Folks, we already <i>have</i> split the country up into different sovereignties.
We call them “states.”
That’s a real answer. From 1932 on, we’ve rather lost sight of federalism - but there was an excellent reason why limited national government was woven into our Constitution. It’s because if we tried to nationalize every issue, we’d be at each others’ throats.
And now we are.
It’s also rather difficult to call this country “more divided,” or even all that “deeply divided.” Compared to when? The Adams/Jackson race in 1824, or the rematch in 1828? The Civil War period? Wilson’s elections in 1912 and 1916, or Roosevelt’s in 1940, or Truman’s in 1948? Maybe the Kennedy/Nixon election in 1960?
Politics has always been incredibly nasty and spiteful - frankly, nastiness is what motivates people to go to the polls. It ain’t beanbag, folks, and it certainly ain’t a garden-club discussion.
I agree too(funny, me being a liberal democrat and all), but I don’t think we can go back. Government will continue to get bigger and bigger-and the right can no longer blame the left for being “big government”-until there is some form of revolution. I really don’t think there can be an orderly, agreeable reduction of government without both sides finally having enough and putting the stops to it.
I sometimes envision a Presidential announcement from the Oval Office with him just speaking plainly to the rest of the country, kind of WWII address-like. I know it’s all just a daydream and that aristocratic types like John Kerry and George Bush will continue to rule the office, so it’s extremely far-fetched, but sometimes I like to think there can be a sane, rational reduction of government.
Maybe, instead of spliting into two countries a better solution would be to keep the current country, but divide it into two zones. The liberal zone and the conservative zone. And each state can vote which zone it wants to be in.
In the liberal zone, there will be universal healthcare, gay marriage, gun control laws, etc (whatever the people in the liberal zone vote for)
In the conservative zone, there will be a ban on gay marriage, privatized social security, school vouchers, teaching of creationism in schools, lot of guns, etc (whatever the people in the conservative zone vote for).
If both sides have their “vision” of what country they’d like to live in, and of what the budget should be spent on, why not allow them to live in such a country, while having a common currency, common military and foreign policy (of course, people disagree on foreign policy too, but you can’t split that, otherwise, it would result in splitting the country into two countries)
Speaking as someone from North Carolina, who voted Democratic (go Durham County!), learn how to spell Krispy Kreme, numbnuts.
[sub]The numbnuts appellation is due to your apparent total lack of respect for people that are of a liberal bent. I work pretty damn hard and pay taxes too. I’d tell you to shove your assault weapons and whatnot up your ass, but I suspect that Rick Santorum might complain.[/sub]
Wrong! Some of us West Coast “nut jobs” like beer, BBQ, football, fishin’, monster trucks and guns just like the rest of you. We just didn’t like Bush. Get over it.
The whole “traitor thing” was possibly what pissed me off the most out of everything. Plenty of us WERE in the draft lottery and didn’t hide in the champagne guard, we took our chances. Some of us even enlisted. It rankles me to be branded “traitor” by a White House full of warmongering draft dodgers, just because I chose to not like them or believe them and voted for The Other Guy. Screw that. I can live with Bush winning, but don’t give me that traitor bullshit. Ever.
Like this
Okay, I don’t want to split the country up anymore.
Here is what we need to do. We shrink the federal government except for defense. Lower taxes to a point to where there no subsidies. We can call it, “Welfare Reform” No interstate transfer payments. We’ll let our state governments enact policy that we want. Massachusetts can have its gay marriage and the red staters can do whatever they want as long as they don’t infringe on our desires. We can live in our own ways without having to force the other half of the country to go along with our changes when we are in power. The President can be the representative of the Federal government.
How great would this be? People would feel much more empowered as the government that affects their lives would be much closer to them.
I mean, do the Republicans really care that there is serious gun control in New York?
World Eater, is there any fucking way in the world to convince you that yes, we’ve all read your infinite declarations that Republicans or conservatives, since they see things differently from you, must all be a bunch of slack-jawed yokels because yes, seemingly at the end of every fucking one of your posts that’s what we have to wade through again and again and fucking again.
Give it a rest, man. It’s like the noisy kids toy that keeps getting bumped and starts playing the same nauseating song over and fucking over until you wonder what on God’s green Earth could have ever driven to evil creator to produce such a detestable thing.
For the love of ingenuity man, can you be something other than the fucking Billy Ray Cyrus of whiny harping?
The reason I ask, my friend, is because I know you have the capacity to be thoughtful and reasoned. Nobody’s asking you to change any view. I’m saying that we freakin’ heard you the first few hundred times or so and please don’t make us miss any subsequent thought just out of dread of stumbling back across that same endless, insulting jab.
Oh, the irony. Over 75 posts in this thread and the message with the most sanity in it is posted by N. Sane.
What fate would you separatists have befall the 37% of Alabama’s voters who chose to vote for Kerry? Or the 49% of Ohio’s voters who did the same? Where’s the traditional Liberal’s compassion for the underdog and under represented?
Also, I grow wearied with all the references to “hicks, hillbillies, yokels, rednecks” and so forth that I’ve seen on this board in the last few days. You sophisticated big city mo fo’s ain’t got no monopoly on smarts.
There’s no need for all this bitterness. C’mon down. We’ll put on some jeans and I’ll show you how to have some fun in a honky-tonk. Invite me up there and you can take me to one of them-there high falutin’ night clubs.
Four years from now we’ll probably have some form of Billary taking over anyway. In the mean time why don’t we quit all this bitchin’, roll up our sleeves, and go to work trying to make the United States the best country it can be?
In the final analysis, it’s not about what a few politicians do. It’s about what we, the citizens do. We can make it work if we drop the hard feelings and pull together.
