Separatism is back on the agenda, boys!
Remember when this happened? "Four score" and so on.
Well, add an apocalyptic pandemic to the passage of the civil rights act, 50 years of the Republican party practicingthe Southern strategy racism, and a sorting of the population along ideological, urban/rural, racial, and educational lines, and back we are.
Frankly, the (former) separatism scholar in me made me wonder about the plausibility of a territorial split in the U.S. even before Covid-19. After all, #calexit has been a thing for a while now. But this whole thing has just pushed it over the edge.
I know what you're thinking: totally crazy idea, never gonna happen, territorial integrity, US constitution is sacrosanct, blah blah blah. But the deep polarization of the US population which just so happens to map on to regional lines is the exact type of thing which has been known to result in secessionism elsewhere.
And no, the coasts being richer than flyover states is not, by itself, going to keep them in the union. Donald Horowitz's famous book on ethnic conflict describes the motivations of so-called "advanced groups" in so-called "advanced regions," such as the Basques and Catalans, to secede. It boils down to: why should we finance their indolence? In the U.S. case, this is exacerbated by the rank ingratitude of red states, which laughably decry "big government" while taking checks from New Yorkers and Californians. To that, you can add a whole lot of racial politics and ideological antipathy, ranging from healthcare to Supreme Court justices to abortion to gun control to climate change to ethnic food (seriously, ethnic food) to what's-the-point-of-universities?
Being in a bad marriage is bad. Why not separate? There are, broadly speaking, two options. One is you end up with three countries (east coast, west coast, and everything in the middle). The other is you do two countries. For the purposes of territorial coherence (Bantustans are only for the Palestinians), this involves either the forceful subjugation of red states such as Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota (not a problem since populations are so low) and the purple state of Wisconsin (bit more challenging but gotta break some eggs to make an omelette) OR land swaps with Canada (knowing Canadians, they will be good with whatever if you just ask nicely).
Tell me this doesn't make more sense than the insanity of contemporary America. Go on, I'm waiting.
As I see it, there are three potential issues:
1. Nukes, in the sense of wtf happens to them? Yes the nukes will be complicated, but if a collapsing Soviet Union could figure that out, I'm surethe U.S. Coast Am and Real Am can do so too.
2. Black people in Real Am. No easy fix here, they're screwed. Hey black people, are you guys up for a second Great Migration?
3. Border war. We'll just have to cross our fingers on this one. Hopefully it's not as bad as the last time. Though I am super curious what the militarization of the Midwest looks like. You can fit aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie right?
Well, add an apocalyptic pandemic to the passage of the civil rights act, 50 years of the Republican party practicing
Frankly, the (former) separatism scholar in me made me wonder about the plausibility of a territorial split in the U.S. even before Covid-19. After all, #calexit has been a thing for a while now. But this whole thing has just pushed it over the edge.
I and other US experts have predicted for a long time that this artificial nation with multiple ethnic and religious groups will not survive a serious crisis without fragmenting into warring statelets. The question now is will anyone be able to unite the opposition? https://t.co/JceKxneoGo— Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) April 14, 2020
I know what you're thinking: totally crazy idea, never gonna happen, territorial integrity, US constitution is sacrosanct, blah blah blah. But the deep polarization of the US population which just so happens to map on to regional lines is the exact type of thing which has been known to result in secessionism elsewhere.
And no, the coasts being richer than flyover states is not, by itself, going to keep them in the union. Donald Horowitz's famous book on ethnic conflict describes the motivations of so-called "advanced groups" in so-called "advanced regions," such as the Basques and Catalans, to secede. It boils down to: why should we finance their indolence? In the U.S. case, this is exacerbated by the rank ingratitude of red states, which laughably decry "big government" while taking checks from New Yorkers and Californians. To that, you can add a whole lot of racial politics and ideological antipathy, ranging from healthcare to Supreme Court justices to abortion to gun control to climate change to ethnic food (seriously, ethnic food) to what's-the-point-of-universities?
Being in a bad marriage is bad. Why not separate? There are, broadly speaking, two options. One is you end up with three countries (east coast, west coast, and everything in the middle). The other is you do two countries. For the purposes of territorial coherence (Bantustans are only for the Palestinians), this involves either the forceful subjugation of red states such as Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota (not a problem since populations are so low) and the purple state of Wisconsin (bit more challenging but gotta break some eggs to make an omelette) OR land swaps with Canada (knowing Canadians, they will be good with whatever if you just ask nicely).
Tell me this doesn't make more sense than the insanity of contemporary America. Go on, I'm waiting.
As I see it, there are three potential issues:
1. Nukes, in the sense of wtf happens to them? Yes the nukes will be complicated, but if a collapsing Soviet Union could figure that out, I'm sure
2. Black people in Real Am. No easy fix here, they're screwed. Hey black people, are you guys up for a second Great Migration?
3. Border war. We'll just have to cross our fingers on this one. Hopefully it's not as bad as the last time. Though I am super curious what the militarization of the Midwest looks like. You can fit aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie right?
Comments
Post a Comment