Secession has a bad reputation. 

Sadly, that reputation was earned. Over a hundred thousand American soldiers were killed, as well as nearly as many Confederates (who, to be clear, were every bit as not American as any Nazi or Communist killed by American troops in combat) the last time anyone took the idea of secession seriously. The Confederate cause, described plainly by Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens in his Cornerstone Speech, was founded “upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” According to Stephens, the Confederate States of America was to be the first nation “in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Oh sure, the Civil War was over states’ rights, all right — but states’ rights to do what, exactly? Ah, yes, well. 

Once you decide some are worthy of freedom and justice while others are not, it doesn’t take much to shrink the list of the worthy when convenient. Given that, it’s unsurprising that a nation explicitly founded upon unapologetically enslaving others had paper-thin loyalties to the principles of self-government which supposedly drove it to war in the first place. While the Confederacy ostensibly fought for the right of wealthy plantation owners to secede and choose their own form of government, it explicitly fought against several Southern Unionist attempts to do the same. West Virginia’s existence is a byproduct of one of those attempts; less successful attempts included the State of Scott in East Tennessee, the Republic of Winston in northern Alabama, and the Texas Hill Country. Each of these attempts paid in blood to sap vital strength from an evil regime. 

Is it time for Nevada to follow the example of the Southern Unionists? Is our federal government irredeemably evil?

In a word, no. It may, however, be well past time to start thinking seriously about our options. Over the past few weeks, President Trump has threatened to drop nuclear bombs on our desert, threatened (but only threatened) to pull funding from Nevada because he thinks voting by mail invites mail fraud (despite voting by mail in Florida’s primary), and threatened to send the military into our cities (Gov. Sisolak understandably didn’t take that well). Outside of the White House, Nevada’s small businesses received fewer loans from the Paycheck Protection Program than any other similarly-sized state because the program initially excluded businesses with significant gaming revenues. 

Oh, and lest we forget, both the Air Force and the Navy have been quietly trying to blow up more of our desert as well. 

Nevada has always had a complicated relationship with our federal government. Without the federal government, the Native Americans never would have been forcibly cleared from Nevada’s land, the Newlands Project never would have redirected water from Pyramid Lake and the Carson Sink to farms in Fernley and Fallon, and Hoover Dam never would have brought cheap, plentiful energy and water to Clark County. Nevada’s military bases, hastily constructed during the second World War, kept Nevada’s economy afloat at a time when both gaming and mining were too small-scale to put anyone to work. Federally funded highways, interstate and otherwise, brought tourists to Reno, Las Vegas (observed), West Wendover, and several points in between.

Federally funded infrastructure made modern Nevada possible. Without it, our place in the world would be much smaller and far more modest. Each benefice bestowed upon our great state by our ever-so-generous federal overlords, however, has come with a human cost. 

Nevada’s ever-expanding bombing ranges have proven to be terrible neighbors. The homes of Dixie Valley, which used to be a ranching community, are now bombing targets for naval pilots. The Sheahan family’s Groom Mine, near Area 51 but ultimately outside of the Nevada Test and Training Range, was forcibly seized by the Air Force. Fallon had a leukemia cluster which was almost certainly related to a ruptured fuel line that fed the Fallon Naval Station, though good luck getting anyone to take responsibility for it.

Things used to be worse, however.

Large portions of the Nevada National Security Site, formerly the Nevada Test Site, are at least as irradiated as Chernobyl. Yucca Flat, where the Sedan and Baneberry underground nuclear tests irradiated and killed above-ground Americans, and where Operation Upshot-Knothole’s above-ground nuclear tests led to cancers that ultimately killed half of the cast and crew of The Conqueror, including John Wayne, is arguably the most irradiated spot on the planet. A satellite view of the valley reveals a desolate pockmarked landscape scarred by nearly a thousand nuclear detonations. 

As for Nevada’s various water redistribution schemes, the Newlands Project led to the near-extinction of the Lahontan cutthroat trout, a primary food source for the Pyramid Lake Tribe. If someone hadn’t transplanted a few trout into a stream on the other side of the state for whatever reason, the species would have been permanently wiped out. As for Hoover Dam, it was one of several water diversion projects that ultimately stopped the Colorado River from reliably draining into the Pacific.

Those costs shouldn’t be ignored, but we also shouldn’t forget that those costs were meant to deliver clear benefits to Nevadans (well, at least some of us). Perhaps the costs weren’t and still aren’t worth it, especially when and where nuclear weapons were concerned, but there was at least an attempt to justify federal action based on supposed benefits to Nevada’s people. Sending the military into the Strip and yanking federal funds because someone in the White House thinks balloting by mail might produce some measure of voter fraud — in a primary election in which no Republicans of consequence would be selected no matter how a ballot was cast this year — benefits absolutely nobody in this state. 

No, not even the people who run the Basque Fry. 

Don’t get me wrong, a few months of naked federal misbehavior and malice don’t come close to justifying Brexit-style negotiations between Carson City and Washington, D.C. Nevada’s economy is based on the free flow of goods and people between us and our neighboring states. Our borders, with the exception of our southernmost border traced upon the Colorado River, are artificial and strategically indefensible. Our history, which began with our state Constitution transmitted via telegraph in the middle of the Civil War, is inextricably bound in union with the United States. 

True as all of that might be, however, we should probably ask ourselves who in the federal government is responsible for its recent misbehavior and malice — and then do everything possible to kick the bums out.

David Colborne has been active in the Libertarian Party for two decades. During that time, he has blogged intermittently on his personal blog, as well as the Libertarian Party of Nevada blog, and ran for office twice as a Libertarian candidate. He serves on the Executive Committee for both his state and county Libertarian Party chapters. He is the father of two sons and an IT professional. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidColborne or email him at [email protected].