Third Palmetto Republic

Let’s briefly compare the United States to the Third Palmetto Republic, that is to a truly free South Carolina.

The USA represents a huge population of roughly 300,000,000 people, nearly five times the population of the Roman Empire of old at its zenith. South Carolina has about four and half million people, roughly the population of Ireland or New Zealand.

The Federal bureaucracy that governs the United States is massive, well-entrenched and closely tied to huge global corporations such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Goldman Sachs and many others. Hundreds of millions of dollars are paid by these wealthy corporations, unions and other special interests groups to bribe and persuade the US Federal bureaucracy to legislate, regulate and govern in a manner which will benefit the interests behind all that money. South Carolina, on the other hand, has a relatively small government, a tiny bureaucracy by comparison, and much less money to distribute – therefore, it attracts far fewer massive companies to lobby and bribe its elected officials. In the Third Palmetto Republic there would be even less lobbying since the government would take an even smaller role in society and would be taxing and interfering in the the people’s lives less than it does at present.

The presidency of the United States, which started as something akin to a fatherly figure-head in the early days of George Washington, is today closer to an elected dictatorship. The president can suspend or resume offshore drilling as he sees fit, start and execute foreign wars without congressional approval, legislate without the Congress on important issues and he travels with a huge entourage as if he were an emperor or great king of old. By comparison, South Carolina’s governor, who would become the President of the Third Palmetto Republic, is little known outside the State. He travels with minimal security, is far closer to the people and has none of the world-threatening powers of the US president. The governor of a free South Carolina would simply lead the executive branch of the minimal government of the Palmetto State for a number of years. He would not be a warlord of a vast global empire, presiding over hundreds of foreign military bases and leading great world military alliances.

The United States encompasses many national cultures of people, including the hundreds of Native American Indian tribes which it militarily conquered, the distinct cultures of Mormon Utah, the South, Texas, the German-speaking Amish people, the now millions of Spanish-speaking Hispanics, the many various ethnic populations of the ghettos of the huge cities of the Eastern and Western coasts and beyond – and that’s just a start. As well as all the different cultures and language groups the US rules over in North America, it also directs a world empire. The US has more than 700 military bases in more than 130 countries around the planet. Many of these countries are entirely dependent on the US for military and economic support at this point. Others are militarily-governed by the US. The Third Palmetto Republic on the other hand would operate no foreign military bases, participate in no foreign adventures, engage in no nation-building, bride no foreign governments with foreign aid and would in general leave the world along except to trade freely with those who would like to do so. As well, South Carolina is a much more stable land with a culture that is older than the “American culture” of the US as a whole and far more homogeneous. English is practically the only language spoken in South Carolina with the exception of Hispanic immigrants who have recently come to the State to work, the native Gullah people in the Low Country (some of whom speak a creole language similar to English) and the tiny Native American Indian groups in the State. No matter what their ethnicity, South Carolinians are far more united culturally in areas such as language, cuisine and religion. The same can not be said for the US, which is increasingly reminiscent of the old Roman Empire, the Soviet Union or imperial Britain.

South Carolinians make up about one and a half percent of the US population as it now stands and thus are minimally represented in the Federal Government with little power to change anything within the system. In the Third Palmetto Republic, the independent government of South Carolina would represent them alone. And Black South Carolinians, who are not significantly represented in the current US government, make up about a third of the population and would have much more representation in a free South Carolina.

The USA is bogged down with millions of laws, zoning restrictions, endless pages of codes, rules and regulations ad naseum. There is no way a person, even if he dedicated his entire life to this single pursuit, could ever know all the restrictions on his liberty in the US. The Third Palmetto Republic would be a land of a few, basic, logical and simple laws built upon the foundation of Natural Law and the non-aggression axiom. Any person would be able to understand the laws of South Carolina. So long as someone was not aggressing against his neighbour or his neighbour’s property he would be free to live out his life in peace.

The tax burden of the US today is not limited to the Federal income tax, but also includes the costly hidden inflation “tax” (which will certainly worsen as the US goes further into debt), as well as endless fees and fines that help fund the massive bureaucracy of government. Federal mandates upon the States also drive State taxes up higher than they would otherwise be without those mandates. By contrast, the Third Palmetto Republic would collect a constitutionally-mandated maximum limit of no more than ten percent sales tax (adding up all levels of government) on finished goods sold in the State. South Carolina would be a place of prosperity with businesses flocking in while the US continues to economically ruin its population, destroy or run off businesses while bailing out government-connected industries and further reduce the living standard of its people.

Imagine a free South Carolina at peace with the United States and the world. Imagine a South Carolina of a few basic laws that all could understand, applied equally to everyone. Imagine South Carolinians paying tiny amounts of taxes to operate an equally tiny government that apart from enforcing property rights and prosecuting violators of the non-aggression principle left people alone. Imagine the people of South Carolina able to decide how to use her resources (including her nuclear and offshore drilling potential) without begging Washington, DC for permission. Imagine the military forces of South Carolina kept at home to defend her from invasion rather than policing the rest of the world. Imagine a voluntary South Carolina – where the counties could, if they grew irreconcilably unhappy with the direction of the State, secede from the Republic and go their own way in peace without fear of military intervention. This is the vision of a Free Palmetto Republic – a far more optimistic vision than the “American dream” these days, is it not?