Substituting One Pipe Dream For Another Dept.:
(K-Blog)… In the US the South remains a distinctive sub-nation, but I think that any serious neo-Confederate revival is, alas, a pipedream. Karlin speculates that the US could break up along ethnocultural and economic lines, like those proposed by Joel Garreau (9 nations) or Colin Woodard (11 nations). Michael H Hart proposed dividing the US into two nations along county lines, to be determined by voting patterns. Basically a red ocean full of blue islands.Brilliant.
I don’t think those scenarios are realistic either. But a return to the Articles of Confederation period (1781-1788) just might be. Before the United States became a unitary nation it was an alliance of sovereign states. The modern template for how this would work is the European Union. Yes, the EU has a terrible reputation in our circles, but the EU is a toothless tiger compared to the all-powerful federal government in the US, and the much-maligned Brussels bureaucracy is positively microscopic compared to the behemoth in DC.
This way the 50 states would become fully sovereign nations, with all the powers that Germany or France or any other countries in the EU enjoy, while still keeping an attachment to the United States, which would transform itself from an independent nation to a transnational organization. The globalists and multiculturalists could have their own nations (e.g. California & New York), and the nationalists and patriots could have theirs (e.g. Texas & Kentucky)…
Sarcasm Alert!
Because ignoring all the reason Brexit happened, and why Catalonia is happening, along with the entire Muslification of Europe, is a great political model to follow. Physics lesson: the rudder on aircraft carrier is positively microscopic compared to the behemoth it steers. Let's not wax poetic about how much horseshit can safely be baked into a meatloaf before the proportion becomes problematic from a taste standpoint, shall we?
And because increasing the power of 50 states' petty dictators would be way better than one strong federal one, and put the governor of Rhode Island on a political par with the governor of Texas. And, as under the electoral system, the governors of the 10 or 12 largest and most populous states could tell the other 38 or 40 to suck it.
Let's take roll call:
CA - Deep Blue
TX - Pale Purple
NY - Deep Blue
FL - Purple
IL - Deep Blue
PA - Purple
OH - Purple
MI - Purple
GA- Red, with a Blue swath
NC - Red, with a Blue swath
NJ - Deep Blue
VA - Purple
38 other states - WhoTF cares?
And doubtless a captain in South Carolinian or Oregonian Navy would have his opposite number from Russia or China quaking in his boots.
Well-played.
Go Team Red State!
Yeah, that'd really put the skeer on the other side. Not.
And the Articles of Confederation should be re-tried, because all the reasons it failed miserably (which exact level of idiocy, necessary or not, imperiled the Revolution itself, and prolonged it by years) and spectacularly the first time around can be resolved with handwaving, magical incantations, happytalk, and...look, squirrel!
We do and ought to regularly castigate the other side's Snowflake morons for a total lack of common sense, nor any idea of wee little things like language, science, math, geography, history, economics, etc., which are collectively known as "reality".
And then there are our own side's idiots, with a total lack of common sense, nor any idea of wee little things like language, science, math, geography, history, economics, etc. which are collectively known as "reality".
The left side of the bell curve is absolutely bipartisan, and stuff like this is the reason.
The only way to rework the political map is going to come after reality has its way with demographics, in a Malthusian curve kind of way.
And the divide will be, as expected, between cityfolk, and the ruralese.
And in that day, incorporated city limits will become as harsh a dividing line as any international border is now.
Magical thinkers on both sides will have a dawn of reality in an eye-opening way, some of them even noting it in time to save themselves from the yawning maw of the same Four Horsemen of ever:
War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. And as always, in that exact order.
Those who imagine they can invite one and of necessity miraculously avoid the other three are braindead ahistorical idiots of the first rank.
The sooner those two sides come to an accommodation fair to both, and realize that they cannot spend grain, nor eat money, the sooner the political scales will come back into balance.
A good start would be to simply tell citizens of the several states that once they establish residence within city limits, they lose the power of the voting franchise affecting the whole (just inside their own little enclaves, so they might enjoy the fruit of their own choices in real time), and are free to enjoy the largesse of the association, without the privilege of trying to dictate the prosperity of an area they no longer inhabit, just as all parasites do. Remora do not tell the shark where to swim, and hyena do not tell the lion pride what to hunt.
As in nature, so in civilization.
Ah, yes. When the desired impossible meets the disastrous possible.
ReplyDeleteOr we could go back to the original voting franchise. I'd even support getting rid of the white only clause as most property owners have some sense.
ReplyDeleteNo women though. They only cause confusion.
But I'm the property owner!
ReplyDeleteSorry Dianna but let one in and all of a sudden it's feelings and SJW's.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Yeah, I've noticed that. But much less frequently among the property-owning.
ReplyDeleteReally good analysis. I could pick one or two nits, but why bother?
ReplyDeleteThe first intelligent, conservative woman I encountered who was opposed to women voting was Ann Coulter. It stunned me and made me think ("'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished" to quote Willie). The founders were very insightful about many things, limiting the franchise to male property owners is just another.
OK: one nit. If you're going to describe states as "red with a blue slash", that's Florida. Red with three blue blotches. The red/blue divide is suburban/rural and urban/deep urban. All of Florida's biggest cities are blue. The rest are reliably red.
As was obvious in 2000, Florida is purple, because it hangs by a hair. The breakdown in nearly every state is blue cities and red everywhere else.
ReplyDeleteAnd inclusion be damned, the 19th Amendment should be repealed.
Along with the 16th and 17th, which, together with the already repealed 18th Amendment, forms the grand slam of Stupid Fail of progressivism, and the four largest reasons we no longer live in the democratic republic intended.
If the 19th were repealed, there would not be a single Democrat in office most places, few D state's governors, nor any Democrat president ever again, and we never would have had Harding, Hoover, nor FDR, or any D from him to HopeyDopey.
That alone is proof of the wisdom of returning the franchise to whence it began. But the women would be ably represented by the likes of the Democrats and spineless RINOs with their beta-male manginas in the House and Senate, from the present time and going back to forever.
And if legislatures alone appointed senators again, the Rs would now have a Senate majority (70-30) five votes beyond veto-proof and ten votes from even the possibility of a filibuster, and Ann Coulter would be the most liberal justice serving on SCOTUS by next year. And we'd never see another McCrazy, Marco ScrewYoubio, Lindsay Grahamnesty, etc., except as one-term aberrations, from now unto the end of time. In fact, they'd probably all only serve a term or two at maximum, since the home-state thieves would all demand their turns at bat, thus limiting immeasurably the damage the Senate could do, and returning the power in government to the Speaker of the House, the one body elected wholly by the people, and the one most subject to change on the electorate's whim or wishes. There would also never be another unfunded mandate passed out of Congress until Hell froze over solid, and all the actions of legislation by judicial fiat overreach undone in about a season.
Exactly as designed.
And the repeal of the income tax would forcibly shrink Leviathan back to its mandated powers.
And when, not if, your paycheck grew obvernight by 33%, you wouldn't give two hoots for how high the prices were at WalMart for adequately tariffed junk, and even with fair-trade levels of taxation, the import tariffs assessed on Japmobiles would still leave them within anyone's budget, down to minimum wage.
And there would be zero interest in companies importing goods (and the jobs to make them) overseas, because they'd be unsellable here.
Exactly as designed.
Everybody acts like it's rocket science, but if you put the control rods back in the reactor from whence they came, the meltdown stops pretty spectacularly fast.