Harrop: If MAGAland secedes, imagine benefits for Blue States
With 1 out of 5 “strong Republicans” saying a civil war is very likely — and part of the Trump base casually throwing around the word “secession” — one suspects that many residents of MAGAland don’t want to live under their elected national government. They want their own country.
No, I don’t want the United States to break up. I’m a left-leaning moderate living in a Democratic stronghold who truly likes other parts of the country: the rural South, Appalachia, the Great Plains, Texas. Lots of wonderful people there, including many who don’t generally subscribe to my political views. And I’ll go so far as to agree with them on certain items, for example, the ridiculousness of the woke fringe. Keep the United States united, I say.
On the other hand, let’s consider the possibilities. Suppose we skip the war part and imagine an amicable divorce.
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The counties that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 accounted for 71 percent of the national economy. Trump voting counties represented only 29 percent. Biden country is subsidizing Trump country. Imagine what the Blue States could do with the federal taxes they now send to Washington.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/harrop-if-magaland-secedes-imagine-benefits-for-blue-states/
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love the idea of them seceding. Think of all the good blue states can do if they weren't supporting the red states! Let them try to support themselves
imagine it would result in a happier blue nation than now. Fantasy. Once we gave up our commitment to protecting and serving The People by protecting our nation's democracy, though, would we even be the people who could create that happyland? We're talking two very different sets of values here. Government of, by and for the people couldn't allow victimization of many millions who happened to live in the wrong areas.
But to "if it happened," here's a little part of my guess: The reason prosperity and wellbeing are national characteristics is redistribution of wealth and values from the more prosperous, and blue, areas to the less. Accepting unity and some liberal requirements (voting laws, electrifying poor neighborhoods, educating all children) is usually the price attached.
Once cut off from redistribution of both wealth and imposition of liberal practices, under far-right government, the peeled off areas would become increasingly comparatively impoverished, unstable and riddled with crime. Remembering also that future catastrophes of disappearing fresh water and severe drought and heat will tend to affect geographic "red" areas to the south stronger than blue.
I'd expect that organized crime would become rampant, such as it is in conservative nations to the south. Much industry and other businesses would of course leave for more stable nations. Millions of anti-immigrant conservatives would become migrants themselves as they fled to the safety and prosperity of the liberal nation, over time many illiterate and unskilled.
And -- huge to my mind -- the blue happyland would be endangered by the government, criminal gangs, militias and terrorists of directly adjacent territories. What more probable than that a ruthless authoritarian RW government or governments would want to invade and conquer their wealthy enemy. and at all times encourage attacks by criminal organizations?
Btw, don't know how precise the figures given are, but if 25% of voters are Republicans, one out of five saying they want civil war would be 5% of the populace. Back to my first point: what is our democracy's duty to them and to the other 95% of us? I can come up with no happy fantasy that includes our betraying and abandoning many millions of citizens who have every right to continue to be citizens of the United States.
This must be the case because they do it so gratuitously. It's just the latest red-baiting nonsense, and when it comes from a female columnist, there's a large amount of "'pick me girl" energy going on as well--particularly when it comes to her use of snarl words like "woke fringe".
And yes, Harrop is trying to appeal to MAGA chuds who will never read her stuff and who don't matter. In fact, I remember the Freepers ridiculing her during the Obama years. They had a very "special" name for her: Froma Harlot. That's the kind of misogyny we're dealing with.
In addition to her wishy-washy lib views, Harrop is also a terrible writer. Ending her column with a Motley Crue song title?! 
