Found via Insty (thankee, Stephen) these words of wisdom come from Bill Maher:
“Lately we’ve been hearing more and more about a second civil war which sounds impossible in this modern, affluent country. It is not. We talk about Trump as an existential threat, but his side sees Democratic control of government the exact same way. When both sides believe the other guy taking over means the end of the world, yes, you can have a civil war.”
…
“We are going to have to learn to live with each other or else there will be blood.”
Well, we conservatives have taken over (sorta), and the world hasn’t ended. Much to my disgust, cops haven’t started shooting down Pantifa rioters in the streets, the editorial board members of the New York Times haven’t been sent to the guillotine and we haven’t planted millions of landmines along our southern border — to name but three areas of disappointment.
Something else Maher said:
“And never forget, the single shining truth about democracy: it means sharing a country with assholes you can’t stand.”
Which would be absolutely true, except that we have Democrats trying their level best to subvert democracy with massive voter fraud and a sham impeachment of an elected President — and we’re not even going to mention the disgusting attempts to make America a land of popular majority government instead of the representative republic that it always has been, as laid down in the Constitution.
And speaking of subverting the Constitution, we also have Democrats attempting to end our First Amendment right of free speech with nonsense like hate speech codes, and we all know that Democrats everywhere want to overturn the Second Amendment by disarming Americans — to name yet another two areas of conflict where the Left and conservatives are irreparably separated.
Simple truth for the Left? I don’t want to live with Leftists, Communists, Progressives or whatever you call yourselves today. The essence of the matter is that the two sides have radically different perspectives as to how this country should look, and the two are mutually contradictory. Your side leads to Venezuela and Cuba, even though you say it leads to Sweden. Our side just wants us all to live as the Constitution promises.
So why should we live together? For fear of revolution?
Don’t make me laugh. We already had one Revolution in 1776, and the Constitution won. The Russians also had one in 1917, and the Bolsheviks won — but only readers of the New York Times could possibly think that Russia ended up better than we did.
Don’t even think you can emulate Lenin in the U.S. because you can’t, and you won’t.
We don’t have to learn to live with you; you have to learn to live with us. Or else you can go and live in Sweden, Russia or Cuba because this is our country, you Commie bastards. This is the country of the U.S. Constitution, not Das Kapital.
Maher is right, up to a point. On the path we are on, there will be a war. You are also right, up to a point. We can’t learn to live with each other because of incompatible differences. But we don’t have to live together. A civil war will kill millions and wreck the country but the National Divorce will save both sides from sharing the country with assholes you can’t stand without a war.
Regardless of what identifying placard any person hangs around their neck, they can live their own lives as they see fit, but the very moment they try to dictate how I should live mine is the instant a personal war will take place.
That parchment under glass? I have no use for it, and it ain’t about me. It’s about them. It’s about acknowledgement of my natural rights and restrictions upon those that strive to rule over others. If people treated others as they would expect to be treated themselves a constitution would be unnecessary. As it is, the document exists, yet some would try to violate it and that in itself means war.
In order of severity, the largest criminal organizations in this country are: the gov’t, the bankers, the media. Round em up, board em on a mothballed carrier, tow it 1000 miles out in the pacific, use it for B1B target practice, film it with drones for upload to youtube, charge $1 a head to view it, use the proceeds to pay down the national debt.
The national divorce sounds like the better option to Civil War. Even if we had the knock down, drag out shooting war with the left. Even if we won that war, we’d still be stuck with the survivors. We’d still be stuck with people who are unteachable that Marx, Lenin, and the rest of their ilk were wrong. Not just wrong in their implementation but wrong on a fundamental philosophical level. These people cannot reintegrate into a free society because they cannot be taught to value freedom. Thus we’d always be stuck with a cadre of people who lost the war but who still believe they were on the right side. Thus we’d always be stuck with people, and their intellectual descendants, who would always participate in our society from a desire to subvert it.
Far better to simply divorce. Split the country and give everyone a five year grace period to move. Then slam the borders shut and live with the consequences. We keep the original Constitution since they have little use for it and would likely want to rewrite it anyway and they can keep the US Code because we’ll likely want to rewrite/dispose of it anyway.
The problem with a secession is that the displacement problems would be horrendous…and I’m not at all confident that it would avert a war.
Let’s think this through. A straight-up Leftopia versus Rightopia division would probably have to take a coping saw to a lot of states. Take a look at the Red/Blue county map for an example…and that’s not the whole picture. There are counties that would have to be divided. I don’t see the Left as willing to do this honestly. Then there would be the cost of moving that many people.
And afterward, I think there’s a major war.
I’m not downplaying the complexity and cost of the National Divorce. The problems you cite are real. However, compared to a civil war these costs are low.
If there is to be a war no matter what, is unknowable. Maybe, maybe not. But if it does happen, it will be a relatively straightforward war with a foreign power. None of the cold civil war that we are losing because most of our side doesn’t realize it is a war.
Personally, my model for a post-divorce situation is like the current relationship with Canada. Sorta allies, lots of cultural similarities, trade partners. I can see a problem like we have with Mexico as the peons flee the Peoples Republic but this is still not war.
Ghostsniper said it. I can get along with anyone, as long as they leave me to run my life as I see fit. When they start trying to tell me how to live, I look and I see morons who can’t run their own. I don’t bother them, and whose fault is it that my existence shames them?
They can’t manage their money, so they want mine. They can’t manage their own lives, but they think they can run mine. My kids aren’t out there shooting up, drugs or school. My military service is a very distant memory, so the only people who get to tell me what to do pay me.
I won’t pretend to know how this ultimately is going to play out. And I desperately hope that neither a national divorce and/or a civil war is necessary; if it is, I strongly suspect that it will not go smoothly, and that a “peaceful” divorce would turn out to be anything but, with likely interference from various foreign powers. However, there are certain principles and certain red lines that are non-negotiable, and once crossed the matter must be resolved, with force if necessary.
Seizing arms crosses one of those lines. It’s not the only one, but it is certainly high on the list. I’ll be blunt, and I have said so to government officials in my jurisdiction – I will not comply. I will not register firearms. I will not surrender arms. Period. I think it’s wise to see how test cases play out in court before the shooting starts, to see if judges will apply the 2nd amendment’s restrictions on government authority, or if juries will exercise their power to nullify. It’s wise to eliminate all alternatives before the shooting starts. But if it must, well, it must.
That said, if such unpleasantness is to happen, let’s have it now, while I am still capable of doing my part, and so that my grandkids don’t have to.
As was stated so well 200+ years ago, I will not fire the first shot, but “if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
This insanity has nothing to do with the left wanting to become communists, socialists, or anything else. They could go to any number of countries that practice their brand of idiocy and wouldn’t have to change a thing. They could just go there and live. It all has to do with destroying what we have in this country and they are succeeding. They are already prosecuting the civil war. We on the right just don’t think it can happen here…yet.