'One Nation, Under God, Indivisible …'?

"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." — The Declaration of Independence

I've lived through some turbulent years of American history, but I have never seen our country more polarized, more divided, more ripe for — dare I say it? — breakup, dissolution, a secessionist movement.

I admit I'm unafraid of radical ideas — if those radical ideas are just, righteous, moral and godly. I believe it's time for radical ideas, just as it was time in 1776.

Frankly, I don't see a way to unite a people as divided as Americans are today. We are trying to pretend we're one nation when we are really two. One of those two nations clings to the promises and covenants of the past as the guiding principles: the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The other believes and lives with no immutable standards.

It's not a Republican vs. Democrat split — as the current election illustrates. I know many Republicans would find themselves more comfortable in the country of no standards. I also suspect many Democrats would actually find themselves more at home in the nation of the Bible, Declaration and Constitution.

Isn't it time for separation? Is the breakup of the union really such a difficult thing to consider? When there are no new lands to discover, what choice do we have?

My vision of the world is one in perfect harmony with the Bible, the Declaration and the Constitution. But these standards have been run over, obscured, distorted, demolished, nullified, undone and vandalized. Since, historically, it was the Bible, the Declaration and the Constitution that held us together, what binds us today? Shouldn't those of us who upheld the commitment to those standards have the right, in fact the duty, to separate themselves from those who have gutted them?

America was founded as an independent nation. The vandals want to yield sovereignty to global authorities and make America interdependent.

America was established with a federal government that was to be constitutionally limited in scope.

America was founded as a self-government nation of free people and sovereign states with significant authority reserved to them. The vandals have placed America under the shackles of a central government to which the states and people are subordinate.

America was established as a nation of people "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The vandals deny the Creator, invent man-made rights and deny life and liberty as sacred values.

I could go on and on. But you get the idea.

We already are two irreconcilable peoples sharing one nation. It's time for an amicable divorce — with each free to pursue a way.

I don't know how to make this happen. But I think it's time to start talking about it and working toward it. I don't want to live under the consequences of the actions of the vandals; I don't want my children to do that. There should be a choice. Maybe we can live side by side in peace as two nations, but we can't live freely as one people any longer.

The moral justification for secession was found in our Declaration of Independence. It says governments are created to protect our unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It also says, "Whenever a government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it."

I know it's radical. I know it's not a topic being discussed on the Sunday morning talk shows or in op-eds in the New York Times. But the more I think about it, the more I agree it's the only political solution that makes sense for an America that has lost its sense of mission as well as its original intent of those who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

What choice do we have but to break the bands that tie us together? Actually, to be honest, those bands have already been broken — by those who have grabbed control of our lives in a thousand insidious ways over the last 200-plus years.

It's time to move this debate forward, front and center. It's time to begin asking the real questions. It's time to restore liberty to America.

There's only one way to recapture the greatness of America. That is to start over — with only those willing to play by the rules. Let those who don't believe in rules have their own country to destroy.

Joseph Farah's newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year To Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," is available now. To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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