The Road To Partition

[Plaid Adder]

The anti-abortion bill in South Dakota reminds me of something I have been thinking about off and on ever since the 2004 election.

If Roe v. Wade is overturned (and obviously that's the ultimate goal of this state law), that won't mean that abortion suddenly becomes illegal everywhere. It just means that the states will now be able to pass anti-abortion legislation. What this will mean is that states with Republican-controlled state legislatures will propose and/or pass anti-abortion legislation, and states with Democratic-controlled state legislatures won't.

And what that means is that we will be getting closer to living in a partitioned country.

Most of the reading I have done about partition has pertained to places like Ireland/Northern Ireland, where the partition was imposed as a way of managing the exit of a departing colonial power. Since self-segregation is usually not complete or universal even in a divided society, partition created for the purpose of separating two different populations--Hindus and Muslims, for instance, or Catholics and Protestants--into two different countries tends to produce a lot of migration as people who are on the 'wrong' side of the border try to get on the 'right' side of it so they can be part of the protected majority instead of the persecuted minority. This in turn makes it harder on those who can't or won't migrate and get stuck living on the 'wrong' side of the border as part of a (now much smaller) minority.

The polarization of American politics is producing a brand new kind of partition. If things don't change, laws will soon differ so much from state to state that they will produce a real incentive to migrate across state lines. This is to a large extent already the case for GBLT people, who tend to gravitate toward cities and states where there are GBLT communities. My partner and I are now talking about moving over the border from our red state--where they passed a DOMA, proposed but withdrew a bill that would have criminalized unmarried women who conceived through alternative insemination or in vitro fertilization, and are about to pass a law making it illegal for gays and lesbians to adopt--to the neighboring blue state, where the law is much better.

If Roe v. Wade goes, and the red states start banning abortions, that's going to have much bigger consequences. It's not unlikely that you will start to see people moving to blue states just so they won't have to deal with the restrictions. It's fairly likely that clinics will open up along the borders in blue states to deal with the people who are coming over from red states to get abortions. If things got _really_ crazy, you could wind up in a situation like Ireland did with the X case of the mid-1990s, where the courts interpreted a ban on abortion as giving them the right to prevent a 14-year old rape victim from traveling outside the country to get one. Hopefully enough of the Constitution will survive this administration to make it impossible for states to prevent people from traveling across state lines for this purpose, but you never know. If things like this SD law stand up, the divide between red states and blue states will get deeper, partly as a result of self-selection. It will probably hurt the red states more than the blue ones, but I guess they're willing to pay the price.

It will, however, hurt the whole country by intensifying the polarization that's already destroying us. And it will, of course, make it much harder on the minorities--racial, sexual, religious, political--who can't or won't move to be in the 'right' color state.

More and more it seems to me like we are on our way to a cold civil war, in which red states and blue states will become increasingly hostile to each other and increasingly unwilling to cooperate economically or at the level of the federal government.

Not a happy future.

OK, depressed now,

The Plaid Adder

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. This country is becoming an unnatural entity.

The political, racial, economic,sexual, divisions are growing wider between people and locales. We are, in fact, living in seperate nations in many ways.

It only seems natural and practical to finally divide into smaller nations that reflect the people that live in them.

I live in a very Blue State (WA) and wouldn't regret the breaking up of Imperial America.

[Mythsaje]

5. As a fellow wetlander

I pretty much agree with you, except for the fact that Washington and Oregon are separated quite cleanly (for the most part) into the progressive west side and the regressive east side. They're like two different states with completely different mindsets.

My ex (who lives in Spokane) absolutely shrieked about the gas tax hike, saying it was more for the benefit of the west--which, I have to admit, is a valid point.

It's an interesting dichotomy, that's for sure.

[Selatius]

2. Perhaps dissolving the US is necessary in the long-run. (NO to civil war)

If this nation is going to fracture, I'd rather it do so peacefully without guns and bombs in another violent civil war over a fundamental aspect of American society. Violence is to be avoided.

