Is it finally time to let the South secede?

[cbrer]

The author of a new book challenges Northerners and Southerners to consider the possibility of a friendly divorce.

I am buying this book.

I have long wondered about the notion that progress cannot be made by ill informed, hard headed, fundamentalist morons.

http://www.alternet.org/books/it-finally-time-let-south-secede?akid=9193.1077804.mijm1u&rd=1&src=newsletter690298&t=4

[JoeyT]

1. Oh look.

Yeah, letting the South secede would be awesome. I mean sure they'd kill all the African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic, LGBT people and liberals within a month, but that's ok as long as it lets you feel superior.

[limpyhobbler]

7. LOL!

+1

[JoeyT]

17. You vastly underestimate how hateful some of these people are.

The right wingers might be lazy and stupid, but if given the chance to kill a race, religion, or orientation they hate, they'd leap (Well, more of a flop) at the chance. The only thing stopping a bunch of them now is fear of the federal government. It's why they hate it so much.

[Mopar151]

2. It's not the answer

We'd all get along better if there was an antidote for the FREE!!! FREE!!! FREE!!! 24 hour TOUCHLESS BRAINWASH!!!! that the fundies and bigots have been runnin'.

Flush Chickenhawk and his ilk have amassed fortunes in the FREE!!! FREE!!! FREE!!! 24 hour TOUCHLESS BRAINWASH!!!! brainwash business, because the brainwashed are easy marks.


FREE!!! FREE!!! FREE!!! 24 hour TOUCHLESS BRAINWASH!!!!
FREE!!! FREE!!! FREE!!! 24 hour TOUCHLESS BRAINWASH!!!!

[fasttense]

3. Hell NO

What about us liberals who live here?

It also depends on what you mean by the SOUTH. At one time Maryland was considered South, yet today they are very liberal. There is also the State of Franklin in East TN that tried to secede from the secession.

The South is NOT as conservative as RepubliCONS want you to believe. TN had riots when the RepubliCON Governor tried to pass a state income tax and when the CEO of the electric company wanted to give himself a huge bonus and doubled everyone's cost of electricity overnight.

Anyway, I'm saying a lot of people are liberal here, they are just not in power. How about you Northern liberals come here and help us regain power. The South use to be mostly Democratic.

[Fumesucker]

8. The South may have been Democratic but Southern Democrats weren't liberals..

Which is why when the Democratic party got liberal about civil rights a great many Democrats become Republicans..

[Not Me]

4. I may order the book.

I live in Florida, and plan to leave in three years when I become eligible for early retirement.
I am a Northeast transplant (10 years) and cannot take the attitudes here. It is by far the most uncivil place I have ever lived.

Racial animosity is rampant. Right wing Christians and Tea Party control local governments. Guns are everywhere, and increasingly a problem. The schools are among the worst in the nation, insuring that the future may not be any brighter.

Whether the South secedes or not, I am seceding with my feet back to civilization.

[Pithlet]

34. I hear you.

There are liberals here, but it seems too many want to hide their head in the sand and cry about South bashing when anyone talks about the problems here. I know it's frustrating, but that doesn't help. I'm fed up and wish I could go. I plan on it someday.

[n2doc]

5. And yet it is WISCONSIN that is the current hotbed of t-bagger philosophy

And what about Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, etc., etc.

How do you cleanly divide THIS:

[UnrepentantLiberal]

14. Done.

Eastern Oregon and Washington can stay behind if they want.

[Odin2005]

15. The eastern Dakotas are Liberal, they sould be with the USC.

Ditto with Iowa, northern Ohio and northern Virginia.

[davidpdx]

23. Dear god, get rid of Eastern Oregon!!!! LOL

Them there some serious rednecks! I have to drive out there when I go home every two years to see a particular family member (who's not a redneck). It's always hotter than hell because it's in August.

[bemildred]

6. Either that or lets finally finish reconstruction. nt

[kenny blankenship]

9. OK. Who gets the kids?

Divorce is often so messy that quarreling spouses may wish they stayed together, if only to provide stability for the children.


They're so malleable at this age, any alteration in their home environment can mark them forever.

Bear in mind that southerners are very overrepresented in the all-volunteer military and officer corps.

[godai]

30. Jesusland.

The US of Canada would be similar in policies as Canada is now. Let Jesusland control the current empire, and pay taxes to support it.

[kenny blankenship]

31. You really going to sleep soundly, knowing S. Carolina and Alabama have the BOMB?

Although I reject in the first place the notion that the non-southern US would have substantially different foreign policy-let's put that aside. How do you suppose Jesusland would financially support a military empire? Taxes? Hah! No, they would seek to finance their military empire the way military empires usually seek to finance themselves - conquest for resource extraction and trade extortion. Whereas North and South feuded incessantly over the territories before the Civil War began - and would have gone to war over them immediately even if the south's secession had been agreeable to Lincoln - they would fight over trade issues and their spheres of influence if they were to split up today. Now just imagine CSA President Rick Perry or Rick Scott and Haley Barbour with nuclear armed B52s and cruise missiles at their command. Imagine further that the United States of Canada has edged out the Confederate States of America, so rumor has it, in competition for the lucrative oil fields concession in Iraq or Kafiristan or wherever... Still feeling safe and secure up there?

