Wednesday, April 7, 2010

As Our Political Divide Grows, Is It Time to Part Company?


SYNDICATED COLUMNIST WALTER WILLIAMS HAS BEEN asking the same politically charged question for over ten years: "If one group of people prefers government control and its invitable management of people's lives and another group prefers less government, more liberty and a desire to be left alone, should they be required to fight, antagonize one another, risk bloodshed and loss of life in order to impose their preferences on the other or should they be able to peaceably part company and go their separate ways?"

Williams believes our nation is fast approaching a schism of irreconcilable differences not unlike a marriage crisis that has come to the boiling point over broken vows, as in constitutional vows. Rather than continuing the power struggles, endless talk or escalating opposing differences to the point of violence, Williams wonders if it's not time to consider a separation:

I believe we are nearing a point where there are enough irreconcilable differences between those Americans who want to control other Americans and those Americans who want to be left alone that separation is the only peaceable alternative. Just as in a marriage, where vows are broken, our human rights protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them. The Democrat-controlled Washington is simply an escalation of a process that has been in full stride for at least two decades. There is no evidence that Americans who are responsible for and support constitutional abrogation have any intention of mending their ways.

Williams certainly raises an interesting question. While peaceful separation sounds like a good idea to me, it begs the question of what such a separation would look like and how it would be constitutionally accomplished---peacefully? Would it be a separation or divorce? Would it involve peaceful secession, or is that an oxymoron? Would we divide up all the states into red and blue and have all the strict constitutionalists moving to red territories and all the nanny staters moving to blue?

It hardly sounds peaceful to me, since nanny state voters would need endless child/adult support from us tax paying citizens----most of whom would be high-tailing it to red strongholds holding onto whatever was left of their over-taxed assets.

Ah well, it's a great thought anyway. I like the way Williams is thinking. But I myself just don't see the words separation and peaceful together in our future anytime soon. It's a great thought though. And remember, all Scotch-Irish gun owners will all be going red--- peacefully or otherwise. I doubt that they'll go quietly into the night myself.

9 comments:

  1. Try it... see where it gets you. The blue states pay far more on federal taxes than they receive in federal funds, while the red states take more federal funding than they give in taxes. You might want to reconfigure your idea of who the 'nanny states' really are. The blue states are essentially supporting the red states.

    Reminds me of TX Gov Perry spouting off about secession, then crawling on his knees begging the fed gov't to help when a disaster strikes.... Texas has received more federal assistance from FEMA than any other state - FACT

    Besides, I though we settled this once before.

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  2. If a Red States vs Blue States divorce somehow began to play out, Blue States would react like spouses who do not have their own earning ability in future, and who thus demand a large settlement which will ease their burden. Which is not to denigrate the truth that such spouses do not have equal earning ability; yet is to denigrate Blue States for their anticipated pretense of victimization. Blue States know that, left to their own devices, they would face economic ruin. Blue States would have to be massively bought off by Red States: as a spouse buys their way out of a marriage, as tobacco companies bought their way out of future liabilities, as a blackmailed entity buys their way out of a blackmail threat being carried out. If we pretend such a pass were ever able to be reached: almost any price demanded would be worth it in order to be rid of the Blue State ponzi scheme styles of governance. Red States should pay the price which will avoid bloodshed, then count ourselves the luckiest and most free persons in the world.

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  3. There is no socialist state that prospers over time. Look at Cuba, Russia, and Chavezland. Poverty is inevitable with bigger government.

    Greg, I'm with you and the Copelands on this. I will say that bigger government-niks---after the first payments were made and us red state people breathed a sigh of relief----would never be satisfied with just one, as in you can't just eat one potato chip....

    Anyway, without conflict there are no heros....the hero and coward look identical until the battle begins. It's only in the face of true challenge that each one's true character is manifested. Until then there's a lot of bluffing and blowing off that will go on.

    As to whether we've already foought the battle of secession: not this one, it appears against a federal bureaucracy that would enslave the unwilling into submission.

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  4. I actually worry about this line of thought. The 10th amendment has been slandered into impotence, which I believe was the point of the slander, but if enforced, much of this discussion becomes moot.

    The blue states spount their elite status and the red states say, "leave us alone". In fact breaking up the union would allow both groups to sustain themselves, but would weaken both which plays directly into the hands of La Raza, etal, ie, the breaking off of large sections of the U.S..

    Alexander Hamilton said it best (for me), "If they break this union, they will break my heart." July 12, 1804.

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  5. Mine too, mRed. I hope it never, ever comes to that and God help us if it does...yet for the first time I think many of us entertain such thoughts as to how to bring this country back to the Constitution and what might happen if we can't do so within the Rule of Law.

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  6. I've had the same thoughts. In fact, before I thought much about politics I witnessed the Detroit riots. I did wonder at the time if I was seeing the beginning of the end of our way of life.

    My first year in DC I traveled out to G. Mason to interview Walter Williams. Going into the interview (I had just read his works) I was a poor choice for the job. Coming out of the interview I was a changed person. I was changed not because Dr Williams had wild hair and was much (much!) taller than I anticipated, but because, yes, he gave me answers and facts yet he wrote the interview by educating my soul. It caused me to ask questions I hadn't dared or hadn't thought of, but they flowed out and were answered quickly staccatto fashion and with a passion that shot through me.

    This is said because I have a deep respect for Dr Williams and as the saying goes, if he said it-you can take it to the bank.

    But.

    We arrived in our predicament the usual way. We let it happen. Now we must use constitutional means to make it undone. To better shapr our prologue we must reshape our past. Through work such as this, what your doing, we find our faults and the way to correct them. A relentless tide by the core of this country against the creeping destruction is the path

    A divided union will be but a shadow of itself and will make us vulnerable for perceived past flaws in the eyes of our enemies and those that are jealous of us.

    Truer today is Mr Franklin's statement, "We must hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

    A broken union is the death of a dream our ancestors died for. That is a tragedy I cannot stand by and watch, because it will not only be our death, but their victory.

    I really, really hate to lose.

    (written in haste)

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  7. William,

    You speak of taxes, but the real question is who will feed you and produce your needs?

    Clue, it won't be CA or NY because huge swathes of both would break away to the red states.

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  8. mRed, you speak truth eloquently here. Much to chew on. I often like to say I need supervision, and I can think of no better example than here where frankly I often think of what a divided country might look like....

    Thank you and Greg for offering your views. And also for the opinion of our resident socialist who must be out strumming his guitar and singing "Give Peace a Chance."

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  9. DIVORCE AGREEMENT

    THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT.... AND, I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT'S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I'LL VOTE FOR HIM.

    Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

    We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce.... I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

    Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

    Here is a model separation agreement:

    Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

    We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

    We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, parmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

    You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

    We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

    We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

    You can give everyone government controlled healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

    We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

    We'll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

    Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

    Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

    Sincerely,
    John J. Wall
    Law Student and an American

    P. S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you.

    P. S. S. And you won't have to press 1 for English when you call our country

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