If I was forced into choosing, I'd rather the US dissolve like the Soviet Union than a violent confrontation over abortion or any other divisive issue, which would be nothing more than a mask to cover the real reason behind such a confrontation: Power over people.

We've become so culturally different from each other. One day, the notion that one government can represent all will become unsustainable. I believe this notion will be tested once again within the next 150 years.

[AndyTiedye]

11. They Have All the Nukes, We Have All the Cities

:nuke::nuke:Goodbye Us. Game over. They win.

It is only the tattered remains of the legal process that has prevented
us from declining into full-blown fascism and theocracy already, and that
offers the only possibility (however slim) of removing them from power.
The only possibility short of world war, that is.
:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

[MadMaddie]

3. I agree with you....I think we are headed in that direction...

I think at the rate we are going we will end up with America split into two distinct separate countries. I don't want to see it happen.

The repugs are oblivious to the events and the end results of their actions and frankly I don't think they care. When the history is written of these times....the records will be of disbelief.
If this country survives intact and still under the original constitution it will take years to heal this country.

I hope you and your partner move to a state where you can feel some safety and feel that the state is not out to get you.

My partner and I are fortunate that we landed in a good blue state.

Hang in there, we are in this fight together and we will persevere. Good always triumphs pure evil...it's just the length of time for it to occur that varies with each event.

:grouphug:

[cally]

4. It's already occurring and it will get worse

I know I pressured my daughter to go to school in a state that had decent GLBT laws and abortion laws. I didn't want her in a place where she couldn't get the morning after pill or was attacked because of her sexuality. I suspect many others are making similar decisions.

[GeorgeGist]

6. In dysfunctional families...

divorce is often a constructive solution. Especially for children.

[sam sarrha]

7. sounds more and more lke the story in the Crimson Skies Video game..

[CrispyQ]

8. Sadly I beleive you are right.

For those who missed it, Nancy Greggs wrote an excellent article throwing a little bit of humor on our very tragic & sad situation.

Splitting the Difference
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/06/02/08_splitting.html

[NJCher]

9. Economic issues will force it

I am really surprised at the number of people on this thread who think that splitting the states up is a good idea. I thought I would be the only one. Usually I am called a nut for having such a belief, not usually by my friends here in NJ but by my friends, family and associates in the midwest.

To add to Plaid Adder's argument, there will be other issues that will be the genesis for division. The main issue is that people need a government. The second issue will be economic. The federal government is taking money and giving nothing, due to bushco's rampant spending on Iraq and other boondoggles. That will not be tolerated very long, especially in areas like California and the northeast, where the big money resides.

We do not have a government--we here at DU have known that for a long time--but the rest of the country is just now seeing that after Katrina and the port fiasco. The only thing we have is our own state, county and municipal governments.

Already we have had many states take the initiative in governance because the federal government is just not there. When bush effed up Medicare prescription coverage so bad that many people were going without their meds, the states had to come forth.

New Orleans was essentially on its own. Even large corporations like Wal-Mart were more effective than the federal government.

New Jersey and California have had to act on their own to control auto emissions pollution. So have other states.

These are just a few examples of how smaller "nationalities" will evolve.

So yes, the abortion issue and other "culture war" issues will force an idealogical divide but it will be economic issues that force it.

I think the republicans will continue stealing elections. They will do it until these economic issues become so desperate that there is no other choice. I know it looks bad now but I don't see division happening until around 2012.




Cher

[Selatius]

10. Ultimately, the Civil War itself was fought for economic reasons.

Slavery was a convenient wedge issue of the time in order to mask the real, truly harsh economic justification of war whether it be oil, farmland, water, mineral rights, access to trade routes/ports, etc. They didn't want to give up slavery because it meant loss of profit to wealthy plantation owners with many slaves and large amounts of land that needed to be farmed.

The moral impetus to abolish slavery was not enough. What did it was the economic component.

[hvn_nbr_2]

12. All things must pass. And that includes the U.S. of A.

It will go away some day. I've been thinking for some time that it might be within my lifetime.