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Maybe you've forgotten, but it was you who pinged me to this thread

You didn't say anything so silly prior to today. There's a lot of that going around lately.

Someday, if you ever get a chance, maybe you could explain what underlies your desire to separate us as Americans.

Not quite right per my motivation, but I "get" what you're asking.

It's about money and the fact that ours is based on vaporware. It's about the fact that the Nation is not being ruled by sane people, and indeed has engineered the system to favor the election of irrational kooks.

All signs appear to indicate that we are heading towards some sort of major financial/social crash, and the only possibility of survival will require the separation of the dead weight. Of the Insane. Of the Irresponsible and Irredeemable.

The nation wasn't created as a Democracy. The founders *HATED* Democracy. The Nation was founded as a Republic with significant and reasonable constraints regarding who could select it's leadership.

Now we have nuts, kooks, and thieves electing the leadership, and thereby creating a corresponding craptacular of Government insanity and corruption.

How on Earth do you see this thing as recoverable? What sort of Rose colored glasses are you wearing? Have you even been keeping up with what is going on in this country today? Are you familiar with the Nazis? Well, they're running things now, and you ask me why I would want to chop ties with such a lovely system?

I think this sums it up the consequences we are facing pretty well:

“...Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrendered their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.” - John Adams

It sounds like you disagree with the Fed's recent monetary policy. Several decades ago, I was taught that increases in the money supply stimulated investment, but at the cost of inflation. Recent history has demonstrated that, at a minimum, things are obviously not quite that simple. But, anyone who can predict economic outcomes with certainty can certainly use that knowledge to become very wealthy. Are you certain about the outcomes?

I don't sense an imminent financial/social collapse. There has never been a time in my life when I couldn't have constructed many possible scenarios of doom, but I've never seen any advantage in acting upon those possibilities. There are many people who have a lot at stake in the stability of this system. In all likelihood, we'll get by.

In some ways, I agree that this country is more democratic than it was at the outset. We directly elect our Senators. We let women vote. We even let people who aren't freeholders vote. Would you be happier if only landlords could vote?

In other ways, we're more a plutocracy than ever before. Those kinds of things (the distribution of real power and influence) aren't easy to measure.

It might be a mistake to assume that a voter base free of nuts, kooks and thieves would be free of the same disagreements that you see today. I don't see our current politics as a struggle between the sane and the insane. I don't assume that someone must be insane to arrive at an opinion that differs from mine. And, if I ever do feel that way, I hope that I'll have the insight to recognize that my happiness will require that I stay as far away from politics as possible.

I view politics and the economy like I view the weather. I recognize that both are almost completely beyond my control. My goal is to succeed in the environment that I find myself. My goal is to try to appreciate the few years that I have here on this earth. I complain about things that I don't like, but I recognize my limitations.

Anyway, I've had some difficult times, but I've found a lot of success and happiness here in this country. It's not perfect, but it's as good as it gets on this planet.