I have a few thoughts on Sam Francis’s critique of Thomas Chittum’s Civil War II (“Prophesying War,” June). Dr. Francis’s major criticism of Chittum’s ghastly scenario is that the power elite will not let it happen, but rather will lead America down the path to Brazilianization. I think he overestimates the power of establishment propaganda and underestimates the American people. There are growing danger signs for the regime, as polls show that a shrinking minority trust the government to do the right thing, compared to a large majority just three decades ago. Given a few foreign policy disasters or some serious economic problems, the country might be ready for a nationalist party of a Buchananite stamp. Granted, the manipulators have been able so far to shut out such a message, but how long can they continue to do so? There is a genuine fear among the elites today that was not present a few years ago. The underlying assumption of the Second Amendment is that an honest and loyal government should have nothing to fear from an armed citizenry, but the elites are in a panic to disarm Middle America. The manipulators appear to be much less confident in their powers than Dr. Francis is.

Dr. Francis argues that the ruling elites that gave us Balkanization will be able to control it, but racial and ethnic loyalties are too strong and intractable, and (as Chittum says) multi-ethnic empires usually die a violent death. As Brent A. Nelson writes in America Balkanized, “It is highly probable, given the trends evident in the 1990’s, that at some point in the first half of the twenty-first century . . . an unstable mix of First World and Third World peoples, will produce a political crisis of such dimensions as to be insoluble within the traditional limits of American governance.”

I don’t think that the full-blown civil war that Chittum speaks of will ever come, nor the Brazilianization that Dr. Francis predicts. I think a more likely outcome is that we will come to the abyss, with, say, a full summer of rioting, and it will scare the pants off us. The result will be some kind of peace that involves decentralization and states’ rights. The federal government will be blamed for its role in the Balkanization of America and be thoroughly discredited. A happy corollary would be the end of our overseas empire.

        —Jeff Anderson
Americans for Self-Determination
Arlington, VA