Getting out of the weeds long enough to look at the broader picture, what we're seeing is the dynamics that triggered the Civil War. Reading the Southern newspaper/magazine/transcripts of speeches literature of the late Antebellum, three issues drove secession: 1) Black people (e.g., the existential need for slaves and more of them); 2) uppity women (suffragettes; the 'free love' movement), and 3) socialism. The same issues of today: Blacks (who vote Democratic); uppity women (feminists); and socialism.
My solution is very simple: Secession. Only this time the 'rational' states leave. And I don't mean so much entire states, but solidly red and blue states, augmented with a patchwork quilt of red and blue counties within states. Which is really a more historically accurate way to analyze the social/political geography of the Civil War.
During the Civil War, the geography of secession was dictated by the transportation grid of the plantation class, their access to the ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the mouths of the rivers that hosted them. This is where the bulk of the population lived, especially the slaves. The further removed from this grid, the higher level of support for remaining in the Union, along with low levels of slave ownership and fewer, if any, plantations.
When the "free" states secede, it will be the major populations of the Southern/red states that will be leaving--the heavily Democratic cities and the increasingly Democratic suburbs; the ones with the education, higher incomes, and who produce much greater GDP. And it will the largely white, underpopulated and less developed ("rural") regions/states--with the lower incomes and educational levels, and least development--that get to pretend they're the real Americans. They can explore galactic frontiers of free market ideology trying to run a modern economy on their great-great-grandpappy's Confederate play-dough and crypto-currencies. Libertarians will be stupidly fascinated and distracted by this for the next 30 years or so.
Think of it as a national divorce. Only instead of squabbling over who gets the kids or the cars, we'll be squabbling over who gets the swing districts and the nukes.
We already fought that war, and I ain't interesting in abandoning our fellows in those "bad" states just because some of the ones in power there are assclowns.What we do is keep fighting the good fight. Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we win. Divying up and giving a shrug to those left behind is not an option.
Republican state legislatures have passed and are passing more all-encompassing voter suppression laws because the ones they had before were eventually defeated by years of organizing and a pandemic. They won't let that happen again. This is obvious to most POC in America.
Apparently, it isn't so obvious to enough (White) Democratic officials to make them take this threat so seriously that they act decisively. What more evidence do they need? Many White Americans had to see George Floyd murdered right in front of their eyes before they started really questioning the narrative about policing. Is that what it will take? I shudder to think what the voter suppression equivalent of Floyd's murder would be. Though, Black and other POC being attacked and murdered to prevent them from voting is already a part of the American story.
"I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."
No, "we" haven't quite reached the point of civil war...yet. It'll be a brand new national experience when (not if) we do. And the last people who might have offered us some first hand knowledge or experience died 50 or 60 years ago (if they made it up to 100+). And only a small minority of us have ancestors who actually participated in the original, given the tens of millions who immigrated after the War, so there's very little emotional investment either.
Another point is the problem is with "sometimes winning or losing" is that it's traditionally measured in post-Census redistricting, which means at least ten years of losing. And by then, the GOP can gerrymander and Jim Crow itself artificial majorities in Congress and legislatures, and legitimize it with a GOP-dominated judiciary, both at the federal and state levels. Whaddaya do then, a decade from now? It's just delaying the decision. And don't kid yourself that the GOP can't make itself more palatable to Wall Street and even the Big Tech giants to the detriment of Democrats, who have no power to make, much less keep, promises.
A third point is, just as in the late Antebellum, the reactionaires won't stop at consolidating their gains, but will push their state laws down the throats of the progressive states, with gun law reciprocity, and the modern equivalent of the Fugitive Slave Act (aka the new TX abortion law that could force pro-abortion activists outside of TX to be extradited to the Lone Star state for contributing to Planned Parenthood in Houston or Austin). They've done it before; and they're doing it again.
And finally, if you doubt a fascist majority on the USSC isn't capable of writing a 21st C. version of the Dred Scott decision on anything--abortion, gun reciprocity laws, voting rights--well, enjoy your delusions while they last.
Oh, and we're not leaving anyone behind, although a lot of people trapped in red states/counties will have to move. Even if that requires a new underground railroad. But that's okay as there will an exodus of MAGATs to their Promised Land as well.
"Both Sinema and Manchin have voted 100% with Biden on bills in the senate" while preventing the most important Biden bills from getting votes in the Senate at all.
Several of them (yes, even White Democrats and certainly that one Black Republican) don't necessarily want BIPOC to vote (which Elie Mystal and others as learned as he have literally been saying for YEARS now, since Shelby v Holder was a 2013 decision and everyone who knows anything about his history knows he's a Reagan Republican who doesn't believe in Black and Brown people being able to vote).
But white people need to understand that THEIR RIGHTS TO VOTE WILL BE AFFECTED *TOO*.
we do need our TX Dems back in TX at some point, Broseph Biden.
Getting out of the weeds long enough to look at the broader picture, what we're seeing is the dynamics that triggered the Civil War. Reading the Southern newspaper/magazine/transcripts of speeches literature of the late Antebellum, three issues drove secession: 1) Black people (e.g., the existential need for slaves and more of them); 2) uppity women (suffragettes; the 'free love' movement), and 3) socialism. The same issues of today: Blacks (who vote Democratic); uppity women (feminists); and socialism.
