It’s a cold, hard truth. But it’s a truth none the less. Free will and the right to self-determination are the bedrocks of freedom and liberty. And no country on Earth stands opposed to those principals more than America. States, provinces and countries around the world continuously hold elections to decide independence, such as Scotland, Quebec, Puerto Rico, Kurdistan, South Sudan and all the former members of the Soviet Union like Poland, Georgia and Ukraine. But America’s longstanding and undisputed national policy is that all those votes for independence and claims of sovereignty are illegal. The empire comes before the country. That law of the land was confirmed by America’s Civil War and the deaths of 625,000 Americans.

American Empire

Back in 2012, with the re-election of President Obama looking all but certain, citizens from every state in America began posting online petitions calling for their respective states to secede from the union. The Texas secession petition was the most successful, blowing through the 25,000 signature requirement for a White House response and then past 500,000 and nearing 750,000 when the White House finally issued a statement. Read the 2012 Whiteout Press article, ‘All 50 States submit White House Petitions to secede’ for details.

Of course, the White House statement reminded Americans that they don’t have the right to self-determination. That unchangeable national policy was secured by Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. For preserving the union and denying Americans the right to choose their own government, Lincoln has earned the top spot in nearly every poll over the past hundred years as the country’s most popular President. While the people of Scotland vote for independence today, the American people will “rattle their chains to boast of their freedom.”

Consider the following words from America’s Declaration of Independence when reading the below White House statement on secession and self-determination, ‘When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.’

White House responds

By January 2013, every state in America submitted petitions to secede from the United States. With combined signatures topping over 1,000,000 the White House had to finally respond publicly. A report from The Hill detailed the White House response. Unfortunately, it didn’t come from President Obama but instead, from the White House Director of the Office of Public Engagement Jon Carson.

“In a nation of 300 million people, each with their own set of deeply-held beliefs, democracy can be noisy and controversial. And that’s a good thing,” he explained to the American people on behalf of President Obama, “Free and open debate is what makes this country work, and many people around the world risk their lives every day for the liberties we often take for granted. But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don’t let that debate tear us apart.”

The White House spokesman went on to tell America that the Founding Fathers only gave us the right to, “change our national government through the power of the ballot. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, ‘in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.’” Carson reiterated that statement in plain English saying, “The Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States.”

Freedom for Scotland

Showing America what democracy looks like, the people of Scotland are voting today on the question of whether or not to secede from the United Kingdom. Unlike the United States, England allows her subjects that freedom – the freedom of self-determination. And while the latest polls there show a neck-and-neck race, the pro-independence forces have surged 7% in just the past 24 hours.

The website YesScotland.net, which supports independence for Scotland, released a statement in response to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s last-minute speech to the Scots urging, and sometimes threatening them, to vote ‘No’ on independence.

“A Yes vote is Scotland’s one opportunity to ensure that we get the job-creating powers we need to build a more prosperous economy and fairer society – and the financial powers we need to protect our health service,” the director of the YesScotland website announced, “And only by voting Yes will Scotland always get the governments we vote for – and never again Tory governments imposed by Westminster, presiding over the scandal of a 400 percent increase in the use of food banks while wasting £100 billion on a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons.”

We at Whiteout Press wish the people of Scotland all the best in their quest for independence, just as we do for the people of Kurdistan, Palestine, Quebec, Puerto Rico, Tibet, Chechnya and even Eastern Ukraine, and all the other peoples of the world fighting for the right to self-determination. As an American, I’m jealous of the freedom the people of Britain obviously have and are demonstrating for the whole world to see today. The British people may not like the idea of Scotland seceding from their union. But at least they love freedom and democracy enough to let them do it if it’s the will of the people. It’s called free will and the God-given right to self-determination – something we don’t have here in America.