Progressives’ Rebellion Should Be Repudiated, Starting in States or County Regions

Residents need strong offsetting powers to secure their property from the grabbing hands of unconstitutional national Progressives.

In 1835–1836, the USA had no national debt. In 1894, the first year when both major parties had turned Progressive, the national debt (in 2025 dollars) was $0.059 trillion. Now the national debt, at a destructive 123% of GDP, is over $36.358 trillion. In all, 99.8% of the national debt dates from the Progressives’ century plus.

A small portion of that debt is held by USA retirees. USA governments forced current retirees to pay for their predecessors’ retirements, made their later years of employment less certain and lower paying, and did favors for finance cronies who in turn advised the current retirees that USA government debt was safe beyond question. If USA governments would fail to honor their debts to USA retirees, this would be a final taking, which these people couldn’t recover from.

But apart from the small national debt owed to USA retirees or incurred before Progressive control, the remaining lion’s share of the national debt was incurred in aid of rebellion against the USA’s people and Constitution.

Progressivism Is Rebellion

The Constitution establishes republican governments, which must exercise only limited, enumerated powers. The Constitution’s rules are given force by the Constitution’s sanctions, which come in several independent varieties.

There are checks on work in progress. Vice presidents are to preside over senators. Presidents veto. Congressmen override. Presidents are to block treaties. Senators advise and consent on appointments. Congressmen are to regulate supreme courts and create and redesign inferior national courts.

There is explicit loss-limiting, deputized by everyone’s oaths or affirmations to support the Constitution or to protect it.

Where needed to prevent further losses, there is summary impeachment.

But, as I put it in The Constitution Needs a Good Party: Good Government Comes from Good Boundaries on page 7, “the Progressive philosophy, at its core, is to simply ignore the controls that the Constitution places on government people …”

Progressives refuse to use the Constitution’s sanctions against people in governments to limit them. By systematically depriving the Constitution of any limiting force, Progressives institutionalize open rebellion.

Both Parties are Progressive

Progressives hold their power by running in packs that they push into place using Progressive-passed election laws, together with Progressive party rules and practices:

• Party funding of Progressives
• Party platforms that don’t promise specific actions, helping Progressives conceal their unpopular plans
• Renomination of Progressive incumbents despite their records
• Debates hosted by Progressives
• Primaries, not caucuses, so voters don’t inform one another and instead voters are misinformed by Progressive crony ad buys and media
• Primary schedules that favor Republican Progressives by not starting where the party is strongest and proceeding state by state to where it’s weakest
• Super Tuesdays that help decide races in favor of Progressive crony-funded candidates prematurely, before voters can learn more
• Winner-take-all and winner-take-most primaries that help decide races prematurely
• Open primaries that let voters who aren’t in the Republican Party swing races to Progressives
• Awarding delegates from areas where a party hasn’t been winning, so such Republican Progressive delegates override the purest, most-successful Republican voters

Most candidates are Progressive enough to lock in the Progressives’ rebellion against the people and the Constitution.

Other than in a small minority of general-election races, voters don’t get enough major-party candidates to choose among who aren’t Progressive.

Democrats end up almost fully Progressive. Republicans end up falling on an extremely-wide spectrum, on average being about half Progressive. The swing votes in legislatures and the executives both end up markedly Progressive.

Repudiation Is Constitutionally Required

As I mentioned upfront, a portion of the national debt is owed to USA retirees, who, per Amendment 5, shall not be unduly deprived of property, and another 0.02% of the debt predated Progressive control.

On the remaining lion’s share of the national debt, the rule that governs was explicitly laid down after the Civil War in Amendment 14 section 4, and applies to the financing of any rebellions: “[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States … [A]ll such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

This rule requires that the people shall not be called on by the national government or by their state governments to assume the obligation of the remaining debt, and the people shall not pay the remaining debt.

In short, the Constitution requires that this remaining national debt must be repudiated.

Repudiation, like all change, is best when it’s fast and extensive. No interest should have been paid so far on the illegal and void portion of the national debt, and no further interest should be paid, nor principal repaid. We should end this deprivation already and start recovering.

National governments haven’t been helping.

States Should Separate Financially

State-government people have the strongest offsetting powers to protect state residents’ lives, liberty, and property from the rebellious national-government people.

State politicians, of course, are selected by the same Progressive party processes that national politicians are selected by. But in state parties and elections, activists and voters have far more leverage to start tipping the balance locally here and there towards making things right. And a little bit of daylight anywhere can get others to start opening up change in many other places.

Constitutionalist politicians can use the Republican Party for ballot access and get elected in majorities in state governments, or as executives deputized by their oaths to support the Constitution. County-region representatives can secede from state governments by ratifying county-region constitutions. Multiple solutions can be advanced at the same time.

Given constitutionalist representation locally, the local solution on the national debt will be for state governments, or for substitute state governments in broad county regions within states, to protect their residents from the Progressives’ national rebellion:

• Take no block grants, since block grants fund actions that unduly deprive persons of property and further advance the Progressives’ rebellion.
• Block all national taxation of residents that funds the unconstitutional lion’s share of the national debt or that funds any other unconstitutional national-government spending.

The Constitution isn’t an anything-goes contract. When its rules are broken, the people’s rights must be secured by using offsetting powers.

Use offsetting powers early and always.