What if the Blue Counties Seceded from America?
This is just a thought exercise, but I might have been framing the secession issue the wrong way.
New York Times columnist David Brooks just wrote an essay highlighting the “class differences” among Americans.
For me, the most-interesting fact in Brooks’ column is his reminder that in the 2020 presidential election only about 500 counties in America were net “Joe Biden” voters. More than 2,500 counties had more citizens who voted for Trump.
That is, the Trump counties outnumber the “Joe Biden” counties by a ratio of more than 5 to 1! (Expressed differently, about 84 percent of American counties are “red.”)
In a few of my articles and posts, I’ve gingerly broached the taboo topic of “secession” (which I’ve dubbed the “S-word” … or “the real elephant in the room.”)
Not that I think this will happen; just that I think this previously taboo subject will probably be mentioned by a lot more people in the future.
For example, I’m sure I’ve posed this question: “What if 25 red states filed for an ‘amicable divorce’ from a relationship they now consider irrevocably broken or even ‘abusive?’ ”
Some of my readers educated me by pointing out it’s really not a “Red State” vs. “Blue State” dichotomy. It’s actually a Blue City vs. Red Town/Hinterlands dichotomy we now have in America.
This is true even in “liberal” states like California, Washington, New York, Oregon, etc. All of these states probably have more “conservative” or sane counties than the hopelessly woke and progressive big metro areas.
If one colored these states by county, even the “Blue States” would have more red than blue on this map.
My readers’ correct observation made me wonder if maybe I have this possible solution backwards. I’ve been hinting that the Red States might one day secede from the rest of America.
Well, wouldn’t it be easier just to let all the “Blue Cities” (or counties) secede?
If Trump somehow wins the 2024 election, there might even be a grassroots effort in ultra-liberal urban areas that tries to make this happen.
The Blue Counties would/might secede from the rest of America!
Upon deeper contemplation, I wonder if the Thomas Paine’s and Patrick Henry’s of our era (all three or four of them) should maybe encourage or support this possible solution?
Let these 500 Blue Counties support the Green New Deal and all the next mRNA “vaccines.”
Let their citizens continue to support the growth of the Censorship Industrial Complex.
If this happened, we’d then have a great placebo cohort to test which areas of the former United States experience greater prosperity and a better “quality of life” going forward.
Several questions come immediately to mind …
On net, would more people move to the “Blue-County America” or to the Red Hinterland America?
Where will the most-important companies locate?
Will all the big companies quit selling products and services to the backwards and “hate-filled” Red Staters?
Is Wal-Mart going to pull out of Troy, Alabama and only serve cities like San Francisco and New York City?
Somehow I doubt this, but who knows what would happen. All these companies are aligned with the ruling class that lives in Washington D.C., which would definitely remain the capital of Blue America.
(Actually ruling elites don’t live in Washington D.C. proper; they’re not that crazy. They live in a few dark blue counties in Virginia and Maryland).
Will the next pandemic - and we’re told there will be a next pandemic- ravage the unvaccinated and non-masked Red States but not the Blue Counties?
Would the number of future hurricanes and wildfires still go down if the residents of only 1-in-6 of the nation’s previous counties were banning gas stoves, gas cars and old-fashioned light bulbs?
Would America start WWIII with Russia if only 500 counties were providing volunteers to do the fighting?
If and when the nukes started flying, would Russia only target the Blue Counties? (If so, this might save my own life and the lives of my two children.)
But, again, this is just a thought exercise …
As noted, I don’t think any state, county or city is actually going to secede from America.
In a future column, I might expound on the reasons I think this, but I’ll mention one reason right now: No “leader” is going to be brave enough (read: crazy enough) to propose such a radical “solution” because they know they’d get thrown in a gulag if they did.
I myself fall into this “chicken” group. I know Big Brother is watching and I know I better just keep my mouth shut.
Still, it does occur to me that under the scenario outlined above, I could just sit back on the couch, enjoy my popcorn, and do nothing.
I could let some radical leaders who can’t fathom living four more years under Donald Trump push the secession movement.
If this happens, I’ll just say, “Hey, Good luck to you guys. I think that’s your right as a free human being,” etc.
That is, I won’t be leading any secession effort.
Nor do I think most Americans in our 2,500-plus Red Counties would be willing to risk their children’s and grandchildren’s lives to fight a war to keep Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago in the union.
I think many of my new fellow citizens might agree with me.
They’d probably say, “Good bye. We’re not going to stop you from taking what we know is a highly-principled stand … Let us know if we can get a passport and visit any tourist sites in the future.”
Once upon a time Abe Lincoln and King George didn’t like it when some subjects tried to leave the nation.
However, what would be different this time is that 165 million Americans might say, “Hey, this is fine by us.”
And slavery wouldn’t be an issue. Or maybe it would be the issue - just a different type of slavery?
I’ve already predicted this won’t happen and I certainly don’t want anyone to risk lifetime imprisonment by bringing up this topic, but I guess I’ll know for sure in a couple of years …. if Donald Trump is elected.
If some Blue County political leader does start pushing secession from a MAGA America, I might even send his political group a clandestine donation.
On the memo portion of the check, I’ll write: “I support your right to choose. God speed, brother.”
I think the Blue Cities will unfortunately never decide to secede. The defining characteristic of their ideology is perhaps the moral authority to force other people to live, act and indeed believe as they do. If they were willing to go off and do their own thing while leaving everyone else alone, well, we wouldn't be here :)
Yep! The country is overwhelming red, with tiny blue dots scattered around. That's why my "solution" was city states!
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/ancient-problems-require-ancient
One intriguing idea I’ve come across is the ancient idea of city-states. Historically, these have been huge population centers capable of handling their own governance (and defense!) The best known modern city-states are undoubtedly Vatican City (home of the Pope) and Singapore (a sprawling island city covering 720 sq km. and housing nearly 6 million people).
While regular city-states are independent, I see no reason that a modern city-state of Portland couldn’t still be under the preview of the federal government but politically separate from the rest of Oregon — which is already trying to escape.
With this idea, cities get additional powers (closer to what states have), but have to deal with their borders themselves. Obviously cooperation between governments would be called for in some instances (as happens right now), but generally we’d let Portland be as weird as it wants — but it can’t affect the rest of the state.