Yes, yes, secede please!!

[SillyGoose]

The southern movement for an independent Christian country. (or is that a Kristian Kountry?!)

http://www.dixienet.org/

I really wish they would leave. The South completely ruins the United States. I wish the Civil War had never been fought, and Abe just said - "G'Bye!!"

[SharonDee]

You really are a silly goose, aren't you? Don't think in your wildest imagination those cranks speak for all of us in The South.

[wildernesse]

Sharon took the words right out of my mouth.

[livius drusus]

Yeah, sorry Goose, but we've got too many cool Southerners here for me to wish for secession. Besides, without the South where would y'all go for good weather? The entire eastern seaboard would be stuck in an endless winter.

[HighOnHotSauce]

I will never live in "The South".

[livius drusus]

Um. Okay... I didn't mean to suggest you would.

[HighOnHotSauce]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Um. Okay... I didn't mean to suggest you would.

I realize that. I just meant that there are indeed a lot of great, cool, wonderful people who live in "The South" and are from "The South" but you won't catch me moving down there to embrace "The South" and the dixie flag any time soon. I was also pointing out that people refer to "it" as "The South" as if it needs that. I guess I've been living in "The North" too long.

[livius drusus]

Well, the OP refers to what I assume are the states of the former Confederacy as the South. It's an understandable, if less than precise, convention, imo, so I don't really get your objection to the term.

I also don't get why your characterization of people who move from, say, Maine to Georgia is so pejorative. I don't "embrace" the Confederate Battle flag; I don't know anyone who does.

So I guess I don't really understand what's pissing you off. Is your problem with the differentiation between North and South. I agree it's contrived and vague, but it works well enough in general conversation. Is your problem with the southern states themselves, ie, their politics, or with Southerners or with people who flee the chill of a Pennsylvania winter for more temperate climes? Is it a historical Civil War, slavery, Jim Crow beef? Something else entirely?

[HighOnHotSauce]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Well, the OP refers to what I assume are the states of the former Confederacy as the South.

So I guess I don't really understand what's pissing you off. Is your problem with the differentiation between North and South. I agree it's contrived and vague, but it works well enough in general conversation.

I’m not pissed off about anything and it is the differentiation I was getting at, I just said it in a really stupid way. “I’m a proud southerner.” Well good for you. I would never think of my self as a “Proud northerner.” I wasn’t brought up in the south and have never lived there so I don’t understand that mind set. I admit it, I made an uninformed comment from ignorance, but it’s just general conversation.

[livius drusus]

I'm really confused, Hot Sauce. Who said they were a proud southerner? I'm not going to dissect your post or make you look like an idiot. I only posted in this thread because I don't think the South should secede as recommended in the OP. I thought it was an unfair sentiment and tried to counter it light-heartedly.

[HighOnHotSauce]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

I'm really confused, Hot Sauce. Who said they were a proud southerner?

No one did, it was just something to address the differentiation between the north and the south, nothing more.

I'm not going to dissect your post or make you look like an idiot.

This may confuse some because I edited my original post most likely as you made this one. I’m sorry about that comment liv, it wasn’t directed at you personally, it just happens on forums sometimes. A poster makes an off hand comment and they get pounded into submission when it was only meant less than half-heartedly or even jokingly and the thread turns into 50 post of the person just trying to explain that it was a joke or they didn’t really mean it with the end result of them just looking like an idiot, hence I say the hell away from a thread that looks even remotely like that. (how about that for a run on sentence.)

I only posted in this thread because I don't think the South should secede as recommended in the OP.

Now we come to my point, I agree with you, I absolutely do NOT think that “The South’ should succeed. In fact, leave the whole dichotomous thinking behind, which was my point with the I’m a proud southerner, I’m a proud northerner thing.

[SillyGoose]

I too know cool people from The South, and they would be more than welcome to move to the United States before or after secession! They could also go on living in the Bible Belt, or the Bible Socks, and visit us frequently. Alot of cool people live in places that suck ass. I am just tired of the political influence of these places dominated by really really stupid and nasty people. The 'red states', so to speak.

