During the past few weeks, I have noticed while reading the comments sections under articles in major newspapers and magazines that a surprising amount of people -- probably hundreds -- have advocated the USA being broken into two as a way of resolving the interminable impasse between Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C.
That impasse has caused the U.S. government to be shut down, possibly jeopardizing the economic security of about 2 million federal employees and harming the entire nation's economy.
For the past few years, I have sometimes jokingly advocated throwing the "big stupid state that is last in everything good and first in everything bad" out of the USA, but perhaps the time for joking is over. In fact, there is considerable evidence that this is what a significant portion of Texas wants. The evidence includes:
* Texas Governor Rick Perry (pictured above) has on at least two occasions implied he is for secession, responding positively once to a Tea Party crowd that was chanting "secede, secede" and on another occasion saying "When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic. We were a stand-alone nation. And one of the deals was, we can leave any time we want. … So we're kind of thinking about that again." (professors quoted in the linked article say he is factually wrong).
* About 48 percent of Texas Republicans prefer that Texas secede rather than remain part of the USA, according to a 2010 poll by Rasmussen Reports.
* After the 2012 presidential election, more than 125,000 Texans signed a petition that called for Texas to secede. A group advocating Texan independence claims there is a lot more support than that.
My position on Texas has nothing to do with liberal vs. conservative, Blue vs. Red. In fact, my position on secession is way........................................way less radical than dozens of bloggers who think that the USA should be split into one Red and one Blue nation. I respect traditional conservatism's views, and sometimes share them, on law and order, foreign policy, government spending, and some social issues.
I want conservative states like Alaska, the Dakotas, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah and Wyoming to remain part of the USA. I believe the residents of these states have demonstrated that they care about children, their communities, education, facts and people. I don't necessarily agree with their leave-me-alone conservatism, but I respect it.
However, I honestly believe that Texas is an international embarrassment and does not meet America's minimal standards for civilization -- and this was true when Texas was a "Blue" state.
Texas' uncivilized behavior includes:
* It has executed more people than the next six states combined and has carried out roughly 37 percent of the USA's executions since 1976 although the state's high crime rate indicates that executions aren't preventing crime.
* A large percentage of the state's population is OK with executing innocent people, according to a Scripps Howard Texas poll (admit it, you thought I was making that up).
* It lets football coaches control high school academic policy (I have written many articles on this).
* It's common practice for parents to make children repeat a grade so they can dominate football games.
* For decades it has destroyed the curriculum of 49 other states by telling publishers that they won't buy school textbooks unless important historical and scientific facts are removed.
* It has wacky child-unfriendly zoning laws that make some of its cities look like Pottersville.
* It has contempt for people who are different.
* It has contempt for democracy ("immediately" after the Supreme Court ruled against a part of the Voting Rights Act, Texas moved to throw lots of people off the voting rolls).
* It disrespects people in need. My last blog was about the percentage of people without health insurance state by state. Of course, Texas was No. 1.
* It has a wacko gun culture, again despite its high crime rate (I literally found dozens of photos of Gov. Perry firing a gun; I found ZERO photos of the governors of Calif., Fla., Illinois, NJ, NY and Pa. firing a gun)
I'm not the only person who believes this government shutdown is a result of the Confederacy asserting its power because it has contempt for the federal government and people. Colbert King, a columnist for The Washington Post, wrote "(the new Confederates are) getting what they want: a federal government in the ditch, restrained from seeking to create a more humane society that extends justice for all."
I think the USA should always have 50 states, but parts of the Confederacy are just becoming too burdensome for the rest of us. Dozens of nations have moved forward on issues like health care and economic security for workers, while the USA continues to embarrass itself with backward policies.
Fortunately, Easterners, Northerners, Midwesterners, and Westerners have done a decent job of "fixing" parts of the Confederacy by moving there. I believe that eventually all the states on the Atlantic Coast will have decent standards of education, community life, and respect for others (with much lower levels of racism).
But few of us non-Confederates are moving to Mississippi, where slavery was legal until THIS YEAR. (the Mississippi legislature first voted against slavery in 1995; admit it, you thought I was making that up too.)
My proposal is to kick Texas out and admit Washington, D.C., as the nation's 50th state. Then, we ought to explore breaking up large states like California, Florida, and New York into two states because they deserve more than two senators. The admittance of three new states would be balanced by kicking out the other three Gulf Coast states that don't border the Atlantic Ocean -- Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
If Arkansas wants to leave with them, we can split Illinois into two or consider admitting Puerto Rico. If Oklahoma wants to leave, perhaps we can split Pennsylvania into two, etc.
The Confederacy has been a cancer on the United States of America from Day One and it has made us an ununited civilization. It's time to kick the unreformed part of the Confederacy out so we can be united again.
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