'Blue State Governors Organize Pacts For Pandemic, A Breakup Is Now On The Table': Op, Kos
Last edited Tue Apr 14, 2020, 04:32 PM - Edit history (1)
'Trump Declares Himself A Dictator. Blue State Governors Organize: A Breakup Is Now On The Table,' Kos for Daily Kos, April 14, 2020. EXCERPTS: (Read the full article at the Link below)
In a Monday overwhelming with Big News, these two events kinda got lost. Impeached president Donald Trump declared himself a dictator. Democratic governors (and one Republican) banded together on the West Coast and New England to actually do the things that the federal government, in its rank incompetence, has utterly abdicated. Both events are related. ...we are a nation founded on democratic ideals. And there is only so far conservatives can go before blue America loses faith in the legitimacy of those institutions. That faith is beyond frayed, hanging on by a thread..
California, which already calls itself a “nation-state,” has joined with Oregon and Washington to forge regional consensus on both the response to the pandemic, as well as how to best open their economies back up. (Hawaii shouldn’t be too far behind.) The same has happened in the East Coast, with New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts banding together. It is beyond remarkable that states have been forced to join for collective action because of the rank failure of Trump and the federal government.
...But it’s even more than that—it’s the seeds to something history-altering dramatic, a hint to what might happen if conservatives decide to overtly subvert democracy this November. California Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t use the term “nation-state” lightly. No other governor has had the need to even hint at stronger sovereignty over the federal government. The implications are clear. He even talked about “exporting” materials to other states—the kind of language a country uses. Now here is California, joined by its West Coast neighbors, saying “we’re going to ignore the useless and toxic federal government and do our own thing.” No other president has spurred this kind of rejection since the Civil Rights movement, and the federal government was on the right side of history. So was Abraham Lincoln the last time we had outright secession...
If Trump tries to steal the election, or otherwise postpone it, it’ll precipitate a breakup of the United States. The seeds are being planted.
...Now a breakup would likely to cleave the country in two, not nine, and would solve many of our current problems. Don’t like American overseas adventurism? All gone. The Rump Red States of America couldn’t afford to maintain a superpower-caliber military force. Heck, they’d lose most access to the Pacific, their navy stuck up in Alaska. Three of the four states most subsidizing the current U.S.—California, New York, and New Jersey—would be gone. Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming would have to figure out how to pay for their own shit, and good luck with that as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. The world’s media, banking, and tech centers would all be part of the Blue States of America. The Red States of America would get fracking, sunshine, and Austin. They’d be unhappy.
...But really, as much as I want to explore this idea, and I will, let’s be up front with the biggest drawback, and it’s such a big one that we’d pray and hope that it never comes to this—we can’t abandon our liberal friends in Red America. What 50-50 balance exists would evaporate overnight, leaving outposts of indigo on a blood-red map. From our Democratic cities in Texas, to the destitute Latino communities of the Rio Grande, to the Mississippi Delta Black community, to cities like Memphis, Atlanta, Miami, and St. Louis...Revolutions are bloody affairs, and even assuming this one was bloodless (which I can’t fathom Americans shooting at each other), the economic and cultural damage it would cause would be severe. The world has benefitted from knocking down border walls. The United Kingdom, even pre-coronavirus, was having a rough go with its Brexit. An American breakup would be like Brexit times 1,000—and maybe worse so if Republicans insisted on keeping King Trump in power...
MORE + COMMENTS, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/14/1937064/-Trump-declares-himself-a-dictator-Blue-state-governors-organize-A-breakup-is-now-on-the-table
- Joel Garreau wrote a book called 'The Nine Nations of North America' (1981). His argument was that the current borders were artificial & broken, & that his map was a better representation of the economic & cultural ties of the continent. This was his map: It’s no accident that Monday’s 2 multi-state compacts adhere to the rough elements of this map.
Also: 'Governors On East & West Coasts Form Pacts To Decide When To Reopen Economies,' April 13, 2020
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016252286
= new reply since forum marked as read
...The meme is in the form of a map of the U.S. and Canada which depicts a new hypothetical national border between the two countries. The "blue states" from the 2004 election (New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, the Pacific coast, and the Great Lakes states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) have been merged with Canada to form a single contiguous nation of more than 170 million inhabitants, which is labeled the "United States of Canada." The remaining "red states" are labeled as "Jesusland"...
- 'Jesusland' Map, 2004
stronger middle class with many unions largely in tact, safer banking, a current progressive leader in Trudeau, democracy.
It's a very stained time, we'll see how things could go during this challenging period.
- Democracy Index 2019 -
- Canada ranks No. 9, Full Democracy
- U.S. ranks No. 25, *dropped to Flawed Democracy from Full Democracy for the 1st time.
MORE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
Not really sure how the "Trump States" would even survive without the "Big Blue States" that pay their bills. 
