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Ken Schmidt talks about the inevitability of an American partition to overcome the unbridgeable left/right divide.

This is the transcript of a speech from the Heritage & Destiny meeting in Lancashire, UK, on 9 September 2023.

Ken Schmidt speaking at the Heritage & Destiny meeting on 9 September 2023

This afternoon I will examine the prospects for a nationalist or hard-right government in the United States in the short or medium term and perhaps advance some thoughts about some solutions with emphasis on the secession option.

If you look at the political situation in Europe and in countries originally settled by Europeans you will see many areas of great potential for nationalist or nationalist-leaning political movements. Hungary is ruled by a kind of nationalistic form of Christian illiberalism. The PiS government in Poland has been in control of that country for a long time and despite their slavish attitude toward NATO (for various historical reasons) they have been developing a kind of Catholic, semi-integralist state. Although at the present, Switzerland has a leftist national leader, the anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party remains a strong, even dominant force in that country’s politics. In Sweden and Finland mildly nationalistic parties are either in a formal coalition with the ruling party or a de facto ruling coalition. If you had told me four years ago that nationalistic-leaning parties in Spain and Portugal would be major players in those nations’ political life, I would have suggested that person cut back on his consumption of psychotropic medication. Sure enough, though, Mr. Abascal’s Vox and Mr. Ventura’s CHEAGA are growing in strength and influence. Despite the fact that Miss Meloni of Fratelli d’Italia has been a bit of a disappointment on the immigration front, the fact that millions of sensible Italians voted for a party that was reviled by the media as a harbinger of Fascist rule and blithely defied said media is a sign of good things to come. Although Marine Le Pen is not as tough as her father, the very fact that she is beating the Rothschild banker Macron in the polls is also good news. Europe is pregnant with great possibilities.

To say that the political system in the US is ossified is an understatement.

The situation in the English-speaking world is less sanguine. Just why is it that in places like the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia nationalism, even populism, has failed to launch? The US had Trump, who, for all his many limitations, had at least an immigration control agenda. His political career was destroyed by absentee ballot fraud. Britain had Brexit, which was in part an effort to at least throw off the shackles of the globalists, but then there was little inclination in the UK to go beyond that. The English-speaking world is caught in a kind of rut. Some of the reasons might include the absolute dominance of Wall Street in the US and “The City” in London. These are not just national institutions but international institutions. Both the US and Britain have the most entrenched and immobile establishments in the world. They both work similarly in many ways. In the US, the elites are trained at Harvard, Yale and Princeton; in the UK it’s Oxbridge. I was more than a little startled a few months ago when Nigel Farage told an interviewer that it would be completely impossible for him to become prime minister some day because he didn’t go to Oxford or Cambridge. I find it absurd that the political leadership of both countries should have its origins, almost completely, in two or three educational institutions with narrow teaching, narrow opinions and narrow social circles.

I won’t spend any time talking about solutions for people in Britain. That is ultimately for nationalists in this country to decide based on conditions there. I’m loathe to make too many concrete suggestions for other European or European settler countries. They have to figure out their path in the light of their history, culture and traditions, though they have my support in whatever they want to do.

Something, ladies and gentlemen, has to break the ossified cultural, philosophical and political logjam that exists in my country. To say that the political system in the US is ossified is an understatement. The president of the United States is demonstrably senile, as is the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, isn’t fully senile yet, but one detects a certain lack of sharpness. Of course, these people are essentially cardboard cut-outs and don’t have very little real power of their own. But even among the hyper-oligarchs that actually run our world, a certain debility of mind reigns. George Soros is 92. Henry Kissinger is still globetrotting and has some personal power and influence at the age of 100. The West still seems to be ruled by the generation of 1968 or nostalgics from that generation.They continue to have all the political obsessions of that era and have no interest in actually tackling the problems of today.

The left has been particularly brilliant in blunting dissent. They have taken very specific actions to restrict political expression. They effectively killed the large political demonstrations through the use of agents provocateurs at events like the January 6th demonstration in Washington and the Unite the Right Rally in 2017.

