# Just split the country **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 24, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108 "2021-10-24T18:04:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/162 "2021-10-27T18:53:56Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But that changed at some point during the 1990s, and has been growing like a tumor ever since. Talk radio starting with Rush Limbaugh was the change, I’m pretty sure. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/163 "2021-10-27T21:06:38Z")
> [@Roger\_That](#): > > But maybe we would have been better off to split into two countries instead of fighting a bloody war that is in some very real senses still going on. That war is ‘still going on’ in the minds of some people but that doesn’t mean that everybody else should acquiesce to that racist and regressive outlook. Setting aside hypothetical principles about maintaining the “integrity of the Union” and so forth, I don’t think we want a country on our (Southern? Midwest? 90% of the continental territory?) border that has a proportion of the current US resources, military, and infrastructure that is allowed to enact xenophobic, racist, and self-destructive policies. Nothing about having Fix-It-Up Chappie divvying out the country between Star-Bellied Sneeches and Plain-Bellied Sneetches is going to address that problem. This is a non-solution to the actual problem. > [@Atamasama](#): > > Talk radio starting with Rush Limbaugh was the change, I’m pretty sure. Rush was the voice, Newt Gingrich is the propagandist, Koch Brothers et al are ‘The Money’. This was a concerted effort to undermine democratic norms from the very beginning. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/164 "2021-10-27T21:10:51Z")
Partition wouldn’t end our problems. Do you feel the right wing has any interest in compromise? No, they feel they’re entitled to everything. If we split the country in half, within a year they would be complaining they deserve more than half and would begin making plans to invade us. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/165 "2021-10-28T19:37:48Z")
If the MAGAts want to leave the country, fine. If they want to stay and hate us, that’s their privilege. But I would rather see the streets run red before so much as one _suburb_ leaves the Union. I will not see this country nibbled to death because a bunch of whining pantywaists are dissatisfied that their Orange Messiah lost the election. They want to leave the country, again, fine, but they don’t get to take their state with them. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/166 "2021-10-28T19:58:48Z")
Orange assholes wall is going up, and I doubt Mexico or Canada will have them. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/167 "2021-10-28T20:55:30Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > But I would rather see the streets run red before so much as one _suburb_ leaves the Union. I will not see this country nibbled to death because a bunch of whining pantywaists are dissatisfied that their Orange Messiah lost the election. They want to leave the country, again, fine, but they don’t get to take their state with them. I don’t know; I’d be prepared to give them the Dakotas (both of them) as a Sanctuary if they’d agree to move there and never leave. Heck, I’ll even throw in Eastern Montana just short of Billings. But they don’t get to pick and choose which parts they get, not even Florida who I’d otherwise be happy to sell back to the Spanish, and West Texas which I never want to drive through again, and they only get the weapons and ammo that they can carry. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/168 "2021-10-28T21:08:20Z")
I don’t see why the argument of “there are pockets of blue in red and red in blue” should hold weight. When the thirteen colonies seceded from Britain, there were plenty of Loyalists who still felt loyal to the crown and were displeased, but - too bad. You’ll never get to 100% of anything. Even the reddest region still has at least 5 percent blue and the bluest region still has at least 5 percent red. Since when do we require unanimity before getting something done? Just split the country and let the reds migrate to where they want, and the blues to where they want. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/169 "2021-10-28T21:11:13Z")
Or, I don’t know, we could use that democracy stuff and learn to live together and work together…sort of like how we’ve had to do for the last 200+ years. I’m going to go with that option, rather than the chaos of having 100’s of millions of Americans have to move and relocate just so they can be in their safe place with others who they think are their kind…only to find out that politics really isn’t everything. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/170 "2021-10-28T21:13:40Z")
I tend to agree that just because we aren’t perfectly politically sectional isn’t a big reason in and of itself that a split is impossible. I think there are many other barriers to a split being practical beyond that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/171 "2021-10-28T21:20:18Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I’d be prepared to give them the Dakotas (both of them) as a Sanctuary Just be aware that I think you’re making them a major nuclear power - pretty sure there are a lot silos there. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/172 "2021-10-28T21:38:05Z")
