Category Archives: Secession
What If Republican and Democrat States Were Separate Countries? 1
What Will Happen If USA Will Split Up ? 1
What-if: The break-up of the United States of America Reply
What was once laughable in 2008 when Barack Obama was about to become President, is now uncomfortable to think about here in 2017 with Donald Trump as POTUS. You do not need to stick to this professor’s template, you can crack open a cold one with the boys the United States of America however you like. Rural vs Urban, East vs West, or North vs South (it’s been done, so you have your work cut out for you). You could even make the case for the Megaregions of the US becoming dominant over their surroundings and competitive with one another leading to a split.
How to split the USA into two countries: Red and Blue Reply
By Frank Jacobs
Big Think
- America’s two political tribes have consolidated into ‘red’ and ‘blue’ nations, with seemingly irreconcilable differences.
- Perhaps the best way to stop the infighting is to go for a divorce and give the two nations a country each
- Based on the UN’s partition plan for Israel/Palestine, this proposal provides territorial contiguity and sea access to both ‘red’ and ‘blue’ America
If you could split up USA into 5-8 different regions or countries, which states would be part of X country and what systems would you implement? Reply
By Sebbie Gost
Quora
Well, first of all, I would not divide America to equal economies (because honestly, half of America will still make less than the top 5 states combined), I would divide it based on what has been dividing nations from the beginning of time: culture. And with a common culture, you can get common economies.
The United States, peacefully separated into around 10 states. (sorry for not keeping the limit of 8) Here are the new American nations:
We should chop America up into 7 different countries. Seriously. Reply
By Bonnie Kristian
The Week
Look, we had a good run.
Well, maybe “good” isn’t quite the right word … but certainly it’s been interesting. These United States were a grand experiment. But the experiment has gotten out of hand. It’s time to peacefully dissolve the union.
I know, I know. This is not what good Americans are supposed to suggest. “Four score and seven years ago” and all that. But to borrow a lesser-known phrase from that brief address, it seems to me we have tested whether this nation “can long endure,” and increasingly it is clear it cannot. It’s just not working. Do you really disagree? Do you like the way things are?
Divided We Stand: The country is hopelessly split. So why not make it official and break up? Reply
By Sascha Issenberg
Intelligencer
The year is 2019. California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, recently elected on a platform that included support for the creation of a single-payer health-care system, now must figure out how to enact it. A prior nonpartisan analysis priced it at $400 billion per year — twice the state’s current budget. There appears to be no way to finance such a plan without staggering new taxes, making California a magnet for those with chronic illnesses just as its tax rates send younger, healthier Californians house-hunting in Nevada and big tech employers consider leaving the state.
The coronavirus pandemic has made one thing perfectly clear: It’s time to split the country Reply
By Steve Lopez
Los Angeles Times
On Monday night, I was watching TV coverage of the pandemic, first on MSNBC then on Fox News, and a thought occurred.
We are so helplessly, irrevocably divided, it’s time to quit talking about coming together as one and do the only sensible thing.
Roughly 30 years ago, the USSR came to grips with its irreconcilable regional differences and broke apart, splitting into 15 independent republics.
Why can’t we do that here?
Political Confessional: The Man Who Thinks The U.S. Is Better Off As A Bunch Of Separate Countries 1
By Clare Malone
Five Thirty-Eight
This week we talked to Chris, a 35-year-old white man from rural Pennsylvania. Chris wrote in that he thought, “the U.S. should have a velvet divorce,” a reference to the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia — now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic — in 1993. Chris went on: “I live in heavy Trump country but know he’s an idiot, but even Trump haters wouldn’t agree to break up the U.S. And certain areas (the South, the Midwest) would be horrible for minorities and destroy the environment. But it’s obvious the U.S. has run its course.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Clare Malone: Maybe you can start out by telling me how you came to think this?
CHAZ Memorial and Support Video 6
A Maoist memorializes CHAZ.
In some ways, I generally considered having supported CHAZ to be something of a litmus test that separates authentic anti-systemists from pro-systemists. Notice that CHAZ was suppressed by the city government of Seattle, arguably the furthest left of any local government in the US, with an actual member of a Trotyskyite party on their city council. Friends from Seattle have told me that progressivism is the Seattlers’ religion.