There are two types of law in the US: one for establishment types and one for dissenters.

However, in other ways resistance in the US is solidifying because I think a lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum are beginning to realize that the NWO deep state is beginning to pull the chains tighter. It’s beginning to dawn on people that we are living in an authoritarian regime turning into a totalitarian regime. Whatever one may think of him, the lead Republican candidate in next year’s presidential election has been the victim of politically motivated criminal and civil prosecution. People who have served in Trump’s administration have been arrested, charged and convicted of offenses largely ignored if establishment types committed them. Pretty much trumped (no pun intended) up criminal indictments. When Biden’s son was caught red-handed in corrupt activity, he was given minor charges, convicted and subject to a mere fine, although he was a principal in international criminal schemes to line Biden family pockets.

There are two types of law in the US: one for establishment types and one for dissenters. The US government, including the FBI and CIA, operates in cahoots with Silicon Valley to make sure that any real debate about public affairs is squelched. The media, including allegedly conservative media like Fox News, act in complete, seamless coordination with big business and government officials. I would say that at least 75% percent of Republican office holders are completely useless, even worse, on the side of those pushing the completely inflexible narrative held by the cultural Marxist institutions of the United States.

For many people in the US, the very idea of making personal sacrifices in time and money and possibly hurting one’s career in a political cause is considered laughable. President Calvin Coolidge put it succinctly when he said, “The business of America is business.” Even a slight risk of suffering a personal setback for a noble political, social or religious cause is considered foolishness. Your wife may leave you, you might get fired from your job and your friends may turn their backs on you for being considered “out of step.” Life’s game is mainly to flatter and impress people with money so that you might somehow get some of it.

Still, in 2023 there are some Americans who will stick their necks out. The growth over the past few years of people willing to put pressure on local school boards who promote leftist indoctrination — things like transexualism, gay rights and critical race theory — is real. People are willing to join in on boycotts of companies. Conservatives and right-wingers used to attempt boycotts in the past and they never worked. Suddenly, just this year, creative use of the internet has enabled activists to completely destroy one of the bestselling beer brands in the country, cripple a major department store chain and severely damage a national chain of chicken joints.

Although he is in no sense a true ethnic nationalist, a lot of credit has to go to former president Donald Trump. Yes, he is an ardent Zionist and listened too much to his daughter and son-in-law, who were classical New York leftists. Many of his political appointments were of people completely out of sync with his very mild civic nationalism and these people sabotaged his administration out of pure ideological malice. With all that, Trump was able to at least attempt to fight illegal immigration, albeit with mixed results, weakened the free trade system that ruined America’s industries and small towns and brought hope to millions because he actually seemed to care about working-class and lower middle-class people of the majority population. Mr. Trump, for all his missteps, at least moved the Overton window of what is considered proper in political debate in the US. There are a group of 25 or so MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives, who for the first time in 70 years in American politics don’t head for the hills or sputter an awkward apology if some leftist idiot calls them racist, misogynist or any of the silly categories used by their neo-liberal/cultural Marxist opponents.

I am pretty confident that in future years they may permit an establishment Republican Party figure to win in order to propagate the illusion that we still live in a democratic republic.

There are various nodes of power among the countries dominated by neo-liberal/cultural Marxist elites. However, the biggest one is headquartered in the US and its institutions. The US is, in a sense, the capital of the New World Order. The “orders” emanate from the eccentric leftist corporate types in the US. I never much cottoned to the idea of America as the so-called “leader of the free world.” It’s a role for which the US is signally unsuited. While Britain was in many ways well adapted for the role of a great empire in the past, the US is not. Ask an American adult to find the Ukraine on a map and most would be flummoxed. The media has done a great job of taking advantage of the ludicrous ignorance of the typical American voter in foreign affairs. They are easily whipped up into a violent murderous rage against imagined enemies by our media, which is seamlessly connected to the government, the deep state and the Democratic Party.

