With Trump winning, a lot of my progressive friends in the US have once again announced they’re moving to Canada. That socialist paradise to the north of the United States.
During Obama’s (still continuing) reign, the conservative version of this was always to secede.
So, why is it that the two oversimplified sides of politics take these views? Why do conservatives secede whereas progressives move?
I mean, the answer seems obvious. Staying put is very conservative, whereas going somewhere new is quite progressive. Is it really that simple?
And yes, I am aware that almost no one actually acts on these threats. Still, I find the different language interesting.
Because so many Conservatives are filled with Confederate nostalgia. Some of them are racist and xenophobic, of course. Other are more sophisticated & consider Lincoln a “statist.” But they all wave the Battle Flag.
Those Progressives dream of a Better Place. A better future–not the past. Canada really does have some very good points.
Of course, both are wrong. Secession was tried, unsuccessfully–even a Republican national government would not allow it. (“Modern” Republicans–the former Party of Lincoln.) Also, the Red/Blue Electoral map is misleading. Even Red states have strong pockets of Blue–generally the cities, where marrying your first cousin *hasn’t *been the tradition for centuries.
And moving to Canada isn’t that easy. Most of us will have to hunker down here & plan for the next election.
Secession is good if you’re attached to your land. Moving is good if what matters to you is the society you’re surrounded by.
The other issue is that neighborhoods can’t practically secede. Neither can towns or cities.
States on the other hand have some experience of seceding. No, it didn’t work last time. If you squint just right you could imagine it working out next time if the rump of the country was glad to see you go. In response to talk of Texas seceding, no shortage of Californians and New Yorkers have said “So long and good riddance; don’t let the door hit your ignorant butt on the way out.” IOW, this time it *could *be different.
The last issue is that many states are pretty monoculturally conservative. Whereas the progressives are more distributed in cities. As a result, it becomes plausible for, e.g. WY, to talk of seceding from a progressive-lurching country because 99% of the public there is conservative. It’s not practical for e.g. CA to secede from a conservative-lurching country because although the state overall is progressive, there are lots of pockets of hard core conservatism.
Bottom line: Compared to progressives, conservatives are more locked to a place than to a society and their geographical distribution is more into largely homogenous states.
Ever looked at a election result maps on a county by county basis? There are many states that are completely or near completely republican across the entire state. In states where democrats win, usually it is the large metropolitan counties with the largest populations that go democrat, while the rest of the state counties, less populated, go republican. So republicans have vast swaths of land that are attributed to them, while democrats have large metropolitan cities attributed to them.
I’m not moving to Canada–already here–but have put on definite hold any plans to move to the US. Our kids have been bugging us for a year or more to move closer to one of them. Now we are thinking it would be best if they moved here. But their spouses would have to get residence and work permits. I don’t know how hard that is, but it is going to be easier for the spouse of a citizen. I heard on the news this morning that the Canadian immigration site is down, presumably crashed from overuse.
Forget Canada. With the peso now at 20 to the dollar, the cost of living in Mexico is half of what it was a decade ago. And ten percent less than it was yesterday morning. Mexico just got slammed back up against the third-world wall.
Because progressives understand that there are other civilized countries in the world, and conservative believe there is only one and they can instantly create another one if that one falls into enemy hands.
I’m a progressive in California and I have thought for a long time that California should secede. We have the 8th largest GDP in the world, might as well be our own country.