It led to a bunch of them moving to Canada and us starting another war over it a few years later, so that example isn’t exactly the greatest one, either. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/173 "2021-10-28T21:43:37Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Just be aware that I think you’re making them a major nuclear power - pretty sure there are a lot silos there. Only Minot; FE Warren is in Wyoming, with missile launch facilities (LF) in southwestern Nebraska, northeastern Colorado, and eastern Wyoming; and Malstrom, with all LFs west of Billings. For Minot, we can just remove the RVs and replace them with inerts and pull all START-inspectable first stage motors leaving them only with the upper stages unable to lift themselves even if they could somehow figure out how to initiate them. The can still “ballistic missile systems” that can’t go anywhere and do anything. Plus, they have permission to add Trump to Mt. Rushmore in exchange for being able to sandblast Davis, Jackson, and Lee off of Stone Mountain. There remains, of course, the issue with Native American reservations, but I think with that much distribution we could probably figure out better accommodations that would suit everyone. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/174 "2021-10-28T21:45:05Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Or, I don’t know, we could use that democracy stuff … You mean the stuff the GOP is actively trying to end? (Yes, I’m kicking off that argument again … 😁) ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/175 "2021-10-28T22:15:11Z")
Actually splitting up the country would be impractical and disastrous for reasons that have already been stated multiple times. But as far as the “culture war” issues, I am feeling ready for more federalism and less power for the Federal government. If some States want to outlaw abortion and persecute gay people, fine. Let them. As long as the right of the decent people in those States to move to better States is protected, I’m OK with it. If Alabama will leave me in peace to have my gay wedding in a cannabis dispensary, I’ll let them carry on with marrying their cousins and putting the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/176 "2021-10-28T23:52:46Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > If some States want to outlaw abortion and persecute gay people, fine. Let them. As long as the right of the decent people in those States to move to better States is protected, I’m OK with it. Including the right of twelve year olds? (I can think of other things wrong with that theory; but that’s the one that jumps to the front of my mind.) ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/177 "2021-10-29T00:04:11Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > I will not see this country nibbled to death because a bunch of whining pantywaists are dissatisfied that their Orange Messiah lost the election. He can have a statue and a crown only if it is GoT style… and poured over him as molten metal… ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/178 "2021-10-29T00:07:16Z")
From my perspective the number folks in various US political parties all seem to want to end or limit democracy, just in different ways…or, I guess try and limit it to themselves or guide it to their plan because they are obviously smarter than the rest of us poor dumb slobs. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/179 "2021-10-29T00:29:37Z")
UIh huh…aside from the modern GOP what other of the “various US political parties” are making concrete efforts to deny voting rights, interfere with elections, attempting to cast doubt on the validity of elections without evidence, and pack federal courts and state legislatures with judges and officials whose viewers are specifically that access to voting should be as narrow as it is legally possible to define while still making mouth-noises about “freedom” and “personal rights”? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/180 "2021-10-29T00:48:28Z")
All in the eyes of the beholder. I’m sure you can understand that someone from the GOP could give an equally compelling laundry list of efforts to circumvent democracy. Here, I’ll help you with an easy example…the people in the US do no want to get rid of the 2nd Amendment, and most don’t want the more draconian gun rights being pushed by many on the left. As for ‘deny voting rights’, again, this depends on your perspective…both parties have monkeyed with this in the past, as well as fucked around with things like gerrymandering to put their thumbs on the scale, when they could. Pack the courts? Well, I’ve seen folks on the Democrat side who have advocated ‘rebalancing’ (meaning put more judges on) the Supreme Court. Why? Democracy, right? 😛 Sorry, but, again, from my perspective, both sides do this shit…and both claim they are the wronged party, the other guys are the bad guys, and butter couldn’t melt in their mouths. I’ve been a pox on both your houses kind of guy for a long time now, and it will take some heavy convincing from either side to make me see the light and drink the Kool-aide… ---
**Author:** ![SwissMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@SwissMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwissMan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108/181 "2021-10-29T01:02:04Z")
The way I see it, rather than splitting up, society in America continuing on the present course (taken to the logical extreme) will begin to resemble a place like Northern Ireland. I just hope that we don’t have to start constructing peace walls in major cities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-split-the-country/953108.md?page=10)