Or at least try to secede?
It’s pretty clear that there are many badly-broken things in our country. Our federal government is run by nuts, kleptomaniacs, and sadists. Our health care and health care reimbursement systems are a bizarre joke. We’re the only industrialized country to not have paid leave for sickness, child birth, and vacation. Our wealthy pay taxes at an astonishingly low rate, and openly purchase our legislators and our laws.
And so forth.
And there is no body, on whole, that speaks for the 99%. There are a few in power who look to do the right thing, but both major political parties are far to the right of the average American on many issues – war, taxes, health care, Social Security, etc. They serve the 1%, not us, and many have made personal fortunes in doing so.
We are a stupid and savage nation.
At what point does make sense to throw in the towel, and let the Scheisskopfs engage in their lunatic games without sucking us into the bonfire? Perhaps sane states like Massachusetts can join up with Canada or others to finally move beyond the great sickness that’s taken hold, because I don’t see how this mess gets fixed in any reasonable amount of time, and without a terrible price.
I really think everybody should take a few days off from politics. I’ll start.
Never.
The Constitution does not provide for it, though they do provide for the division of states and the admission of new ones. We also fought a Civil War over this. What sane states need to do is strike out their own paths within the federal system to make sure their values are at least reflected at home.
That’s a more-analagous situation.
I think Thomas Jefferson had pretty clear notions on what the people should do if their government was failing them, regardless of whatever was written on a piece of paper.
Succession would be a bad idea at this point because if even a few blue states left, it would doom the rest to Crazy Republican Land, where Steve Bannon could draw up any constitution/rules/laws he wanted… but *if* the GOP is able to do that anyway, and put in laws that prevent any kind of real political competition in our lifetimes, *then* it’s time to start considering Manny’s suggestion.
However, it’s a fun thought. I can’t really understand why I need a passport to go to Toronto, while these folks from Texas and Alabama can travel freely to Washington and tell us how to run our beloved commonwealth. Seems the border is misplaced.
If Lincoln had said “ban slavery, and we’ll let you leave”, I’da been fine with that.
On the other hand, facts are:
-More people voted for Hillary than Donald
-More people voted for Democratic candidates for senate (cumulatively) than Republican candidates over the past three cycles.
-Republicans won 52% of the House vote in 2016 and control 55 of the seats.
The issue isn’t the rest of the country; the issue is whether the US is truly a democracy.
even though the dems failed to pick up seats we were expected to pick up. (I think Dems actually did gain a seat or two, we just didn’t win the Senate — something a lot of people thought we’d do.)
When we look at the votes in the Senate going through the past 3 cycles, the margins of people voting for democrats over republicans is overwhelming. Not even close.
Duckworth in Illinois and Hassan in New Hampshire
After the #Calexit headlines from a month or so ago, there were some pretty strong rumors that Steve Bannon and others in the WH privately welcomed it… because if California left the country, the Steve Bannon & Co. could do just about anything they wanted — and would have the cover of huge instability with which to pass crazy laws or seize power.
And if we operate from the assumption that the Russian dossier is very, very true (and given Flynn’s situation and the the mounting bodies in Russia’s intelligence community/diplomatic core that seem connected to it, it’s a fair bet much of it is), then one would suspect Trump could be surprisingly cool with states leaving the country.
And, disconcertingly, the person putting #Calexit on the ballot in California not only lives in Russia for part of the year, but has some terrifying connections to an “Anti Globalist” group in Russia that at the very least appears to have Kremlin financial backing.
If anything, the group supporting #Calexit is the biggest and strongest reason to be against Calexit.
I agree with Ryelower and Christopher and spell out another factor: once even one state left, the balanceof those left would be so thrown off, that there would be a panic to leave. And do we really want to abandon our fellow progressive citizens in a state like, say, New Mexico to the wolves?
if the GOP is able to use its power to enshrine its majority into permanence — through a drastic increase on the attacks on people’s right to vote, or screwing around with the electoral system, etc. — then we really may not have any choice.
But we’re not there yet, and should fight with every fiber of our being to stop from ever getting to that point.
But we should make it clear to the GOP that if they continue to try to use their power in office to prevent other parties from ever having any kind of a fair shot at winning, leftwing states will have no other choice than to embrace the Thomas Jefferson option.