We tried secession once before. Ending slavery in the South was a laudable goal. Keeping the union together? Maybe not. So, before things get completely out of hand as they did in the 1860’s, let’s be adult about this and agree to go our separate ways.
The lines of the six new countries are pretty obvious:
- Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland become New America.
- The Confederate States of Dixie comprise Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
- Then we have Centeram – Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.
- Heading westward we get to the states of Westeram: New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas.
- Pacifica simply contains California, Oregon, and Washington. Easy.
- Last, but not least, is, of course, Texas.
In the 2016 election season, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s slogan
was, “Stronger Together.” With all due respect, I don’t think that’s true. We
hate each other. Our language is full of derogatory terms for the "others" that aren't "us" – hicks,
city slickers, northern intellectual elites, carpet baggers, hoi polloi, and so
on… We are not one great nation standing together – and we never have
been. The US constitution reflects the lack of trust between the original 13 colonies. As America has grown, this has become ever worse –
distrust has become disgust.
Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign showed quite clearly
that racial, religious, ethnic, and regional hatred never went away – it was just considered inappropriate to show it in public. We are, in fact, weaker together;
frustrated, angered, and slowed down by fear and resentment of “other”
Americans. There are some fights that are worth fighting, and others that just
grind the participants down. This one is the latter.
Fortunately, we’ve already sorted ourselves into discrete
regions. Let’s just go ahead and recognize that on the map. Granted, there will
be some cost, inconvenience, and confusion involved. Maps will need to be reprinted,
along with signs, documents, and so on. Each new country will need a capital, currency,
a postal service, army, police, and a judicial system. Each will also
need to write its own constitution, or use the obsolete US constitution. Each
will need to decide what political system to adopt – a President and Congress,
a parliamentary system, or something else – and what portion of the laws of the
old USA they want to retain. Treaties will need to be renegotiated, and the UN will need to add more seats.
There will be some interesting questions to
consider, such as, is a person a citizen of the region/country where they were
born, or of the region/country where they resided at the time of the division. There will need to be agreements in place to allow people to remain
where they are, even if they are no longer citizens of that nation. Finally, the new countries will have to allow free trade and open borders for at least the first decade or so.
But these are all details. The USSR broke up into more than
a dozen countries. It was painful, no doubt, but they were weaker
together. So too with what was once Yugoslavia. While the death toll doesn’t begin
to compare to the civil war there, Americans are killing each other
over our differences. Let’s learn from those that came before us and break up
into the set of nations that will make us happy.
I look forward to being a proud citizen of the nation of Pacifica.
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Amusing read. Interesting perspective.
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