And the suppression of CHAZ was done with the support of professional-managerial class “woke” liberals, “anti-big government” conservatives, bourgie libertarians, middle-class minorities, etc. Meanwhile, support for CHAZ came from Maoists like Jason Unruhe, Alt-Right fascists like Richard Spencer, anarchists, radical an-caps like Walter Block, Antifa, at least some “boogaloo” and/or sovereign citizen types, a range of lumpenproletarian and/or authentically countercultural types, etc.
Sorry, but if you didn’t support the modern American version of the Paris Commune, then you’re not even in the game.
American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup Reply
Americans have never been more divided, and we’re ripe for a breakup. The bitter partisan animosities, the legislative gridlock, the growing acceptance of violence in the name of political virtue—it all invites us to think that we’d be happier were we two different countries. In all the ways that matter, save for the naked force of law, we are already two nations.
There’s another reason why secession beckons, says F.H. Buckley: we’re too big. In population and area, the United States is one of the biggest countries in the world, and American Secession provides data showing that smaller countries are happier and less corrupt. They’re less inclined to throw their weight around militarily, and they’re freer too. There are advantages to bigness, certainly, but the costs exceed the benefits. On many counts, bigness is badness.
The Cop-Free Zone: Reflections from Experiments in Autonomy around the US Reply
Crimethinc
The cop-free zone is not the particular block or traffic circle or park. It is the shared commitment to defending a space and eliminating the dynamics of policing and white supremacy. In the following collection, we explore some people’s experiences attempting to create police-free autonomous zones in different parts of the United States.
Yesterday, Seattle police evicted the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), also known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), ending an experiment in autonomy that had extended over three weeks of inspiring creativity and heartbreaking tragedies. Yet the legend of this space has spread around the world, inspiring solidarity actions as far away as Tokyo and attempts to emulate it from Portland to New York City and Washington, DC. For an overview of the story of the occupation in Seattle, you could start here.
Father Of Black Teen Killed In CHOP: It’s Time To Bring In The National Guard 1
Because there is never any violent crime and no one ever gets killed in territory controlled by the state. It’s interesting how articles like this advance the premise that an autonomous zone should somehow be a paradisical oasis overnight.
By Emily Zanotti
The Daily Wire
As Covid-19 cases took off in New York in March, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo imposed a lockdown of nonessential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus, calling it “the most drastic action we can take.”
Now researchers say more targeted approaches — in New York and elsewhere — might have protected public health with less economic pain.
In the Autonomous Zones Reply
By
New York Times
At first they called it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
In early June, protesters aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement took over six city blocks of a gentrified Seattle neighborhood. There, activists screened films, served spaghetti, painted murals, held vigils and planted a community garden.
Their demands, according to Dae Shik Kim Jr., 28, an organizer who lives in the neighborhood, are: Defund the Seattle Police Department by 50 percent, fund more social services in the city, and drop charges against all protesters.
“We firmly believe that the type of leverage that we have during this moment would not be made possible if it wasn’t for the on-the-ground protesters who are there every night, putting that type of visible, strategic pressure on the city,” Mr. Kim said.
Amazing ranches for sale to give you a slice of the good life Reply
The crowdfunded purchase of places like this could make for interesting intentional communities and startup societies.
By Abi Harman
Love Money
Surrounded by stunning rural landscapes, these impressive ranches for sale around the world offer an idyllic slice of the good life. From acres of remote rolling land and spectacular luxury homes to state-of-the-art equestrian and cattle facilities, you’ll be a bona fide cowgirl in no time. Saddle up and let’s take a look around.
China’s worries about separatism run deep Reply
Peter Zeihan has argued that China may eventually fracture due to its internal instability and fragmentation. If that were to happen, I would consider it to be a major victory for “pan-secessionism” as a revolutionary tactic, as was the overthrow of the USSR and its Eastern European satellites. In addition, the US empire would no longer be able to use the PRC as a whipping boy/bogeyman. As an anarchist, I am for the dissolution of large states everwhere: America, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria…they all need to go. A world of microstates is not pure anarchy, but it is far more tolerable and manageable.
Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN
In a speech on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen — seen by many as modern China’s founding father — President Xi Jinping pledged to “resolutely oppose” any attempt to divide the country.
CHAZ and the Blue Tribe Reply
Todd Lewis is joined by Keith Preston, Right Rumination and Swithun Dobson to discuss the current issue of the Blue Tribe.
