The Scottish Disease: The Scots are not alone in dreaming of secession

National Review ^ | 09/17/2014 | Kevin D. Williamson

[SeekAndFind]

On Thursday, Scotland will decide whether it intends to remain part of the United Kingdom or go its own way as a separate nation. Inspired, Catalonia has renewed its campaign for independence from Spain. Earlier this week, it became clear that San Francisco venture capitalist Tim Draper’s “Six Californias” initiative — which would have seen the state subdivided into six new polities, in effect allowing affluent Silicon Valley to secede from the state’s poor interior and the vulgarians down south — would not proceed to the ballot, having failed to secure sufficient signatures in the petition stage.

Secession talk, indulged with varying degrees of sincerity, is a staple of the culture of my home state of Texas. Soy-latte radicals dream of a great liberal secession from red-state rednecks. The libertarian economist Michael S. Rozeff writes wistfully of personal secession, the “panarchism” of Paul Émile de Puydt.

Part of the allure of secession is sentimentality, rank romanticism rooted in tribalism. What a land the Scots might make for themselves if only they were relieved of the burden of sharing a kingdom with the English! (Answer: Norway’s welfare state, Sweden’s cultural dynamism, Italy’s solvency.) And which of the last true-believing pilgrims in the Church of Hope and Change, his fraying Shepard Fairey T-shirt his only protection against the chill of the frozen-foods aisle at Trader Joe’s, does not dream of living in a nation with no SUV-driving Rick Perry voters who drink cheap beer un-ironically? The popularity of survivalist fantasy literature and apocalypse-preparedness television programs, and the jaunty attitudes associated with them, suggest that dread is not the main feeling associated with doomsday portents: Having grown disenchanted with the world as it is, they welcome its end.

[Gay State Conservative]

I am irreversibly convinced that the United State,as currently constituted (50 states and DC) is broken beyond repair and will continue a rapid,ugly slide into “Third Worldom”.I'm also convinced that certain parts/regions are salvageable...that is,the “red” states.I'm firmly in favor of those “red” states breaking away and forming a new country.

[MrB]

Texas, OK, Ks, Nb...

Right up through the middle.

We’ll still allow the elites to “fly over” from one dystopia to the other.

[Sherman Logan]

You may be right. But should at least be aware that the relationship between the blue and red states has a good bit in common with that between England and Scotland.

The blue states are on average taxed more than they get back as is England, the red states have more spent on them than they pay in taxes, just like Scotland.

Counter-intuitive but quite true.

[Gay State Conservative]

Right up through the middle.

No,more than that.The Carolinas,Georgia,certain parts of the Mountain time zone,Alaska...maybe a few others.

[MrB]

Yeah, the “more than that” was in the ellipses.

[GregoTX]

"Texas will again lift it's head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages." - Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas.

[skeeter]

The western elites have drifted so far from the average people in their respective countries IMO the more independence movements, the better. Decentralizing is probably the only way to make government more responsive to the governed.

[DoodleDawg]

I'm firmly in favor of those “red” states breaking away and forming a new country.

Why one country? If the U.S. splinters then I can see it becoming three or four countries: The liberal northeast and Great Lakes states. The old Confederacy. The conservative heartland. And the liberal west coast.

[Gay State Conservative]

The liberal northeast and Great Lakes states. The old Confederacy. The conservative heartland. And the liberal west coast.

The voters of various red states would be in basic agreement on most,if not all,of the major issues.Taxation,defense,illegal aliens,pervert "marriage",welfare,etc.So would voters in the Marxist states.The "typical" Virginian has far more in common,philosophically,with the typical Minnesota and California voter than with he typical Georgia voter.And the same applies to red state voters.

[DoodleDawg]

The voters of various red states would be in basic agreement on most,if not all,of the major issues.Taxation,defense,illegal aliens,pervert "marriage",welfare,etc.

Probably. Which would make relations between the two Conservative countries amicable.

[Chuzzlewit]

I agree completely...

[expat2]

Splitting by states is not the answer, IMO. Just about every state in the union has a conservative segment outside the major cities, even NY, MA, and IL.
Better, perhaps, would be to cordon off the lefty cities. IOW, form city states, like DC, including their liberal inner suburbs, and let the conservative rest of the country split up, or not, as it pleases.

[PoloSec]

I don’t see where our Constitutional Free Republic allows for a divided country, apparently many who call themselves conservatives, did not ever mean it when they Pledged Alligence to One Nation Under God Indivisible.

We The People need to step up to our (so far failed) responsibilities and topple this current communist take over and restore our Constitutional Free Republic.

If anyone thinks this can be done by any political means such as (Secession) you are delusional, and have failed to observe that corruption is the main fabric of our government and its institutions, our culture and our collapsed borders.

Those who would encourage and practice Honor, Integrity, Self Sacrifice, are the decaying fringe of the current corrupt fabric of this nation.

We are at the point where without the shedding of blood there will never again be a Free Republic on the earth... IMO!

I find very few who are brave enough to say or even acknowledge, revolution is the only tried and tested solution.

[driftless2]

True, but a great deal of the tax money spent in red states is spent on military bases and poverty programs. A great many of the people receiving gov. aid for poverty are blue state constituents. And money spent on military bases is money spent on national defense.

If there was a split, it is very likely all the red people in blue states and blue people in red states would probably go to their own country. In one fell swoop the blue U.S. would find themselves with the overwhelming majority of people on gov. aid.

[buckalfa]

The demographic trends say otherwise. As red states turn purple then blue, we will not see secession but rather the balkanization of America.

[Verginius Rufus]

Secession is the Scottish disease? I guess that’s why the Confederate battle flag used the Scottish cross of St. Andrew in its design.