A House Divided

Steyn On-line ^ | August 29, 2020 | Tal Bachman

[Twotone]

There must be something wrong with me.

The fireworks closing off the Republican National Convention were sensational. The music was inspiring. The speakers throughout the entire convention did well—no major screw-ups that I saw. The stories worked. And through it all, Trump and his proxies articulated a clear case for re-election. As conventions go, it felt like a success.

And yet as the last firework fizzled out, some melancholy seized me, and I wondered if the real story of the week wasn't the convention at all, or the upcoming debates, or even the winner of the 2020 election. I wondered if the real story was an irrevocable, worsening rupture no election victory could cure.

After all, it's one thing for citizens to differ on a sales tax initiative or what to name the new highway. It's another for them to differ, and differ deeply, on whether it's okay to murder full-term newborn babies, burn down buildings, or release hordes of violent criminals to the streets to resume their psychopathic predations. And as it happens, the clash between the rival world views underlying those disagreements has spawned nightly, real-world battles—complete with actual casualties—within a country called the United States.

The truth is, there's nothing particularly "united" about the United States these days. Even basic perceptions now differ.

[Who is John Galt?]

The problem with that is we would have added 700 million Latin Americans and 1,000 million sub-Saharan Africans to the North American population. It would become impossible to evict 1.7 billion people.

Most of the populace would probably already be dead, as a result of Leftist mismanagement (picture the Ukrainian famine) and/or government-mandated "re-education" (picture the gulags)...

[Who is John Galt?]

IMO, Option 1, much, much smaller federal government is the only peaceful way to avoid a bloody civil war. The Feds should have no involvement in health, education, & welfare, as well as numerous areas of US life. Agencies such as the FDA should have advisory powers only. However, I doubt both sides could agree to such a radical change in national government.

Given the pace of federal deficit spending, one wonders what the possibilities might be in the event of federal bankruptcy? If the federal dollars stop flowing or become worthless, the States might find new options (a smaller federal government, or peaceful division & reorganization) more appealing...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That is likely because they can’t produce anything. But the two nations would have to set up trade pacts and we would sell foot to the communist nation.

They could easily take down all borders on Day 1 and get flooded with poor, illiterate peasants all demanding their “fair share.” Of course a lot of blacks would be demanding reparations which the new government would have to pay.

It would be a failed third-world sh1thole within a year — the same way the “palestinians” destroyed all the greenhouses gifted to them by the Israelis and every previous colonial state in Africa.

What a fine neighbor that would be.

[Who is John Galt?]

What a fine neighbor that would be.

Seems like a less dangerous version of the status quo: prosperous Red States adjacent to declining & failed Blue States, with the people running the third-world Blue States wanting to loot the Red States, and remake the entire federal republic in their own "sh!t-hole" Blue State image. At least there would be a meaningful border, and a sound legal basis for societal self-defense. If Nancy Pelosi showed up on your doorstep, you could have her arrested for trespassing & deported...

;^)