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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 02:20 PM Apr 2013

Memo to the South: Go Ahead, Secede Already!


by Lee Siegel Apr 30, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

Let’s face it—on 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.


Let’s not be fooled by all the bipartisan rhetoric that has been streaming out of the GOP since Romney’s self-destruction. Hundreds of thousands of petitioners in a handful of red states still want to secede? Well, don’t 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 president’s 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 down—and 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 world—a 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
9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Orsino

(37,428 posts)
1. A call for secession is pretty stupid coming from wingnuts.
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 02:24 PM
Apr 2013

Coming from the left or center? Still pretty stupid?

 

southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
2. Hey not all of us that live in the south think redneck. Maybe the government should allow
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 02:24 PM
Apr 2013

people who want to buy into a single payer plan for insurance do so.

nolabear

(41,915 posts)
3. This is just idiotic shit-flinging rhetoric designed to factionalize.
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 02:28 PM
Apr 2013

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...

kentauros

(29,414 posts)
5. So?
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 02:41 PM
Apr 2013

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)
8. Guess I was thinking along the same lines as...
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 03:15 PM
Apr 2013

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

If you don't like "Big Government," then don't keep taking its money.


Mini79

(6 posts)
7. Oh lookee, here's the weekly South Bashing thread!
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 03:01 PM
Apr 2013

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)
9. Yes, corporate monsters are innocent
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 03:17 PM
Apr 2013

in the Suck of America...let us just play North vs. South and pretend the real reason is NOT nationwide.

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