[comment from OD]

Rudel says:
February 1, 2013 at 1:10 am

” this raises the obvious question: why not independence?”

There are not going to be any straight secession conventions like 150 years ago. There will be a long drawn out combination of nullification of federal edicts at the state, county and personal levels and selective federal crackdowns at same and sporadic armed resistance in reaction all combined with massive civil disorder in the cities and federalization of state National Guards all precipitated by collapse of the dollar and the economy. In other words a discontinuous and geographically dispersed increase in political chaos and social cohesion.

We just entered a new phase of the recession as reported even by the governments own cooked numbers. It could start tomorrow with a collapse of the dollar or in five years more of economic depression.

Even with a universal draft (which will be widely and wildly opposed) I don’t think the feds can keep the road, rail, farming, mining, manufacturing, and utility infrastructure fully defended. There simply aren’t enough police and troops available to keep every freeway and railroad overpass and bridge, every high tension line tower, and every power substation in the country guarded on a 24/7 basis.

De facto secession and maintenance of law and order will occur when every able bodied man 16 years and older in any given state or region is on the same page and in the local militia; just as the founders intended.