Impossible? I don’t think so, and nor does this guy, in a very thoughtful and clear essay:
Talk of insurrection, secession, civil conflict and civil war is no longer the chatter of the gullible and the mentally ill.
…
The year 2021 has thus far been a spectacular year for signs of political decline: the US has now seen all the notable “horsemen of the apocalypse” that historically herald strife and revolution appear, one after another. Political division among its elites, increasing loss of legitimacy in the eyes of the population, military defeat abroad, and a new and very ominous crisis in the real economy, with no end date in sight.
Any one of these crises would be bad enough on their own; taken together, they represent a truly serious threat to the stability of the current order.
Read the whole thing.
To my mind, the question is not whether the U.S. would survive a civil war (because it would); it’s what it would look like afterwards. The situation is nowhere close to the First Civil War of 1860, the end of which simply restored the country to the status quo ante. That’s not going to happen this time.
I don’t need to remind anyone on this website that National Ammo Day is in two days’ time, do I?
Talk about a weak man to deal with the writer’s issues, and if removed, a thin bench for presidential succession –
Burisma Buydem -> Giggles Heelsup Harris -> Ginbreath Pelosi -> Leaky Leahy -> Traitor Tony Blinken.
Blinken came to the SecState job from being Director of the Penn Biden Center, founded by Biden, where he presided over an entity that was funded in large measure by the Chinese and which seems to have been dedicated primarily to pushing Chinese propaganda inside the United States.
A fox in the chicken coop.
Absolutely frightening. We’re naked in the winds that blow.
” it’s what it would look like afterwards. ”
You nailed it with this comment. There is no way the republic is preserved in the aftermath of a civil war. If the Left wins, abolishing the republic was their goal which they will achieve. If we win, what we will have to do to win pretty much puts paid to to the republic too. Or there could be a stalemate which would be the end of the United States, if not America.
I find the whole “We’ve got nukes!” argument frightening too, it shows a willingness to burn it all down rather than lose it. So should the cold Civil War turn hot (as seems it will in the not-to-distant future), and things go badly for the left (as is likely), they’ll adopt a scorched-Earth policy. It’s actually rather Islamic, if we can’t be in charge there’ll be nothing left to be in charge OF. With the additional benefit that Nuclear Winter will cure Global Warming of course.
I think the best case scenario is the Leftists keep playing their games in the various big cities, as they’ve been doing for decades, and ignore flyover territory.
Mark D
As I think I’ve noted before, Kim, a decade ago when someone mentioned secession or civil war, it was dismissed out of hand as ridiculous.
I’m no longer dismissing those ideas.
A civil war would be ugly beyond belief. Our previous civil war not only returned to the status quo, it was fought almost entirely as a traditional war, with organized forces on both sides accountable to governing authorities, with a chain of command.
Most civil wars are not like that at all- they are fought neighborhood by neighborhood, with towns and cities cleansing the offending enemy (be it religious, racial, ethnic, or here, ideological) house by house. As someone noted to a hypothetical liberal who, as usual, had no comprehension of asymmetric warfare, that mere citizens with AR-15s could not stop tanks and jets, the response was “Of course. That’s why we’ll shoot you.” And the guy driving the fuel trucks to fuel the tank. And most important, shut down the highways and railway transport that provides food and fuel to the blue cities.
I’ve said before: I think there is much of value to salvage in the US. It’s founding philosophy – expressed in the paragraph that follows the phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. . .” is in my opinion (excepting religious texts, which are a separate category entirely) the single most important piece of writing in human history. And we are abandoning its central premise – that government is a system of delegated powers, limited by the people, who are its masters. Today, the single most important goal is to reduce the size and reach of government, particularly the federal government, so taking control of that government is not so overridingly important. But I’m afraid it’s too late for that.
Claire Wolfe once wrote in “101 Things to Do on the Way to the Revolution” that – “America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.” I hope we don’t ultimately have to go there. But if that is what is to be, let’s do it now, so my grandkids don’t have to.
BTW Kim- I made my NAD purchase a couple of days early, thank you. To fit the new trade. About an inch high at 100 yards in my hands – just right for a dear rifle. Lovely. Hope to take a deer with it this December.
CW One in Missouri was a lot like what you describe in other civil wars. But both sides were Victorians so they didn’t do a lot of rape or killing of women and children. That won’t be the case the next time.
All eyes are on Kenosha to see whether sanity will prevail, or the crazies will light Kenosha-II, and we’ll find out if the elected government (up to the state level) is competent.
I’m not optimistic.
PS: I’m afraid we’ll need a lot more Kyle Rittenhouse types before this is over.
From Preschool on up they train this out of the population. No bullies. It wasn’t your fight, just stand and watch while someone completely undeserving gets a beating. The Authorities will take care of everything.
There seems to be a shortage of paths of any sort to anything that resembles an ethical polity worthy of an authentically free people.
That is the central problem.
Separation seems to be the only choice, as the two sides’ positions are irreconcilable.
+1
+2
You may have found a worthy successor to Angelo Codevilla, RIP. This was outstanding.