My solution is very simple: Secession. Only this time the 'rational' states leave. And I don't mean so much entire states, but solidly red and blue states, augmented with a patchwork quilt of red and blue counties within states. Which is really a more historically accurate way to analyze the social/political geography of the Civil War.
During the Civil War, the geography of secession was dictated by the transportation grid of the plantation class, their access to the ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the mouths of the rivers that hosted them. This is where the bulk of the population lived, especially the slaves. The further removed from this grid, the higher level of support for remaining in the Union, along with low levels of slave ownership and fewer, if any, plantations.
When the "free" states secede, it will be the major populations of the Southern/red states that will be leaving--the heavily Democratic cities and the increasingly Democratic suburbs; the ones with the education, higher incomes, and who produce much greater GDP. And it will the largely white, underpopulated and less developed ("rural") regions/states--with the lower incomes and educational levels, and least development--that get to pretend they're the real Americans. They can explore galactic frontiers of free market ideology trying to run a modern economy on their great-great-grandpappy's Confederate play-dough and crypto-currencies. Libertarians will be stupidly fascinated and distracted by this for the next 30 years or so.
Think of it as a national divorce. Only instead of squabbling over who gets the kids or the cars, we'll be squabbling over who gets the swing districts and the nukes.
It's sitting on the pile of ideas that the Joe Manchin wing of the party won't ever support.
We already fought that war, and I ain't interesting in abandoning our fellows in those "bad" states just because some of the ones in power there are assclowns.What we do is keep fighting the good fight. Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we win. Divying up and giving a shrug to those left behind is not an option.
its an interesting thought experiment
None of which were native New Yorkers.
Oh, did you mean upstate fucks? Get the fuck outta here.
Republican state legislatures have passed and are passing more all-encompassing voter suppression laws because the ones they had before were eventually defeated by years of organizing and a pandemic. They won't let that happen again. This is obvious to most POC in America.
Apparently, it isn't so obvious to enough (White) Democratic officials to make them take this threat so seriously that they act decisively. What more evidence do they need? Many White Americans had to see George Floyd murdered right in front of their eyes before they started really questioning the narrative about policing. Is that what it will take? I shudder to think what the voter suppression equivalent of Floyd's murder would be. Though, Black and other POC being attacked and murdered to prevent them from voting is already a part of the American story.
How the hell do you define "native"? Teddy was born in NYC.
"I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."
No, "we" haven't quite reached the point of civil war...yet. It'll be a brand new national experience when (not if) we do. And the last people who might have offered us some first hand knowledge or experience died 50 or 60 years ago (if they made it up to 100+). And only a small minority of us have ancestors who actually participated in the original, given the tens of millions who immigrated after the War, so there's very little emotional investment either.
Another point is the problem is with "sometimes winning or losing" is that it's traditionally measured in post-Census redistricting, which means at least ten years of losing. And by then, the GOP can gerrymander and Jim Crow itself artificial majorities in Congress and legislatures, and legitimize it with a GOP-dominated judiciary, both at the federal and state levels. Whaddaya do then, a decade from now? It's just delaying the decision. And don't kid yourself that the GOP can't make itself more palatable to Wall Street and even the Big Tech giants to the detriment of Democrats, who have no power to make, much less keep, promises.
A third point is, just as in the late Antebellum, the reactionaires won't stop at consolidating their gains, but will push their state laws down the throats of the progressive states, with gun law reciprocity, and the modern equivalent of the Fugitive Slave Act (aka the new TX abortion law that could force pro-abortion activists outside of TX to be extradited to the Lone Star state for contributing to Planned Parenthood in Houston or Austin). They've done it before; and they're doing it again.
And finally, if you doubt a fascist majority on the USSC isn't capable of writing a 21st C. version of the Dred Scott decision on anything--abortion, gun reciprocity laws, voting rights--well, enjoy your delusions while they last.
Oh, and we're not leaving anyone behind, although a lot of people trapped in red states/counties will have to move. Even if that requires a new underground railroad. But that's okay as there will an exodus of MAGATs to their Promised Land as well.
Our Mr. Robinson, the author of this article, his initials are SER.
But how would Austin survive, as an island surrounded by Texas?
"Both Sinema and Manchin have voted 100% with Biden on bills in the senate" while preventing the most important Biden bills from getting votes in the Senate at all.
>> Is there any reason to suppose that currently it has all 50 Dem senators on board? I mean, if there is, then why haven't they?
If you haven't already read the volumes of things that have been written about that -- then the point is getting missed
https://twitter.com/sarahtu...
Several of them are compromised.
Several of them (yes, even White Democrats and certainly that one Black Republican) don't necessarily want BIPOC to vote (which Elie Mystal and others as learned as he have literally been saying for YEARS now, since Shelby v Holder was a 2013 decision and everyone who knows anything about his history knows he's a Reagan Republican who doesn't believe in Black and Brown people being able to vote).
But white people need to understand that THEIR RIGHTS TO VOTE WILL BE AFFECTED *TOO*.
https://twitter.com/waltsha...
Here, again, though, is the thing that we ordinary non-Senatorial people can do right now for the next 30 days
https://twitter.com/waltsha...
I think we've gone past KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON https://upload.wikimedia.or...
There's hesitant and then there's unwilling.
I'm hesitant about blowing up the filibuster, but if doing so would preserve voting rights, I would do so with little remorse.