Nothing Succeeds Like Secession: Suggested Demands for CHOP From a Friendly Panarchist Ally Reply
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
Exile in Happy Valley
I have always been fascinated by secessionist movements. It goes back to my childhood love of maps, flags and geography. I use to spend hours poring over atlases and fixating on the strange autonomous zones that only existed inside fluid borders drawn in dotted lines. Strange places no American ever spoke of, with exotic names like Transnistria, Gaza, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Western Sahara. I would eventually grow into a commie, Third World, war nerd who fastidiously followed and supported these esoteric independence movements from afar.
Glenn Loury: ‘We’re Being Swept Along by Hysteria’ About Racism in America Reply
A somewhat interesting interview with a leading black conservative.
I would be inclined to argue that, at present, substantial sectors of the capitalist class (including some major capitalist entities) along with their allies in the new clerisy/new class that dominates the “ideas industries” are fueling anti-racism hysteria in order to deflect attention away from the class-based nature of the insurrection. They do this because a race war is less antithetical to their interests than a class war. However, contra the Marxists and left-anarchists, it doesn’t stop at class either. Even a class war is more co-optable than a direct war against the state itself.
All of this follows an easily identifiable pattern in US history.
A Libertarian Defense of CHAZ Reply
By Stratton J. Davis
Ever since the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) was created in Seattle, it has been a prominent subject of discussion for many. The question usually being discussed is whether we should support it or not. While those on the left seem to be in support of CHAZ (mostly), among the libertarian right there seems to be ill feelings.
While some writers such as Walter Block have offered their philosophical defense for it, many have found reasons to detest CHAZ. These reasons vary from CHAZ simply being a leftist concoction to how the inner workings of CHAZ do not reflect “true” libertarian values. Sure, some of their inner workings include a warlord who is bent on power and achieves it through force, as well as absurd rules that plunder from one group for the benefit of another (kind of like the government that they claim to hate so much does – ironic).
As It Should Be… 1
I first started developing the ideas that I would later come to call “pan-secessionism in the mid-1990s after notice the emergence of the “right-wing” antigovernment movement associated with the militias, sovereign citizens, tax protestors, and other similar groups. Of course, much of the left and certainly liberal opinion dismissed these as racist reworkings of the KKK. But what I found in my interaction with these people is that most of them were motivated by gun rights, economics, and general antigovernmentism, with a minority being motivated by religion, and an even smaller minority being motivated by race.
Some of the more radical ones were interested in forming alliances with black nationalists, American Indian tribes, or foreign revolutionaries like the Zapatistas, Shining Path, or Middle Eastern groups. The Rodney King riots, as well as the killings at Waco and Ruby Ridge, had happened a short time earlier, and the “Battle of Seattle” happened a few years later. I started to realize the potential for a tripartite alliance between the urban lumpenproletariat (mostly minority department store looters), rural lumpenproletariat (mostly white gun nuts), and what I called the suburban lumpenproletariat (middle-class kids who adopt a lumpen lifestyle by choice). Then, as now, that seems to be a pretty good plan. Here it is.
Previously, I was a Noam Chomsky-like left-anarchist, heavily influenced by the Spanish Revolution, who favored overthrowing the state through the use of anarcho-syndicalist unions, worker militias, guerrilla armies. I had never given much consideration to the idea of territorial or other forms of secessionism, although I knew (mostly from Proudhon) that secession was a historic anarchist principle, along with things like dual power (which I largely learned from Murray Bookchin). I was already an “anarchist without adjectives” as well (influenced by Voltairine de Cleyre and Errico Malatesta).
I never abandoned any of that as much as I expanded it to include the concepts of pan-anarchism and pan-secessionism as an umbrella framework for attacking the state, recognizing that it would be a means of bringing sectors of the far-right and radical-center as well as leftists and minorities into a wider anti-state front. At the time, a lot of these militia/sovereign people were pushing the idea of “county supremacy,” “mini-republics,” or micronations that struck me as basically a right-wing version of Murray Bookchin’s “libertarian municipalist” idea or a gun-toting version of Gandhi’s satyagraha philosophy. Then, as now, this seems to be a fairly on-target idea as well.
What puts me at odds with the mainstream anarchist movement is that most of them are Blue Tribe fundamentalists first and anarchists second, which means that hating on social conservatives is more important to them than overthrowing the ruling class. Regrettably, the Blue Tribe Khomeinists have replaced the Marxist-Leninists as the most immediately visible enemy of anarchism on the far-left, and many anarchists have fallen for it just as they were taken in by Marxism in the past.