Where do our best possibilities lie in the US? It’s not an easy question to answer. The massive use of voter fraud by means of absentee ballots has been made a permanent tool in so-called swing states to steal presidential elections from the Republicans and this tool would also be used against any third party that may threaten the establishment narrative. I think that honest presidential elections in the United States are a thing of the past. I am pretty confident that in future years they may permit an establishment Republican Party figure to win in order to propagate the illusion that we still live in a democratic republic. Now, states with safe Republican majorities do represent possibilities as centers of resistance to the leftist hive. It is in these states where resistance to the neo-liberal/cultural Marxist elites is the strongest and where opportunities for urban-centered voter fraud are less likely. The state capitals of these states, mostly in the South, Rocky Mountain West and certain Midwestern states can become centers of resistance to our decadent elites.

Some may say this is a kind of a fantasy pipe-dream and that the secession movements, which were unsuccessful in the 1860–1865 Civil War, could never be victorious in these times. I beg to differ. Probably one of the strongest reasons why such movements might be successful is that they are already on the radar screen of Americans themselves. Public opinion polling shows large numbers of Republican voters charmed by the idea. There are even some leftists who like the idea of not having to have to battle conservatives and right-wingers in their objective to turn the US into a clone of Canada and other hard-core leftist nations. A poll taken by Bright Line Watch in 2021 showed that 37% of those surveyed advocated their states leaving the union. This percentage went up significantly in the American South, where 66% said they would consider secession. A 2023 YouGov poll shows that one in four Republicans nationwide want their state to leave the union.

Even though the advocates for states’ rights suffered a disastrous setback in the Civil War of 1860–1865, the US Constitution still gives a great deal of autonomy to the individual states. The US is a large country and large countries by their very nature have to have some decentralization because running everything from Washington D.C. would be very, very difficult. The United Kingdom has, generally, a very centralized type of government, very well suited to its smaller geographic area. Still, this place is very centralized compared to the US. In the US, there are a bewildering variety of police officials, answering to local, state, municipal and regional governments. Even though the Southern states lost the battle for more autonomy in the integration of schools in the 60s and 70s, most states zealously guard their rights in other areas. Even though the local governments are technically creatures of the states, the tradition here is that county and town governments have their own prerogatives which are held on to. In a lot of ways. all this decentralization works out rather well as a practical matter. It’s a great deal easier if you have a complaint about the schools, the local police or garbage collection to schedule a meeting with a town councilman about such issues than to try to deal with a nabob at a much higher level.

In the wake of the stolen presidential election of 2020, the concept of US states leaving the union started to gain more traction. Polls started showing some amazing trends towards secession. It’s not that organizations promoting such views had not been in evidence before. For many years, starting in 1994, Michael Hill, a retired English professor, has led the League of the South, advocating that the southern states leave the union. Hill, an intelligent and charismatic figure, had been a feature at right-wing rallies for years. For decades now, the league has published a regular newspaper, The New Magnolia, advocating its position. As for individual states, desire for secession has been strongest in the state of Texas, which before joining the union was actually an independent republic. Another notable thing about Texas is that the enabling legislation passed by Congress to admit the state to the union has a provision that it could leave the union peaceably if it wanted.

The first Texas independence movement in modern times was founded in 2005 by a man named McClaren, called simply “The Republic of Texas.” Mr. McClaren, apparently, was said to have advocated violent methods and got into trouble with the law. The Texas Nationalist Movement, a more moderate splinter, came into being in 2014. Led by Daniel Miller, they have achieved steady growth over the years. Something close to half a million people have signed up as non-dues paying “Supporters” on its website. County and city level chapters have sprung up across the state.

