The Republic is beset by many distractions: Dick Cheney running madly in the midair of potential war crimes prosecution, a la Wile E Coyote; cowardly Democratic Senators bowing to tales of Osama's boys living on welfare in Oklahoma City, watching for those "green shoots" that mean we can go back to business as usual.
I don't put the Texas secession dustup in that category. We should take it seriously. We should even look on it favorably.
Note that President Obama doesn't seem to dwell on Lincoln any longer — the Lincoln who said that if he failed, he would be the last president of the United States. Obama's judicious mind has persuaded him that the crisis that seemed to engulf the nation last fall was overstated. He has been enveloped in the protective visions of his moneymen, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and, behind them, Bob Rubin. The Obama administration will be Clinton 2.0, without Bill's missteps and with the magnificent oratory — as was done yesterday in the glow of the Constitution — that makes one proud to be an American.
Maybe it will work, for awhile. Perhaps the capital markets can be stabilized and "growth" will resume, albeit at a slow place. Much of the "improvement" will be because of the massive federal stimulus. Things such as rebuilding a real productive economy, getting out of debt, making major progress on global warming and energy, reducing imperial overstretch, and addressing the eroding middle class…The real things, the tough things. They can be kicked down the curb a bit longer. None of the underlying factors behind this recession are healed or gone — but they may not have hit with the sustained power to force Washington, Wall Street and those "consumers" who once were citizens to make fundamental changes.
Which brings me back to Texas. When Gov. Rick Perry seemed to support secession from the union it was big news. He pulled back, but polls indicate a substantial minority in many red states would like to leave. It's worth serious consideration.
People have been predicting the breakup of the United States for a long time. A book back in the 1980s did so, and lately a Russian academic echoed the theme, saying Alaska would return to Mother Russia (enjoy Comrade "Legs" Palin). James Howard Kunstler and Dmitry Orlov have made more reasoned arguments about the stresses that would lead to disunion.
I say let the erring sisters go in peace. We'd have to work out the finances and infrastructure issues. Most of the red states are net takers from the nation's taxpayers, and they would be unwilling — and unable, given most of their limited, low-wage economies — to repay Washington. But the benefits of federal debt forgiveness would be substantial. They would have to repay their shares to China and other overseas creditors. No problem with Texas oil money — harder for Mississippi and Arizona. We'd need to take much of the military — but surely not all. Many soldiers might resign to, as Robert E. Lee said of Virginia, serve their "nation" i.e., state.
Abraham Lincoln was, after all, a socialist, at least by the reasoning of today's conservatives. The transcontinental railroads, Homestead Act, etc. were "socialistic." Calling up troops to stop the first secession was certainly a violation of "states' rights." Worst of all, he eventually took away without compensation what a majority of Americans at the time considered "property."
The giant United States may well be too big and too complex to govern. It is certainly too divided to govern, where a hardened Bolsheviki cadre of GOP Senators can make the majority run for the tall grass.
There's no need to fight, except perhaps over North Dakota — if it tried to secede and keep its missiles. Virginia would probably stay in the union this time, so the vast naval base at Norfolk would be ours. Likewise with the Carolinas. I say sell Florida back to Spain.
So perhaps we'd end up with a new Texas Republic. Then a new Confederacy of the deep South, Kentucky, Tennessee and some plains states (Okies would be torn between wanting to stay in the U.S. just to enact harsh border measures against the Texans, or join the new CSA, where the values of their senator, Tom Coburn, could be best served). Arizona would be in a bit of a bind, wanting to join the new Confederacy but being landlocked (New Mexico ain't going). So maybe the new CSA is non-contiguous with passage rights through the U.S., for a fee of course. And vigorous searches to stop the flow of a major CSA product: meth.
The remaining United States would have most of the quality economy, the best universities, the greatest wealth, and much more cohesion to address the real challenges ahead. Yet shorn of many of its most ardent military recruits, Southern boys, it would be forced to pull back on unsustainable worldwide commitments. As for the CSA, it could enact all the favored policies of the right: endless tax cuts, privatization, theocracy, torture, banning abortion, persecuting gays and "Mexicans." And, as Dr. Phil would say, see how that works out for you.
You think I'm kidding. I'm not.
The tighter this country’s social and economic integration, the greater the anxiety. Some of this stuff is just the sparks from inevitable friction and some of it is manipulated fear where some powerful interests control the mob with deflected outrage. Secession will never happen because it would economically devastate the breakaway states, and the puppetmasters know it.
Obama and his economic team hope that the trauma-one accident victim can be ambulatory in weeks, not years. It’s not his fault (meaning Obama’s) but it is their fault (meaning Summers, Geithner, Rubin, et al) that the financialization of the American economy resulted in this end game. There is no real recovery here, just ongoing critical care. At some point, when it becomes obvious that the good ‘ol days aren’t coming back, we can possibly have a conversation about a future we might want to construct.
Unfortunately, that conversation will likely follow the script of the right (maybe Liz Cheney can lead the discussion). As much as we might like to think that the ruined economy proves a liberal wisdom tradition, it’s more likely that the oversimplifiers on the right will seize control of the narrative.
Nobody can predict what’s going to happen to this country notwithstanding Kunstler and Orlov’s too-confident prognoses. I tend to think they’re right in their despair but probably wrong in their particulars. We will muddle along, our ongoing national decline tempered somewhat by even worse news outside our borders.
MIT released a report this week https://globalchange.mit.edu/index.html that suggests climate change is worse than previously predicted. A 5c temperature change by the end of the century pushes our climate closer to something we haven’t seen in millions of years. Even if we were galvanized to act by this grim report, it’s probably too late to avert the worst of it.
One of the few comforting thoughts for the wounded soul is that at least life itself will survive one’s own brief journey. Unfortunately, it might not include humans. We had a good run but we couldn’t escape our own internal jungle.
I am a cowardly right-wing troll who couldn’t muster any comment or argument other than name calling. So now I am blocked and must knuckle-drag back to my tract house and watch Fox “News.”
And it’s ironic that whiny latte liberals bitch and moan about stereotypes, only to use them on someone they disagree with. Let’s run down Taltard’s last edited post regarding right-wingers:
– knuckle dragging
– live in a tract house
– watch Fox News
And it’s real cute that you put “news” in quotation marks. Maybe the same should be for “original content” in the New York Times.
Best decision Gannett ever made was to fire you and demote Richard Ruelas. If they could get rid of that hag Linda Valdez, the Republic might be a halfway respectable paper by now.
This whole article is driven by a visceral contempt for blue collar white culture in the USA. Basically, he took the lowest denominator for white trash and amplified it to account for the secession of a bunch of southern states.
But his reasoning is sound – it mirrors the same reasoning behind the last secession of southern states, but I do not think the economic disparity Talton sees is going to be realized -the south today is far more dynamic than in the 19th century – it was the part of the country that saw most of the growth between 1960-2000.
That’s where the “sprawl” is – where millions live, work, go to school, retire, and die.
A secessionist movement is understandable, and may even come to fruition, but it won’t be for the purpose of forming an excuslive enclave of the privileged.
Cry My Beloved Country.
Geographic bigotry lives here.