silly secessionists: what would your map look like?

[onenote]

Exactly which states do you think would/should secede?

"Blue" States like California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont? What about their GOP governors?

What about Maine? Pretty blue? But it has two GOP senators. Minnesota you say? GOP gov and one GOP senator.

We won New Hampshire, so it should be a secessionist state? But what about the GOP governor and both senators?

Oregon's been pretty reliable, but they've got a GOP senator. And Pennsylvania, they've got two GOP senators. Even good ol' Rhode Island, which gave Kerry 60%, has a GOP gov and a GOP senator.

Doesn't leave much to secede. Maybe we could get Montana -- nearly 60 percent of them liked Bush, but they elected a Dem governor. Oklahomaand Tennessee, and Wyoming -- deep red, but maybe they'll join the secessionist movement since they also have Dem Governors. West Virginia (hell they already "seceded" from Virginia)-- 56% for BUsh, but the Dems have the Governors house and both senate seats, so maybe you can make Charleston the capital of your new country. Unless Mark Warner can convince Virginia to secede, and then you can make it Richmond.

I'll stop now. Maybe you get the point. Talking about seceding is just jerking off.

onenote

[freedom_to_read]

1. but but, just like jerking off

it feels good and helps you get to sleep at night.

;)

[jobycom]

2. So if it's jerking off

what is taking a silly idea way too seriously?

:-)

[sangh0]

15. Jerking off may be "silly"

but that doesn't make the guy in the middle of the circle jerk any happier to be there.

[prodigal_green]

3. it is really more of a cultural issue than a political one

Northern republicans are typically more liberal than some Southern Democrats. It has to do with religion, tolerance of others' lifestyle, etc. Secession talk is about making a distinction between two very different cultures that have become more and more irreconcilable of late.

[onenote]

5. so what do we do about the street in my neighborhood

that has both a unitarian universalist church and a southern baptist church. Which country gets that street.

onenote

[Tempest]

4. Talk about overstating the obvious

Of course seceding is not practical.

Did you really have to start a thread to state the obvious?

Or did you really just want to talk about jerking off?

[seraph]

9. Is that a bad thing? Oh wait... nevermind. (nt)

[onenote]

11. actually I felt like I did have to start a new thread

since there was another thread advocating secession as a serious idea, it seemed like starting a thread that pointed out the folly of the concept was valid. Sorry you don't agree, but that's okay.

onenote

[eataTREE]

6. Our GOP politicians are to the left of red-state Dems.

I live in Connecticut, a reliably blue state. But our governor, Jodi Rell, as well as my congressman, Chris Shays, are both Republicans.

Shays co-authored the Campaign Finance Reform bill.
Shays has voted against every single bit of gay-baiting bullshit that has gone up for a vote in the House.
He sent his constituents a letter saying that he'd never support a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Don't get me wrong, Shays isn't a liberal. But to lump him in with Trent Lott and Tom Delay is silly.

[Cobalt Violet]

7. GOP Governor of NH lost!

And we will be canning ours next election.

Some might not like the idea now but after 4 more years I think the idea will just keep growing. The more the blue states are required to subsidize born-beliefs, the more people will be taking this alternative seriously.

[lightbulb]

8. Party affiliation tends to follow population density pretty closely

So maybe any zone with a certain number of folks per square kilometer should be considered part of one nation, while the rural areas are part of another.

[DS1]

10. It's the great reshufflin' of 2005

Everyone gets their houses evaluated, and swaps for one in the preferred colored state within 2%.

Of course, who the fuck would want to live in Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, Mississippi, Misery, Ala-get down-bama, etc etc etc.

We're stuck with you, but we'll still complain about you behind your backs.

[Squeech]

12. Yankee/Cowboy theory

I first heard about this one during the Carter presidency.

The idea is that the real operational divide in American politics is the Yankees-- industrialists, internationalists, allied with Europe in both trade and culture-- versus the Cowboys-- isolationists whose idea of an economy is to sell raw materials to Japan and buy cheaply made shit from China, and basically ignore everybody else.

Yankees are richer, because they support industrial productivity and trade, plus they live in the financial centers (NYC, Boston, and due to culture, Los Angeles).

Cowboys think of themselves as self-sufficient, although they aren't really.

Where this theory came from, I think, was the idea that the last Yankee president was Kennedy, and his assassination was a Cowboy coup, from which the country has never recovered.

[Reality Not Tin Foil]

13. Those who actually consider secession possible are clowns.

Let them move to Crusty Land and start their own country there.

[Cobalt Violet]

16. Those that don't, deserve a all red system (possibly).

[PhuLoi]

14. The state of Washington, thank you very much. n/t