Gridlock; government paralysis; an
entrenched obstructionist political party; a divided Nation: we have faced all
of this before. The last time, over one hundred and fifty years ago, the
solution was a bloody Civil War. America won that war, but because of his misguided
compassion, President Lincoln didn't let his generals, Grant and Sherman, and
their mighty, freed-slave reinforced forces finish the job. President Obama's
sentimental fantasy notwithstanding, these are not the United States of
America today. Our country is really two irreconcilable tribes, sharing the
same geographic region of North America but little else. Fortunately, these
tribes are mostly contained within contagious States. Look at any recent
Presidential Election night map, and you will see that the Old Confederacy is
still quite alive. There is a viable solution to the current sorry state of
affairs: let each State vote to stay in or secede from the United States.
We have to stop this madness, and we
can. President Obama should propose to the Congress that we hold a National
Plebiscite during the first Presidential Election after the legislation's
passage. Any State whose citizens vote, by a two-thirds majority, to secede
from the Union, may do so. Much of the Old Confederacy and perhaps a handful of
Midwestern and Western States surely will secede.
by wikimedia
The States that secede will have twelve months to settle up with the Federal Government--that is, close all
military bases and transfer all military and other Federal assets, pay any
debts or negotiate a payment schedule, and assist citizens fleeing their
jurisdiction. Military personnel can sign a loyalty oath and relocate with the
material assets, or resign from the US Military. (We can let their National
Guard Units keep their small arms, and even a few tanks, trucks, helicopters,
and fighter jet aircraft. Of course, no bombers, nukes, or missiles stay in any
former Red State.) These former States can join together, if they choose; maybe
name their new nation Jesus Land, the Christian Theocracy
they yearn for.
The period before the vote and twelve
months after it will let intelligent, educated, enlightened citizens now inexplicable
living in Red States flee those States and join us. The Red State sympathizers
among us can use the same time to remove themselves from our midst and relocate
to a Red State of their liking. Enlightened Corporations, or ones simply dependent
on science and an educated population of workers, can use the same period to
relocate to one of our Blue States where they will be welcomed.
We can negotiate trade agreements
with Jesus
Land as we do with other nations. We can even have a Guest Worker Program
and relatively open borders like we now have with Canada. As Fundamentalist
Christian Jesus Land descends into Third World chaos and the pluralistic,
humanistic, diverse, agnostic and liberal United States of America thrives,
border former States can petition to rejoin The Union. Once they vote by
two-thirds majority, they will be welcomed back. We will not help Jesus
Land as it withers and dies. We will watch, some of us gleefully. When
Jesus does not save them, they will at least die knowing they were wrong about everything they thought they knew with certainty about life, values, race,
and God's will.
This would be change we really could
believe in. This one simple action would lead to a more perfect Union, end the
Culture Wars, and let like-minded Red State citizens fulfill their dreams of a
nation guided by a book written two millennia ago, instead of reason; a nation
where ignorance, hate and intolerance can find full expression without
accommodation to reality or the modern world. And it would let the rest of us
move forward"
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