant unpunished

lynchings, Jim Crow laws, denial of the right to vote, exclusion from

occupations, and countless burdens and humiliations inflicted on black

Americans by racist state governments.” And Darian Worden goes even

further in arguing against secession and in favor of autonomy. He holds

that…

[s]ecession splits authority into smaller parts, so authorities impose

themselves in more distinct areas. Autonomy denies authority from

imposing itself, so liberty can expand in as many areas as possible.

Secession creates new states and new opportunities for authority to

intrude on the individual. True liberation requires autonomy, breaking

down the control of authorities without creating new ones.

As such, this is the distinction between defending the autonomy of

territories like the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, Freetown

Christiania, and ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes from the states they exist

within and supporting the secession of Texas from the United States. And

if libertarians truly support the reduction and even abolition of

government, they cannot advocate for the creation of a new independent

state if it will only lead to more governmental oppression within its

borders.