If the author of this silly trash believes the US could split up and the southern/redstate bloc would accept less than half of the military hardware including the strategic arms, then they don't understand the first thing about the subject of their book. They appear to be ignorant of the role which possession of arms and military bases played in the outbreak of war the last time this brilliant idea was put into action. If someone once told them how southern states seized federal armories and installations upon passing their articles of secession, it appears to not to have sunk in. They fail to understand the nature of the nation state (an armed gang holding a turf), and the character of the redstate people they disparage.

[Paladin]

10. Just What We Need.

Another thread in which east and west coast DU'ers get to shit all over the south. Think I'll sit this one out......

[Brigid]

11. I went out and got this book today.

I have only read the intro so far, but I can tell already this is a gem. Part hilarious screed and part deadly serious examination of the idea of a "divorce," this is going to be a great read.

[Bill USA]

12. promises, promises!

[BigDemVoter]

13. God No!!!!

I just moved back down South after spending 15 years in San Francisco. . . It's like being on a different PLANET. . . . I'm dumbfounded by the number of people asking me "what church do you go to?"

Nonetheless, there ARE some progressives down here. I don't want us ALL to be punished by the actions of the fundamentalist, know-nothings!

Well, just wait to see how things go with our congressional races. I have a pretty good idea that we'll end up with some REAL ignorant assholes. There sure are a lot who write LTTE in the daily state paper to which I REFUSE to subscribe.

[raccoon]

18. If so, can I request political asylum somewhere in those higher latitudes? nt

[Brigid]

19. I have a pull-out sofa.

I live in Indianapolis, which I like pretty well -- the rest of the state might as well be in the South. BTW, the author of the book suggests a ten-year period in which the borders are open for those wishing to move. The book is a great read.

[raccoon]

24. Thanks! I'll look into the book. nt

[MrMickeysMom]

20. You want ill informed, hard headed, fundamentalist?

They never left SW Pennsylvania.

They are about as ill informed and hard-headed here. The only difference is that the accent is particularly different.

I lived in FL 30 years and TX for 3 yrs, and racism, knuckle dragging "what church do you go to?", "I'm not prejudiced, but..." is NOT limited to some of those Produnk towns in the South.

Uh-uh, now....

People just need to stop living in cognizant dissident land, turn off hate radio from the right, listen to a little Mike Malloy and read the fucking papers offered everywhere but under their ignorant nose!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. I live in RED HELL.

texas is liberal in the cities and some of the suburbs but is way right-wing tea party nutcase woohoo in the country. My congresscretin represents British Petroleum, Exxon, Shell and all the oil companies, not people.

"Would you like to come to my church?" is what I hear all the time.

However, these people are NOT interested in my religious views because I'm not a right wing Protestant. It's frightening how narrow minded they are. They know nothing about other philosophies and don't want to know anything. Their ignorant preacher has told them that everything outside their particular little church is EEEVVIIILLLLLL and they are afraid.

Some of them have big crosses on their lawns. YUCK!


And a lot of them put out little crosses in their yards which are blank. This is during Lent. Then on easter they take the paper off and it says "He is risen!"

My answer to that was a poster I painted with Tinkerbell on it that said "She is risen!" It didn't stay on my fence long enough for us to get firebombed. Seriously.

[cbrer]

22. Look, none of this

Was meant as a flame of any particular lifestyle, people, or thought processes.

If we can't make true progress under the current system, it's time to consider some new approaches. Although some of the replies here are thoughtful enough to point out obvious complications, (nukes!!), I refuse to just let the current way of picking leaders and/or reinforcing the current power structures exist as an unchangeable paradigm.

How much time do we have left before our choices kill us?

[Stuckinthebush]

25. As a life long resident of the deep South and a Liberal

I'm ok with this. But let's place some restrictions on it. If Southern states wish to secede, then they must first pay to relocate all who wish to get out first. Then they have to agree with a 10 year limit the end of which would be an automatic reunification of states where a majority of voters plead to come back into the fold.

[hedgehog]

26. How about instead we eliminate the Senate?

[struggle4progress]

27. The corporatists have been pushing some form of US dissolution for decades

The point of deconstructing the US, from the corporatist POV, is that only large nation-states really have the power to control corporations -- so let's dismantle the large nation-states!

It's an idiotic POV IMHO

[Uncle Joe]

32. I agree on all counts, struggle4progress.

It is idiotic on multiple levels.

[jberryhill]

28. Not without a Constitutional amendment

[on point]

29. No, but they are net gainers on Fed budget. Time to cut them off

since they are so against Govt subsidies and the coasts basically fund them.

[BigDemVoter]

33. It's not just the South that's full of redneck, homophobic, racist assholes. . . .

I've seen them everywhere-- Minnesota has a bunch, the Central Valley in California is CHOCK full of them, Colorado (especially Colorado Springs) has an epidemic of fuck-tards. . . Name the state, and there are ass-wipes who live there.

Admittedly, the South may have a higher % of assholes, but they permeate the voter registration rolls of all 50 wonderful states!