New Calls for Secession
Those voices on the radio and TV aren't fooling. Many, many Democrats and their allies are actually talking about seceding from the Union. The half-serious plans call for all the States that Kerry carried to either (a) join with Canada or (b) form two or three conglomerations of "Blue States," with Hawaii to become an independent Republic. (I have found many more links than just these three, but I refuse to incorporate them. The operative phrase here is "Parental judgment and discretion are advised.")
As a son of both the North and the South, in that my father was born in Boston, MA and my mother in Richmond, VA, I find all this secession talk highly amusing. After all, if their ancestors had let the South go, they wouldn't be in this absurd position.
But whenever any discussion of liberal secession gets down to details, then I get outraged.
Some of them assert that the Blue States pay the taxes that support the Red. Well, with all due respect (and that isn't much), I beg to differ. I see the tax money getting sucked out of the Red States to support the decadent lifestyles in the Blue.
Other latter-day secessionists assert that in the Blue States is most of the entertainment talent. Well, let's examine that more closely. We're talking about New York publishers and Hollywood film production companies. Well you know what? You can have New York and Hollywood, and we wouldn't miss you for one picosecond. I challenge each and every author of the kind of claptrap that gets published today to a writing contest: him (or her) and me, mano a mano. I already know that I could write every one of the typical scripts for the movies and TV shows that Hollywood produces. (Actually, I wouldn't--because I will not pollute either my mind, my computer console, or any reader or viewer with the kind of filth that typically appears on the big screen, or the small screen, today.) So go ahead, betake yourselves to your own little world, and see what I care--which is to say, not a whit. And don't get me started on what you laughably call "music"! Listen--I know what music is. I studied the piano for thirteen years before I went to college, ending with a rendition of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue that brought my schoolmates to their feet. Ladies(?) and gentlemen(?), you don't make music; you just make noise. (And I'll predict with 95% confidence that you don't even remember who George Gershwin was.)
But more to the point: None of the secessionists care to remember that the interiors of all the Blue States actually consist of Red Counties. John Kerry carried his States by virtue of the large, concentrated populations of several major cities: Portland, ME; New York, NY; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Madison, WI; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA. (The only State that is at all exceptional in terms of having a majority of its land area voting for Kerry is Vermont--but then, Vermonters have always had the reputation of being the most obstinate people in the world.) Not only that, but Bush generally increased his share of the vote in every State in the Union (except for New Hampshire), not merely the States he carried. I'll tell you right now that if anyone seriously wanted New Jersey to join some liberal fools' paradise, they'd get an argument from me, my wife and her family, and our friends. And some day, if the Lord tarries, a Republican President will carry New Jersey again, just as Ronald Reagan did.
Of course, I don't believe a word of it. How can I take any of this silly talk seriously when those who talk about it obviously haven't thought the matter through? Besides, since Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand didn't leave the country the last time, I don't expect them to leave this time. As to any individuals who talk of emigrating to Canada, I'll believe it when I see the vacant (or at least For Sale) houses and the caravans of mini-vans with furniture lashed to the roofs.
Speaking of which: I went back to look at MarryAnAmerica.ca again. Have a look at some of the profiles of the Canadians offering to marry Americans. You'll die laughing--because they haven't thought things through, either.
As a son of both the North and the South, in that my father was born in Boston, MA and my mother in Richmond, VA, I find all this secession talk highly amusing. After all, if their ancestors had let the South go, they wouldn't be in this absurd position.
But whenever any discussion of liberal secession gets down to details, then I get outraged.
Some of them assert that the Blue States pay the taxes that support the Red. Well, with all due respect (and that isn't much), I beg to differ. I see the tax money getting sucked out of the Red States to support the decadent lifestyles in the Blue.
Other latter-day secessionists assert that in the Blue States is most of the entertainment talent. Well, let's examine that more closely. We're talking about New York publishers and Hollywood film production companies. Well you know what? You can have New York and Hollywood, and we wouldn't miss you for one picosecond. I challenge each and every author of the kind of claptrap that gets published today to a writing contest: him (or her) and me, mano a mano. I already know that I could write every one of the typical scripts for the movies and TV shows that Hollywood produces. (Actually, I wouldn't--because I will not pollute either my mind, my computer console, or any reader or viewer with the kind of filth that typically appears on the big screen, or the small screen, today.) So go ahead, betake yourselves to your own little world, and see what I care--which is to say, not a whit. And don't get me started on what you laughably call "music"! Listen--I know what music is. I studied the piano for thirteen years before I went to college, ending with a rendition of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue that brought my schoolmates to their feet. Ladies(?) and gentlemen(?), you don't make music; you just make noise. (And I'll predict with 95% confidence that you don't even remember who George Gershwin was.)
But more to the point: None of the secessionists care to remember that the interiors of all the Blue States actually consist of Red Counties. John Kerry carried his States by virtue of the large, concentrated populations of several major cities: Portland, ME; New York, NY; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Madison, WI; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA. (The only State that is at all exceptional in terms of having a majority of its land area voting for Kerry is Vermont--but then, Vermonters have always had the reputation of being the most obstinate people in the world.) Not only that, but Bush generally increased his share of the vote in every State in the Union (except for New Hampshire), not merely the States he carried. I'll tell you right now that if anyone seriously wanted New Jersey to join some liberal fools' paradise, they'd get an argument from me, my wife and her family, and our friends. And some day, if the Lord tarries, a Republican President will carry New Jersey again, just as Ronald Reagan did.
Of course, I don't believe a word of it. How can I take any of this silly talk seriously when those who talk about it obviously haven't thought the matter through? Besides, since Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand didn't leave the country the last time, I don't expect them to leave this time. As to any individuals who talk of emigrating to Canada, I'll believe it when I see the vacant (or at least For Sale) houses and the caravans of mini-vans with furniture lashed to the roofs.
Speaking of which: I went back to look at MarryAnAmerica.ca again. Have a look at some of the profiles of the Canadians offering to marry Americans. You'll die laughing--because they haven't thought things through, either.
posted by Temlakos at 10:49 PM
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