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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMemo to the South: Go Ahead, Secede Already!
by Lee Siegel Apr 30, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Lets face iton nearly every important issue, from gun control to immigration to gay marriage, red states are holding America back. Lee Siegel on why the South should get the hell out of the union.
Lets not be fooled by all the bipartisan rhetoric that has been streaming out of the GOP since Romneys self-destruction. Hundreds of thousands of petitioners in a handful of red states still want to secede? Well, dont let the door hit you on the way out.
A solid block of Southern states continues to refuse to expand Medicaid, thus squashing one of the linchpins of the presidents health-care reform. The South will likely be the last and most stubborn battleground in the fight for gay marriage. Gun control? The more the two sides seem to get cozier with each other, the faster gun-control legislation gets watered downand more and more red states are passing laws making it legal to carry a concealed weapon. As for immigration, the red states seem to be relaxing their anti-immigrant fervor, but nothing approaching new legislation is even on the horizon.
The sad truth is that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can only be achieved at this point if the nation is split in half. Far from being fanciful or fanatical, the proponents of secession have a stronger grasp of political reality than just about anyone else. In fact, there are serious reasons why the North itself should take the lead in a secessionist movement.
Just think what America would look like without its mostly Southern states. (We could retain America: they could call themselves Smith & Wesson or Coca-Cola or something like that.) Universal health care. No guns. Strong unions. A humane minimum wage. A humane immigration policy. High revenues from a fair tax structure. A massive public-works program. Legal gay marriage. A ban on carbon emissions. Electric cars. Stronger workplace protections. Extended family leave from work in case of pregnancy or illness. Longer unemployment benefits. In short, a society on a par with most of the rest of the industrialized worlda place whose politics have finally caught up with its social and economic realities.
-snip-
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/30/memo-to-the-south-go-ahead-secede-already.html
Orsino
(37,428 posts)Coming from the left or center? Still pretty stupid?
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)people who want to buy into a single payer plan for insurance do so.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)I hate the dumbing down of conversations that might actually cause some productive change by moronic screeds like this. As if we could just chop off half the country clean and easy. As if there were no worthwhile and extraordinary people and things in and coming out of the South.
Pisses me off...
KansDem
(28,498 posts)Most Red States Take More Money From Washington Than They Put In
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/states-federal-taxes-spending-charts-maps
Unless it's changed recently, we are all still in the United States of America. Concerning yourself with which states "take" more than others is hardly the kind of thinking that will keep us united.
Then again, why not look at it as those are the states that the Federal government invests in more than the rest of the country?
KansDem
(28,498 posts)"Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
If you don't like "Big Government," then don't keep taking its money.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)Must be something in the air.
Mini79
(6 posts)yuck yuck yuck, those stupid nasty ignorant backwards southerns.... blah blah blah blah blah. I can recite these threads in my sleep!
Rex
(65,616 posts)in the Suck of America...let us just play North vs. South and pretend the real reason is NOT nationwide.