Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Secession vs Reality

To all of the whiny ass people who signed petitions to secede from the USA, I totally get where you're coming from. If I'd had my hopes built up by Fox News, Redstate.com, Breitbart and others for the last 4 years that the election of a particular president was just a fluke, I'd be in denial as well.

If I was one of the folks who had been convinced that a great wave of red state conservatism was going to coming roaring back and wash away decades of liberal progress and legislation, only to see a loss of seats in Congress and the Senate, you bet your ass I'd be furious as well. I would be even more pissed off if I was one of the billionaires who sunk a ton of money into Super PACs run by Karl Rove and got a big damn goose egg on my investments.

I get it though. If you only utilize the sources of "news" that caters to your antiquated worldview and tell you only what you want to hear, of course you'd be confused and angry when the candidate you were told would win by an electoral college landslide ends up losing by an electoral college blowout. I get it though, you're angry and nobody can fault you for being angry after being lied to.

Now, take a deep breath or two. While I know you're pissed, signing silly petitions isn't going to do anything. You're wasting your time and you're making those of us who have a deep and personal relationship with reality laugh. Those of us who are laughing at you aren't just Ivy League elitists, Castro District married gay couples, or any of the other stereotypes you're thinking of. Personally, I'm a gun-owning, gay-rights supporting Southern guy that likes to cuss and drink whiskey, and I (along with a bunch of conservatives) think you've lost your damn minds. Right now you're acting like the angry kid who keeps threatening to take your ball and go home, and it is getting more funny every time we point out that this is a football game and you have a basketball, and it is halfway flat. Even Robert E. Lee knew when he had lost fair and square. He didn't drag it out for years afterwards or bring it up every time he didn't get what he wanted.

I know your definition of "reality" is more in line with TV shows than actual real life, but listen to me on this. If you really want to secede from the Union, I have a proposal for you. Yes, there's legal precedents, history, reality and math that I could cite to dissuade you but I understand you're not at that point in the 12 steps now, or ever, to accept that but hear me out anyhow.

First of all, I know many of you are still pissed about the election but, you lost. The other Harvard-educated "elitist", the one you begrudgingly pretended to love? Yeah, he lost by almost 4 million votes in the popular vote, and over 100 votes in the Electoral College which means your guy lost. No, the Electoral College doesn't have a football team but here's a football analogy, your guy has had a worse year than Auburn. The other thing is, the whole demographic of the United States has changed slowly over the last couple of decades. I know that in some of the retirement communities and other places that are still on the equivalent of a 14.4k dialup connection to the real world that this hasn't sunk in but it did, whether you want to accept it or not. This will also be almost as hard to swallow as the fact that the states with the most signatures for secession are also the ones who receive the most federal assistance to stay financially solvent.

Now I see you want to either pack up your shit and leave or force the rest of us to leave or live under the rules of the new country that we've already unofficially named "Dumbfuckistan". The thing is, most of us like those things that come with being part of the United States of America. First of all, we got a pretty cool looking flag and a decent national anthem although "God Bless America" ain't bad either. I'm wondering which flag you'll fly and which anthem you'll play before NFL games? Oh wait, there aren't any NFL franchises outside of the US currently, or NASCAR for that matter.

We also have this halfway decent federal infrastructure (which would actually be better if you didn't whine about paying taxes so goddamn much), that sure beats the hell out of the horse and buggy system or needing 4 wheel drive to get from point A to point B, but if you like to do shit the hard way, don't let me stop you on that.

Next, I know you're all about "rugged individualism" and "personal responsibility", so once you've schlepped all of your family off to the Promised Land, you're on your own. Don't worry, I'm sure between those two mutually exclusive books "Atlas Shrugged" and the Bible that you've packed, you can figure out how to survive without that federal infrastructure. When Cousin Cletus starts that wildfire that spirals out of control after his meth lab explodes, get the bucket brigade going because there isn't gonna be any federal intervention to help you out.

Education? I'm sure you're thrilled at educating your kids on your own, free from the godless liberal teachers. However, I think it won't take much to put together those football fields and woodshops. If you find it necessary to put something together more complex than that, we'd like to help you out but we're already giving enough money to third world countries and we know how you feel about that whole "culture of dependency" matter.

I'm sure you think I'm being silly, petty and vindictive with this. That's my point, because that's exactly what you're doing. Now kindly shut the fuck up.

9 comments:

  1. Ok, I'll put aside all the confirmed voter fraud conspiracy theories and assume that the election results are valid...when the popular vote the whole election day runs Damn near 50.1% to 49.9% that tells you has divided this country is. If a candidate doesn't get 80-90% support then you can't day he represents the people. When the Senate and the house stay permanently divided the same way nothing productive ever gets done.

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    1. Just FYI Matt:

      The highest percentage of popular vote ever was for Lyndon Johnson in 1964 - 61.05%

      Obama is expected to end with 50.79% of the popular votes.
      (Compared to Romney's 47.65%)

      Some Presidents that won with a smaller percentage?
      In order - high % to low %:

      1980 - Ronald Reagan - 50.75%
      2004 - G.w. Bush - 50.73%
      1976 - Jimmy Carter - 50.08%
      1960 - John F. Kennedy - 49.72%
      1948 - Harry S. Truman - 49.55%
      1996 - Bill Clinton - 49.23%
      2000 - G.W. Bush - 47.87%
      1968 - Richard Nixon - 43.42%
      1992 - Bill Clinton - 43.01%
      1860 - Abraham Lincoln - 39.65%

      80-90% ????
      I don't think so.

      When we take into account that we rarely get above 63% of the eligible voters to even bother to show up at the polls, only about 30% of the electorate actually determine our Presidential choice.

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    2. Nice try, Halfcent, but facts don't sway these self-deluded people. They're stuck wherever they are and there's little hope for them.

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  2. How much he won by really shouldn't matter,the fact is that he did. Grow up and accept reality like the rest of us. Personally I am ecstatic that Romney lost, but was fully prepared to deal with the consequences. And the Senate and the house staying permanently divided....you had to go there. When there are people, elected officials, elected by people to serve the people, decide their only purpose in life is to cock block the democrat black guy, what other option is there but dead lock all the time?

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    1. The division was around way before "the democrat black guy." The system is flawed andneeds an overhaul. If you don't agree with the southern, bible thumping, gun toting rednecks then let them go. Let the red state's go then Washington can go all liberal commie and both sides will be happy.

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  3. Thanks for this excellent no-nonsense assessment of the secession petitions!

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  4. Texas could split into separate states, inject more power into the senate and mess everything up! http://mobile.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2012/11/texas_secession_how_the_lone_star_state_could_mess_with_the_rest_of_us.html

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  5. What about the 44% the united states that voted for neither candidate? Obama didn't win the popular vote...the popular vote went to no one.

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