Just finished a long and utterly pointless attempt to make a rational argument to a sometime contributor to this blog who was complaining that liberals were distorting stuff after the murders in Tucson. There are links on my Facebook wall if anyone want to go there.
When discussing whether the Louisiana Purchase had made the US so big it might split, Thomas Jefferson wrote Joseph Priestly in 1804
I confess I look to this
duplication of area for the extending a government so free and economical as
ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one confederacy,
or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe is not very
important to the happiness of either part. Those of the western confederacy will be as much our
children & descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much
identified with that country in future time as with this . . . .
It may take another decade or two, but if the so-called “conservatives” cannot begin to interact with the rest of the country on principles of constructive respect, American politics will continue to degenerate until both sides will rather go their own ways than put up with one another. I would much rather certain states be independent and pursue their own vision of “freedom” than to continue ruining our attempts at improving our lives. If they feel the same way, good.