That esteemed conservative radio host and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Rush Limbaugh, suggested yesterday that the United States may be heading towards splitsville.
Speaking on his program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh claimed that “there cannot be a peaceful coexistence” between red and blue America, which he said had increasingly different values.
“It can’t go on this way,” said Limbaugh. “There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. We can’t be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way.”
Is Rush onto something? Is he just being a clear-eyed realist?
Of course, the only other time in American history when states seceded from the union was in the days leading up to the Civil War. So, are we staring at a second, perhaps bloodless, breakup?
It does go without saying that sometimes, in any relationship, there are simply irreconcilable differences.
Interestingly enough, just one day before Limbaugh’s take on the dissolution of the American union, Texas Republican Rep., Kyle Biedermann, announced his intention to introduce the Texas Independence Referendum Act, which he said would allow Texans to vote for the state to “reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Also, in a tweet he later deleted, Georgia Republican lawmaker, Price Wallace, said last week, “We need to succeed from the union and form our own country,” misspelling “secede.”
There, no doubt, are many Americans on both sides of the red/blue divide who would be more than happy with a national separation, with “ good riddance” perhaps being the shared sentiment.
Of course this will never happen. After all, sanity among the red states is not completely lost.
As John Dean, former Nixon counsel, tweeted, “If the red states seceded, they would be a third world nation. It is the blue states that keep the red state’s financially afloat. Generally, blue states pay more taxes than they receive in federal benefits!”
Here’s something to ponder … if a national breakup were put to a vote right now, let’s say like Brexit, how confident are you the majority of voters would choose to remain the United States of America?
