Sarah Vowel says that our country has always been this contentious, this divisive. We are locked in such an ugly tug of war. Both sides think the other is ruining everything and destroying everything they believe in, everything that makes this country great. Makes me wonder how it would be now if the south had won. If all those nasty racists just made their own rules for their own little government. All the rigid white Christians with their twisted ideas of what god wants can live together in harmony. They can find new things to fight about amongst themselves. And leave us alone to get on with taking care of our people and growing a healthy economy.
How would it be? From over here on the far left, the extremists---ahem ---conservatives on the right can generally agree on a majority of issues. For liberals it's all so much more complicated. Conservatives begin from the premise that everyone should follow the same rules, think alike, behave alike. A combination of the original hard puritanical .....
I began this post last July. Over a year ago.
Recent events have confirmed the value of revisiting my original idea. Consider the advantages of splitting the United States. We hate each other. Really truly hate everything the other side stands for. So why not just let them have their own damn country. We've tried compromising and trying to get along for over 200 years now. So we've given it a fair shot. But this constant battle between our values and their values just leaves all of us feeling frustrated and unhappy at best, enraged and dangerous at worst. We've denied ourselves the pursuit of happiness.
Now that the other side has quit pretending to be nice, maybe we could just shake hands and go our separate ways. Think of it. All the white people who only want to share with other white people can have their own sandbox. They resent us trying to make them share. How else could we have gotten to 2016 trying to get along with people who hate us. How else could we allow a world where black parents fear for their children's lives everyday. It seems infinitely preferable--and safer-- to let them have their own space to live by whatever rules they want. Let them have their own country with as many assault weapons as they want. Let them keep making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Let them have the country they want. With their "boys only" and "girls only" and their whites only and Christians only, heterosexuals only and their patriarchy.
We could all be so much happier apart. Here in blue land everyone is paid a living wage. Health care is distributed without the insurance companies' interference. People could have good jobs maintaining all the bridges and roads that are currently crumbling. Our movies and tv shows could have people of every color and gender doing mundane and extraordinary things. Our schools could be the best in the world. We could lead the way in reducing our carbon footprint globally. We could focus our industry on environmentally beneficial products. We could have thriving factory towns where enough solar panels are made sell to the rest of the world. We could eliminate the prison industry that gets rich on our tax dollars.
I have to stop for now.
Except: the assholes are not really concentrated in one specific area. There are a lot of really good people everywhere, with varying concentrations of bad guys. I wouldn't be too quick to concede them their own territory, to do evil as they please. I'd fight first -- something that us decent people have shied away from. You know, politeness and all. Maybe we'd command some more respect (and political capital) if we showed a willingness to get our hands dirty, insisted on legislation that wasn't some namby-pamby split the difference "compromise" -- because these things aren't really even compromises, they're serialized, outright capitulations. I can hardly blame the other side for constantly demanding more, and expecting to get it. We've failed to stand our ground, and haven't run offensives to take away theirs. So I'm not ready to give them any land of their own yet. But I am going to start insisting on seriously restrictive gun laws. No more machine guns in civil society. Fuck background checks. Background checks are bullshit -- an admission of failure. If the NRA doesn't want to compromise, then fuck them. Let's go for something more: how about some confiscatory buy-back legislation. Instead of holding the line on their do-as-they-please gun "liberties," they can start fighting for their own very existence. No more weaponry fetishist minority dictating the terms of public safety laws that should be serving the interests of the vast majority of everyone else. I'm not afraid of the government bogey man. I love my government, and I want it to flex its muscles so that I and those I love can live in peace and safety. No more individual ownership of personal WMDs. That's my starting point. Let's see how we do with that before conceding another fucking inch to the antisocial minority who believe (understandably) that they can call all the shots. I'm not signing any petitions, or lighting any candles. I'm thinking money, organization, and will to power. How's that sound?
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