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What if? With the confederate flag furore raging the question might bring some interesting views.As a brit i feel i am not qualified to comment on the debate but interested to hear american citizens views.
There are roughly 120,000,000 people that live in the south. That is more than 1/3 the population of the US. It is kind of a stupid question to ask. Furthermore, it was the secession of the south that started the civil war that got us the stupid flag to begin with. It is also about a third of the land mass of the continental US (not including Alaska).
Don't get caught up in the hate. The South is a beautiful place in many respects.
Ain't no charm like Southern charm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by convextech
I'm from the south and still live here, but I absolutely hate it lately. I'd let them secede and move the hell out. We don't move now because my husband's parents are still here and in their 80s.
Maybe not the whole South, but a lot of people probably wouldn't mind if Texas left right about now. In fact, if Texas promised to take all whacko conspiracy fruitcakes and religious nut jobs with them, plus all of the Republican contenders for president, people would volunteer to push them out.
I know there are a lot of nice people in Texas, but man, the rest of 'em....!
Maybe not the whole South, but a lot of people probably wouldn't mind if Texas left right about now. In fact, if Texas promised to take all whacko conspiracy fruitcakes and religious nut jobs with them, plus all of the Republican contenders for president, people would volunteer to push them out.
I know there are a lot of nice people in Texas, but man, the rest of 'em....!
Here, in a nutshell, someone has spouted all the mean stereotypes and generalizations of Southerners and rural conservatives, those people that our President said were "clinging to their guns and religion..."
This thread in many ways is typical of the dysfunction and disunity plaguing our entire country: complete intolerance of "the other side", abandonment of religion among academic and urban populations resulting in contempt for the remaining religious population, etc.
It would be easy to say: no, you leave, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. But in reality, we have to try to reconcile our differences and get along. It used to be a given (after 1865, at least) that we were one country, not always in agreement, not always liking each other, but still we're all Americans.
Now I wonder if that sense of nationality has finally disappeared. Maybe it was an artificial thing, forged in the two great World Wars and the shared suffering of the Depression.
It seems people today, ever since the so-called liberation of the 1960s, stick to their narrow self-interests, their narrow little beliefs, and are completely intolerant of disagreement. The closing of the American mind, indeed.
BS. Many Southerners didn't even remember or care that the flag was even there.. seriously!
If you think some of the Southern Posters here on CD represent most southerners, you are delusional!
BTW, how do you correlate wanting to secede vs not wanting to take a flag down.. ?
I see English comprehension is not your strong suit.
I never said most southern posters here are representative of all southerners. Beyond saying southerners want to have their cake and eat it, I said nothing at all about southerners.
I did say that I was skeptical of the claims made here by southerners, that most southerners did not want to secede. My reasoning, if those (a majority according to posters here), whom it is claimed don't want to secede, were serious about not seceding they would have exercised their political power and removed the flag long ago.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at your claim that southerners don't remember or care about the flag.
Here, in a nutshell, someone has spouted all the mean stereotypes and generalizations of Southerners and rural conservatives, those people that our President said were "clinging to their guns and religion..."
This thread in many ways is typical of the dysfunction and disunity plaguing our entire country: complete intolerance of "the other side", abandonment of religion among academic and urban populations resulting in contempt for the remaining religious population, etc.
It would be easy to say: no, you leave, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. But in reality, we have to try to reconcile our differences and get along. It used to be a given (after 1865, at least) that we were one country, not always in agreement, not always liking each other, but still we're all Americans.
Now I wonder if that sense of nationality has finally disappeared. Maybe it was an artificial thing, forged in the two great World Wars and the shared suffering of the Depression.
It seems people today, ever since the so-called liberation of the 1960s, stick to their narrow self-interests, their narrow little beliefs, and are completely intolerant of disagreement. The closing of the American mind, indeed.
Well, no. I can only go by what I see and what I see is elected Texas state officials wasting the taxpayers' money by making up ridiculous laws to shut down Planned Parenthood and being challenged and losing in court over and over, refusing to issue gay marriage licenses even after the Supreme Court ruled it was legal, and calling out the National Guard to watch a drill because they're afraid the government is going to take over the state. Now that's what I call a state that sticks to its narrow self-interests, its narrow little beliefs, and is completely intolerant of disagreement.
But that's OK. I think the same about North and South Dakota too. And I lived in South Dakota for a while.
Very few southerners would be stupid enough to want to leave the Union in this day and age.
Why would they? What purpose would it serve? The south as a whole is too poorly educated and doesn't make enough money to support itself, and like the lazy cousin of a well-to-do family, requires the financial assistance of the North to feed itself and keep from living under a bridge. Cutting itself off from the family that sends it the rent check every month would be suicide, and even most southerners are smart enough to understand that.
But having said that, the nation as a whole would never tolerate it. The question has already been decisively settled once; if they're stupid enough to put it to the test once again it won't be answered any differently.
Last edited by Mr. In-Between; 07-24-2015 at 04:18 AM..
I wouldn't object but it will never happen. The Southern states rely far too heavily on Federal tax dollars generated in Northern states. Not to mention, if the USA took all its military bases out of the South, several states wouldn't be able to sustain their population.
Blue states like California, New York, Massachusetts get back far less than a dollar in Federal spending for every one they send to Washington. Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky get back more than $2 for every $1 they pay out in Federal taxes. The only blue state that does is New Mexico, partially because it has 9.03 people per 1,000 in population who are Federal employees, the nation's third highest ratio. The highest? Maryland (location of the National Institutes of Health and many government IT facilities) and Alaska.
The states figured to be the least dependent on the Federal government? New Jersey, Delaware (home of the vice president), and Illinois (home of that infamous neighborhood organizer who was born in Kenya ).
Read the details. This website, WalletHub has been collecting and evaluating this information for years. 2015
I think they should be two different countries. Its obvious the value systems are significantly different. I think they are basically incompatible, no one is happy with anyone or anything.
In my opinion, this question is less of a great debate than a thinly veiled attempt to bring northerners together to deride the attributes of the south, all in the guise of debating secession.
I've spent the vast majority of my life out west, so I'm allowed to comment here.
No, I would not want the south to secede. No, I don't think they want to.
The beauty and strength of the United States is in it having among the various states a wide diversity of cultures and attitudes along with geography and climate. I treasure that about our country. You can vote with your feet to leave an area if it isn't a good fit for you, and still be unequivocally an American.
This diversity gives us more experimentation with regard to solving local problems, more points of views, more tailored solutions for issues affecting one area more than another, or at least it should.
I think more strife arises between different areas of the country when the Federal government attempts one-size-fits-all solutions that ultimately satisfy no one.
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