Can America Survive, Intact?

A correspondent asks this of Rod Dreher, asking if it would not be better for the country to divide into two or three smaller nations and each say goodbye forever to the others.

Dreher says the country can't survive, but it also can't split, because there are no easy lines of geographical division, so we're in for some violent, bad times ahead.

I never get this objection that there are no "easy" ways to divide the country. Of course there are. Hold a county-by-county referendum about which of the American successor states the people would like to affiliate with. Add in some rules about "islands" -- whether they'll be permitted, or if the new states will have to be contiguous, or if land will be conceded to another state to connect the "island" to the state it wants to belong to.

These things can be worked out. One of the weirdest things I hear people object to is the thought they'd have to move if the country divided.

Oh? You'll have to move? You mean, like you have to do when you're offered a better job than the one you have now? You mean you'll have to move like Americans used to do all the time -- sometimes even braving the Donner Pass?

If it's not important enough to move, then, like a job which is somewhat enticing but not so much better than your current one you decide not to move, then don't move. If you're like "Eh, I guess I'd rather live in the blue America but I guess it doesn't matter too much," then you don't really care either way, and you can just sit tight without kvetching about all the moving other people will have to do.

My belief on this is that if it is worth it to move to another state for a $10-15,000 salary increase, then it's worth it to have your own political destiny placed more securely in your own hands. If you're wigged out by the idea that you'll have to house-hunt and pack up a U-haul, well, what can I say -- stay in Blue America, son. Seems about your speed.

Another bizarre objection I've heard -- seriously -- is that no one will agree to this because people like "Blue America's" TV shows too much.

Um, we see tv shows from the BBC and even Canada. Do you really think that Hollywood won't allow its tv shows and movies to be broadcast in the Read American States? They put their stuff anywhere on the globe where there's a demand.

And, again, if the chance that your favorite Premium Cable TV Show won't be available on HBO Red, then what can I say? Stay in Blue America -- obviously, TV is most important to you, and you've found your true home.

Same thing with trade. The US and England almost immediately began trading with each other after two major wars. I think Blue America will have need of Red America's food, and I guess Red America will need Blue America's... FaceBook and iPhones, I guess.

So we'll -- get this -- just trade in services and goods, as we do now.

Another objection people have is that a Red America, without the (ahem) moderating influence of the intolerant, totalitarian fascist Blue America SJWs, would become too "extreme" and they wouldn't like to live under such a regime.

1, fine, stay in the Blue America, and 2, from what I've seen of the GOP, they are pretty damn liberal and I imagine many of their supporters are actually pretty liberal. So yeah, I expect a more conservative Red America, but not an extreme one.

As I've said before: I want out. I want done. I do not wish to live among these people any longer, and from their daily purges and witch-hunts, it's pretty clear to me they feel the same.

Unless they can coerce me into bending the knee-- which will not happen.

The idea that we can keep the country together just by forcing the Deplorables to be re-educated... well, that way lies tremendous bloodshed.

I don't expect this country to survive the increasingly violent divisions, and I believe a good divorce is much better than bitter, violent marriage.

I think it's time to start proposing this seriously.

posted by Ace at 06:28 PM

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