Letters to the Editor: Secession is economically suicidal and un-American. Stop talking about it

To the editor: Rush Limbaugh often makes comments that stoke conspiracy theories and even incite his listeners. Then, after getting negative feedback, he walks back those comments, saying he meant something else or was misquoted. (“Are Republicans serious about a secession movement?” Opinion, Dec. 13)

We should hold him responsible for his comments on secession. He knows there is no way Texas or any other red state could possibly break off from the United States and survive given the economic problems secession would create.

Limbaugh’s comments are reckless and do noting to bridge the divide between right and left. Republicans and Democrats must be willing to compromise and listen to each other, and that begins with sharing common ground.

Edward A. Sussman, Fountain Valley

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To the editor: As a longtime college instructor of U.S. history, I told my students that secession was not only illegal but also a repudiation of that great alliance responsible for creating the United States of America.

Now, however, with the extremist statements coming from bigots like Limbaugh, I am beginning to rethink this idea.

Maybe our great nation would be better off if those mostly Southern states that have long proclaimed the primacy of “states’ rights” over national sovereignty were allowed to do what they attempted in 1860 and 1861 and leave our union. Let’s see if they could survive as independent nations and thus lose the money they rely on from the federal government.

Should they do what demagogues like Limbaugh say may be necessary, I would ask that they repay the federal government for the many military bases within their borders that are named for those Confederate traitors who led their secessionist forces in the Civil War.

Donald L. Singer, Redlands