The growth of popularity of Texas Nationalism is a fascinating story because it gained traction and popularity very quickly. Secession was taken up by many Republican state legislators. In the 2016 Texas Republican State Convention, a resolution advocating independence failed narrowly. Since at least 2012, Republican political figures in the state have made veiled comments about independence, including Senator Ted Cruz and ex-Governor Rick Perry. The media coverup of Democratic shenanigans in the 2020 presidential contest has been an impetus toward state independence. In that year, the state convention approved a resolution stating that Texas has a right to ignore unconstitutional mandates upon it by the federal government. 2022 was a high-water mark when a resolution was approved demanding a referendum on the ballot for independence and it passed by a wide margin. The polling data has been getting better for years. A solid 48% of Texas Republicans want secession, according to a Rasmussen poll. Another poll taken in 2022 by SurveyUSA says 60% of Texans want secession. This is not some minor, flash in the pan notion. This idea has legs, so to speak. There are other independence movements and sentiments in other areas of the US. Vermont and California have leftist movements to leave the union because they can’t stand living in a world where even moderate Republicans have any say about policy. Although no longer a conservative state due to unfortunate demographic changes, New Hampshire has joined the list of states where there are people that want out. 13 members of the lower house of the New Hampshire state legislature submitted a bill to amend the state constitution to declare independence.

Anyone who looks honestly at the situation of the USA in 2023 can see that my country is already not one nation but two, with entirely different worldviews.

A slightly different but related movement is for radical changes to state borders. The most popular of these movements right now is the “Greater Idaho” project. The western part of the state of Oregon, facing the Pacific Ocean, is completely under the thumb of hipster leftists. The eastern part of the state is profoundly conservative, agrarian and religious. A group was founded in 2020 called “Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho,” which advocated breaking off eastern Oregon and uniting it with its profoundly right-wing neighbor, Idaho. In 2022, eleven counties in Oregon voted for referendums demanding that they be made part of Idaho. Another county was added in May 2023. In February, a committee of the Idaho state legislature introduced a bill that would permit that state to unite with eastern Oregon if the Oregonians permitted it. There are many books written about the breaking up of the US, some of them are futuristic fantasy novels, others are popular-level works of political argument.

Georgia Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Green and some others have spoken of a great “National Divorce” where the US can be divided into two countries by mutual consent of the two cultures. Long before Green brought it up, the term “National Divorce” was beginning to be used across the country. For a very short time I thought I had invented the term, but after a while I came to the conclusion that several writers had thought up the term almost simultaneously.

Anyone who looks honestly at the situation of the USA in 2023 can see that my country is already not one nation but two, with entirely different worldviews. The first one is elite and urban, authoritarian-driven, and obsessed with transgressing traditional Western sexual norms. It is breathing out of hatred and even self-hatred of persons of European heritage and the conviction that government can solve all human problems by the infusion of large amounts of cash. There is another nation, more traditional, agrarian, and religious or at least culturally informed by religion. The country has changed a lot in the last two decades. One could get away back then with dissenting from political correctness; now everyone must offer their pinch of incense to the gods of Foucalt, Derrida and Gramsci.

Something must be done. There is little prospect of persuading large numbers of people on the east and west coasts to abandon their neo-liberal/cultural Marxist religion, and I use the word religion advisedly. It has the force of religion, but unlike most religions that have fixed theologies, this one changes and becomes more radical year after year. Unlike its cousin, Marxism-Leninism, there is no end stage when utopia can be declared and they have one. The world the globalists envision is one where the principles change constantly. They have no fixed ideas. This can only result in a descent into madness. I think that as far as the US is concerned, this decline can only be stopped by the splitting up of the United States. Thank you.

Watch a video of the speech here

 

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Kenneth Schmidt

Kenneth Schmidt was born and raised in New Jersey. He did his undergraduate work in Political Science at Arkansas State University and subsequently received master’s degrees in Social Sciences and Criminal Justice. He was an adjunct university instructor for ten years in History and Criminal Justice. He worked for over thirty years in government. He is a regular contributor of political commentary to the Freedom Times newspaper and Heritage and Destiny magazine. He is semi-retired and living in the American South.

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