I think that you are going to walk it back a tad more. Trump happened, Texas happened, Charlottesville and DC happened. Trump is a symptom of a profoundly diseased culture and that culture is red state America.
The division is deep and widening, while it’s true that there are red staters living in blue state America, that was true during the civil war. But when you look at a state like Texas, you see a state that has collapsed under the weight of a critical mass of red state Americans, they contribute too little and take too much. The price of their anti-science fanaticism is only going to get higher as climate change’s impact increases. The entire nation faces the same destiny, collapsing under the weight of red state Americans. It is not sustainable.
I’ve seen that XKCD cartoon before, and I’m well aware that most “red” states are actually red-purplish. Which is why I fantasize that if Democrats can tick off the Republicans enough, it may finally provide the opening the blue states need to be rid of the burden of the red states forever. Once separate, give the 47% of blue voters in Texas the option to move to Liberaltopia, and likewise the option for the red voters in blue states to move to Conservatopia.
Then finally, the conservatives’ problems will be the conservatives’ problems, and the liberals’ problems will be the liberals’ problems. None of this whining about cross-contamination. Simple! (but not really)
I fully expect that as well, and I’ll be busting out the popcorn and beer.
I’m not going to go into your cite - we’d be splitting hairs for days and it wouldn’t be worth either of our times. Let’s just say I agree with it, while not agreeing it invalidates my basic point.
No argument from me, not even the “state” part as it relates to national elections. Like I said states are important because of the EC. But in terms of secession, i.e. the topic of this thread, I don’t buy it. I’ll leave it there in the interest of agreeing to disagree.
I think that war is not inevitable, As noted up thread, Czechoslovakia dissolved peacefully, but I think that what we’re looking at is closer to what happened when the Soviet Union collapsed, there was some violence, but not a wholesale war, of course it’s still playing out thirty years later and that is less than ideal.
If either the so-called red or so-called blue states secede I believe war would be inevitable. And it would make Civil War I look pleasant in comparison.
100% goes to the blue states. Okay, the troops that want to leave can do so, but they leave their weapons and ammo behind. Anything else guarantees a second civil war, especially as Confederate troops occupying Fort Sumter is pretty much what started the first one.
I think one important issue is that you can’t judge a state by its voting patterns. The Republicans have spent thirty years disenfranchising people. In Florida, for example, there are over one and a half million adults who can’t vote. Count people instead of registered voters and Florida is a blue state. Which the red voters would be reminded of if they tried to secede.
Then I might be the only person in the known universe not to accept the point that red & blue America represent monolithic and immutable cultures.
The whole premise could (likely not) collapse in a single election cycle.
However, if you define Red America as having certain views and Blue America as having opposite views, then they are two distinct cultures.
No actual human is a perfect representative of either culture.
Kinda weasel wordy now that I write it. But I was just attempting to extract the point that even if there were two completely independent cultures, they are geographically intertwined such that actual secession is not feasible.
Maybe history will record the Jan 8th insurrection as the high point.
Wouldn’t be the first white supremist movement in the US to implode in quick time.
In August 1925 at the peak of in it’s second rise, the Ku Klux Klan paraded through Washington, D.C but by 1930 had dwindled to virtual insignificance.
They also wouldn’t like the decline in the value of U.S. Treasury securities they may own. Even if there was a amiable agreement on who holds which portion of the national debt, the chances of default just went up a lot. The reasonable fear would be that red states would refuse the taxes needed to pay the debt, and the blue wouldn’t keep down spending so they could pay. As a result, debt interest rates would immediately rise to reflect the risk, making the debt instantly more expensive.
Deep, yes. Although, compared to bloody Kansas, and proportionate to population, red-blue conflict isn’t so great.
Widening? Not sure. And if you are correct, just extending a trend line definitely can’t work forever.
A year from now, the Supreme Court will probably have struck down affirmative action. I predict your average university President will refuse to act the sore loser and instead put in less divisive class-based alternatives. That’s one example of how polarization could slowly reverse.
Now that’s be an interesting negotiation.
Offer the secessionists their allocation of the national debt in the same proportion as their Electoral College votes. That’d scare most of them back into the fold by itself.
January 6, red state terrorists attacked the Capitol. Earlier red state terrorist attacks include Charlottesville, Kyle Rittenhouse’s shootings and multiple instance of red state terrorists driving cars into crowds. But for some reason your talking about affirmative action, not the white nationalist terrorists who tried to stage a coup.
