Posted on 03/27/2010 7:11:03 AM PDT by jimjohn2458
President Obama is splintering America. The passage of Obamacare was a historic victory for liberal governance. Yet, its true cost may be that it triggers the eventual breakup of the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I recently finished “Enemies Foreign and Domestic” and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a copy of “Domestic Enemies” and will read it next. You have quite a talent in presenting your material.
Unfortunately, the scenarios you present, while fiction, are well within the realm of possibilities.
I wrote them as cautionary tales, but they are getting a little too close to reality for comfort.
Whatever comes about because of an economic crash will be far worse and far uglier than 1929-1941, that's for sure. :-(
Sometimes the guy who wrote the book just wanted to talk about some geographical oddity -- a tiny bit of Texas on the other side of the Rio Grande, the guano islands the US owns in other parts of the world -- but it's not all tongue in cheek.
Only two plans for splitting up an existing state, so far as I know, were successful: Maine separating from Massachusetts and West Virginia from Virginia. But there were many proposals for "secession" from existing states. Eastern Washington and Oregon, Western Nebraska and Kansas, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Southern New Jersey, the Texas Panhandle, Northern or Southern Florida or Texas or California, New York City, etc.
The main reason the plans didn't work was the existing states had to give their permission to any new states created out of their territory. They don't often do that. Another reason was that new states had to have a large enough population to justify their existence and many planned states didn't.
Congressional politics also had an effect. If a proposed state leaned one way politically and there wasn't another projected state that leaned the other statehood was also unlikely.
Still another reason was that the discontent ended. A new governor took office, perhaps with the support of the dissenting region, and the grievances and agitation died down.
I suspect something like this will happen on the national level. It's certainly possible that we're going through now is a once-in-a-generation lurch that the country will recoil from in time. It's hard to imagine things being as polarized as they are now forever.
The SRM is calling these people "evil capitalists" and citing them as an example of why socialism should replace the free market and capitalism in this country. A half-truth is stronger and more dangerous than an outright lie.
Molon Labe.
Good point. I suspect the period between now and then will be VERY interesting. I think we will see things that we have never seen in our lifetimes. For example, when is the last time there was a brawl in the House of Representatives?
When Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina came over to the Senate side and caned Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. (OK, maybe that didn't happen in the House chamber, but it's close.)
Then there was the fistfight where Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina KO'd Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas in one round in a Senate hallway. (Maybe that one doesn't count either, but it's in the same spirit.)
I would love to see Pelousy B-slapped on the house floor....
Thanks for the information. When did those fights occur?
Someone always says “Give ‘em California” in these threads. I mostly lurk, but this morning I’m a little down about events of the last couple weeks, so...
I’m Los Angeles born and raised, and in my lifetime my state has devolved from the quintessential American promised land to an occupied territory. We are a statistical hairsbreadth from the majority of residents being foreign born. (Personally, I think we’ve already crossed that Rubicon, but the numbers crunchers are afraid to let that particular cat out of the bag.)
What’s so dismaying is that my state was simply ceded to another country, without a shot being fired. How did this happen? Was the rest of America simply unaware, and now you think nothing can be done to help us, so the answer is to cut us loose? Do you think it can’t happen in your state?
The occupiers and their enablers are the ones you’re mad at — not those of us who haven’t moved Idaho. (Not that I blame my fellow Californians for getting out if they feel they have to.)
The invaders have bankrupted us, financially and culturally. Of course they’re socialists — socialism is all they know. But look at a red/blue county map of California. Outside of San Francisco and Los Angeles, we’re a red state, with a proud conservative history. We gave the country Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Look at it from a strictly pragmatic, self-interested point of view if you don’t give a damn about your fellow Americans — you can’t afford to just write us off. Do you realize the staggering wealth of this state? The agricultural capability alone is utterly vital to the health of the entire country.
I can’t speak intelligently about Chicago, Vermont, New York and Detroit. But I do know this: as California goes, so goes the nation. I’ve seen it over and over. The fight is here. Those of us who stay could use the support of the rest of America.
I like LA and Cal (just not San Fran) and shouldn't have included it.
That said, maybe we can just put the liberals on a floating barge or ice berg and set them out to sea...or even better yet, get them to agree to have a series of civil debates wherein we actually try to resolve our differences or at least agree to disagree like mature people.
At first intending to challenge Sumner to a duel, Brooks consulted with fellow South Carolina Rep. Laurence M. Keitt on dueling etiquette. Keitt instructed him that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing, and suggested that Sumner occupied a lower social status comparable to a drunkard due to the supposedly coarse language he had used during his speech. Brooks thus decided to attack Sumner with a cane.
Two days after the speech, on the afternoon of May 22, Brooks confronted Sumner as he sat writing at his desk in the almost empty Senate chamber. Brooks was accompanied by Keitt and Henry Edmundson of Virginia. Brooks said, Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine. As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks began beating Sumner with his thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head. Sumner was trapped under the heavy desk (which was bolted to the floor), but Brooks continued to bash Sumner until he ripped the desk from the floor. By this time, Sumner was blinded by his own blood, and he staggered up the aisle and collapsed, lapsing into unconsciousness. Brooks continued to beat Sumner until he broke his cane, then quietly left the chamber. Several other senators attempted to help Sumner, but were blocked by Keitt who was brandishing a pistol and shouting Let them be! (Keitt would be censured for his actions and later died of wounds in 1864 fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War.)
Sumner was unable to return to his Senate duties for more than three years while he recovered. He later became one of the most influential Radical Republicans throughout the conduct of the Civil War, and on through the early years of Reconstruction.
(from Wikipedia)
Concerning the Thurmond-Yarborough bout, in 1964 Yarborough tried to drag Thurmond to his committee seat to vote on Civil Rights legislation. It was a mistake.
as well as inner city against suburbs....
I easily think Florida ( where I am) could “break away”...seceding doesn’t mean breaking up the union now...States—some of them— will “secede” financially by not (being able to or wanting to) “pay” for the Obozocare mandates.
Legend has it that Brooks later received many gifts of replacement canes.
DarkSkies, I was wrong to suggest that people of obvious good will who are just trying to make sense of these times as I am don’t care about their fellow Americans. Every now and then I need to put on the gum shoes of a New Englander or the hoop skirts of a Southerner and consider the sheer lunacy that emanates from our state from their point of view...
All the best.
Oops, how did I address that to myself?
DarkSkies, I was wrong to suggest that people of obvious good will who are just trying to make sense of these times as I am dont care about their fellow Americans. Every now and then I need to put on the gum shoes of a New Englander or the hoop skirts of a Southerner and consider the sheer lunacy that emanates from our state from their point of view...
All the best.
Reminds me of Walter Williams commentary after the 2000 election fiasco.
My advice, get out. There is nothing we can do to help New Greece. The weather is nice but it's not worth it.
A new world is coming, get ahead of the curve.
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