Some residents in California say they want the state to secede over the election of Donald Trump. The idea of secession is not new in the contemporary era. It would be a boon for smugglers.
J.D. Tuccille writes:
Whatever the final outcome of efforts by any state to go its own way, and no matter what snarky responses to the same, there’s little doubt that there’s enormous benefit to be had from secession–by smugglers. And there is nothing more American than smuggling. “Both limits on trade and the defiance of those limits are intimately tied up with America’s concept of itself and Americans’ understanding of patriotism,” I wrote last year in a review of a book about that long and storied history.
Secession means new borders, and borders represent the limits of authority for rival governments enforcing different laws. What’s legal in terms of goods and services on one side of a line on the map may be illegal on the other. That’s an opportunity for entrepreneurs who connect the frustrated customers on one side with suppliers across it. If California splits over its political differences with much of the rest of the country, it’s almost certain to exaggerate the already existing legal conflicts with its neighbors.
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