[livius drusus]

Oooh... Okay I totally see what you mean now, Hot Sauce, and not only did your run on sentence make perfect sense, I prefer to avoid that kind of thread as well.

No, it's definitely a contrived dichotomy, just like any leftover notions of "Northern pride" or "Southern pride" break down upon closer inspection. A far more accurate depiction of cultural identification would be individual state pride. My great-grandmother, for example considered herself a Connecticut Yankee and had a strong sense of local patriotism.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by SillyGoose

I am just tired of the political influence of these places dominated by really really stupid and nasty people. The 'red states', so to speak.

Don't believe the hype.

[Penni]

I'm not a big fan of "the south" and some of the people who champion ideas like "southern honor" and etc., but I was going to say, and as vm's map shows, we might be better off getting rid of the mid-West. Their new phraseology "Middle America", "Real Americans" etc is really starting to bug even more than "southern honor" and "southern manners"

As vm's map shows, we should probably just get rid of Tornado Alley. Then we won't have to care about (or help pay for) all the damage done to various trailer parks by tornadoes either!

In the meantime, I've always wanted California to secede. If any state could make it on its own, it's CA, and although Abe was definitely great in a lot of ways, I've never been fully onboard with this bizarre obsession with preserving the union at all costs. If the union works, great. If it doesn't, why should anyone HAVE to stay a part of it? I know a lot of Californians that are tired of geting about $.75 (or less maybe, can't be bothered to look it up right now) worth of services for every dollar we send east, and then being mocked by the rest of the country as crazies in general and filthy liberals, politically, to boot. Way to bite the hand that feeds. But, we never do anything about it.

[Ari]

Well, here is a plan. Let's gather all the cool southerners up, put them on a bus (we will only need one ) and bring them to the north, or even better the left coast, and then let them secede.

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Besides, without the South where would y'all go for good weather?

California, Hawaii. It would be a boon for the airline industry.

Originally Posted by SillyGoose

The South completely ruins the United States.

I was going to bring up the blue state/red state myth, but I see vm already has.

[SillyGoose]

It's not just the election. Look at the senate and congress for differences between states. Where are the uber-conservative reps and senators from?

And yes, the midwest sucks too. Screw 'em!

[Crumb]

The point SillyGoose is that those 'red' states contain many 'blue' people. Many more than a buss full.

[Dingfod]

Here is one map that is indicative of how the election results were by county. I've seen another that did it by individual pixels indicating vote outcome in percentage by precinct or something like that. The whole country was basically some shade of purple or another.

Personally, I like this one.

[xyza]

This stuff is strangly interesting, I was going to say we don't get it here but I guess we do. There's always been Northern Ireland, they have to me the most notible in mordern times, and back in history the Scots. Can't think of Wales ever really putting up a fight.
When you look at the political structure now, they have all been allowed their own parliaments, even if the English one still imposes most legislations.

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally Posted by Ari

Well, here is a plan. Let's gather all the cool southerners up, put them on a bus (we will only need one ) and bring them to the north, or even better the left coast, and then let them secede.

What if they don't want to leave their homes? Did you ever think of that?

[Dingfod]

Found another map, one of the 2000 election mixing blue, red and green colors based on the ratio of votes between Gore, Bush and Nader. The only red states are Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. And, having lived in two of them, that's about right. BushCo could eat aborted fetuses while having gay sex with the abortion doctors on the White House lawn and they'd still vote for him there.

[Ari]

Originally Posted by Crumb

The point SillyGoose is that those 'red' states contain many 'blue' people. Many more than a buss full.

Of course they are Blue, they live in a red state, who wouldn't be blue.

[HighOnHotSauce]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

No, it's definitely a contrived dichotomy, just like any leftover notions of "Northern pride" or "Southern pride" break down upon closer inspection.

Yep, that’s basically where I was trying to go I just took a very poor route getting there.