When Texas Governor Rick Perry suggested that Texas could secede back in April 2009, he was roundly mocked. But it turns out he was something of a trendsetter on the right. Today's Washington Post reports that Virginia Republicans, flush with their victory over Democrats in Richmond, are intent on introducing a number of bills to go to war against the federal government.
And a number of other Republicans in other states are intent on emulating them by returning to the antebellum credo of states' rights. Now that the first African-American president is in office, the South is once more in revolt -- against what it considers to be a fresh dictatorship in Washington.
According to the Post, one bill lawmakers are considering would state that the federal government cannot regulate as interstate commerce any and all goods created in Virginia. Another would declare it illegal to require individuals to buy health insurance. Gun control is also in their gun sights. Virginia Republicans are even planning to establish a new government agency to counteract federal measures -- curtailing big government by expanding it, in other words.
The significance of these moves is that they demonstrate the extent to which tea party thinking has seeped into the GOP. The newly elected Governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell, a former protege of the television evangelist Pat Robertson, pretended to moderate his views during the election campaign. Now he is supporting the efforts of lawmakers to attack Washington.
Whether moving to the right will revive the fortunes of the GOP is another matter. It could be that independent swing voters are themselves revolted by the emergence of the radical right. But as the Democrats prepare for 2010, it may well become the most ferociously fought midterm election they have ever encountered.
The Democracy must be corrupted, bought, bankrupted and disarmed, so that the rich monarch, multinational companies, can run the world with private mercenary armies.
These dupes have no idea what the conservative leaders agenda is.
Yeah, I'd like to see the prosecutions on that. "Mr. Johnson, you are under arrest for the illegal purchasing of health insurance. Should you need an attorney, well, tough because it's also illegal to hire attorneys."
http://www.bradblog.com/Images/RedStateWelfareQueens.jpg
(For those who don't know, Marietta's biggest employer is Lockheed-Martin, where the $140,000,000+ F-22 was being developed and built. Oh well, they still have the C-5 and C-130J cargo planes, as well as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.)
I didn't mock him, I encouraged him.
Seriously though, I have to wonder if we'd be better off as a collection of 5 or 6 smaller countries.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/
Geography is not the whole story, to be sure. There are areas like the Upper Midwest where the legacy of a century-old progressive populism still resonates with some people. And every city has its avaricious, Republican upper crust.
Speaking personally, I think that if liberally-minded people would take a fresh interest in the profession of agriculture, there would soon be many rural counties that voted Blue. That would create ideal conditions for a parting of the ways between Blues and Reds. And I would favor it. Let the Teabaggers go.
"Can there ever be any thorough national fusion of the Northern and Southern States? I think not. In fact the Union will be shaken almost to dislocation whenever a serious question between the States arises. The American union has no center, and it's impossible now to make one...But I look upon the States...to be used , by-and-by, in the composition of two or three governments."
Now, the 'house divided', that was held together by the Civil War'', is again being shaken almost to dislocation. The Red State/Blue State divide has brought Congress to a standstill. Core philosophical differences run so deeply, they cannot be bridged.. Secession, roughly along the extended Civil War lines, may yet prove to be the best solution available.
The Red State, teabagger opposition to President Obama will grow in intensity if the economy worsens and with it, secession will emerge as a reasonable option.
I’ve got to address the matter of "succession". We've been raised with the history written by the winner of the Civil War (assuming anybody 'won' that debacle). But the South had a good, legal argument that had they pursued it in the Supreme Court, they might not have needed to storm Ft Sumter. The gist of it was: "We just broke from one despot and aren't about to sign a document committing ourselves to another government if they became despotic and monarchical -- if we didn't have the right to withdraw.”
Of course, the South wanted to continue expansion of Slavery into the new territories under a claim of "property rights" and freedom expressed in the Constitution and revolutionary fervor. But the essence of their legal claim – well; say good-bye to the South (and all the headaches they've caused). On the other hand, I live in Texas now and don't want to be in a 21st Century Confederacy with some of those very tightly wrapped, can't talk to religious Conservatives,