I assume you are familiar with bell shaped curves. Most of the progress of civilization and almost all brilliant new discoveries occur because of the people at the upper end of the curve. These are the people who can see that the trends can no longer be supported or who recognize that the facts are changing or that other facts will take precedence over the facts used to project the trend. I don't deny that history may prove me to be wrong. At least I have examined the evidence and thought carefully before drawing my own conclusions.
This site would have little or no interest if the viewers were pleased with the trends that are in place. And I suspect that most recognize that all trend changes begin at the margin. Conventional wisdom is frequently wrong. And those who accept it as gospel are the ones who suffer the most severe consequences. I don't think Freepers should accept either of our opionions. They should look at the facts, exercise their own judgments about the facts and draw their own conclusions about the trends. This map offers clues what secession and the United States will be like by 2016, despite ReaganMan's conclusion that I live in the company of lunatics..
That's just the 2000 residential election map.
That's just the 2000 presidential election map.
I don't see how you have any chance of pulling this off. Even if you managed to "take over" a state (and it would have to be a very small state or a state with a small population and meager value for you to take it over with only 20,000 people in your "army"), you would have no standing, no power, no influence on the Federal Level. The Federal government (along with the other 49 states who would team up in opposition against you) would squash your seccessionist plans like a bug.
If Quebec is unable to successfully secede from Canada (and in my opinion Quebec has a better case for secession and is in a much better position to make a go of it alone than just about any state in the U.S. except California), no way will a state be able to secede from the U.S given the present economic, political, and social climate. Short of some unforseen calamity occurring to the entire country, 14 years is not enough time to alter that climate.
I consider myself a pragmatic, traditional, law and order conservative and a proud Republican to boot. These are political positions I take because I love America and believe her best days lie in front of her. I haven't seen anything in my lifetime or in recent years that would lead me to believe the constitutional republic the Founding Fathers created, is about to fall apart. The main problems facing conservative America, are related to 70 years of creeping liberal policy that has produced excessive taxation and wealth transfers, which have allowed liberal law makers to build a selected social welfare state.
Politics is a slow process and the only way to turn things around, is to elect more and more conservative candidates to public office. That means employing a strategy of practical policy based on political incrementalism, negotiation and compromise. This will improve our chances to advance the most conservative agenda possible. It also means that if conservative Republicans want to get elected, they must appeal to independents and dissatisfied Democrats.
One enemy of the conservative movement is liberal Democrats who want to force America into a European type, social welfare state. Another enemy of conservatism are the fringe extremists, who would support and vote for third party candidates, or stay home on election day, in order to punish Republicans and teach them a lesson. What absurd and irrational thinking that is. It doesn't seem to matter, to these extremists, that such a startegy, would only lead to electing liberal Democrat's to office. You know, those people whose agenda we on the rightwing oppose and we're suppose to be defeating at the polls.
One thing that you and your political ilk can't seem to comprehend, is that America will never take a political course that sends it down a path of fringe extremism. The political gridlock we've experienced for the last 20 years, will only be solved by taking a solid and realistic, mainstream conservative approach. If you want to see America take an immediate hard right turn, that calls for a revolution and that is something the vast majority of Americans, like 99% of us, would never support.