Meerkat sends in this essay by a mop-topped moron at the New Republic (a site that doesn’t allow comments) who maintains that it’s the blue states that fuel the economy and the red states are a drain on resources.
Prepare yourself for the most adolescent essay ever penned by a supposed adult, one that still believes Russian hackers aided Trump and torpedoed Hillary.
Some gems-
-Truth is, you red states just haven’t been pulling your weight. Not for, well, forever.
-Trump’s characterization of “American carnage” in our urban centers aside, cities now generate the vast majority of America’s wealth—the cities, that is, where blue folks live.
-You want to organize the nation around your cherished principle of states’ rights—the idea that pretty much everything except the U.S. military and paper currency and the national anthem should be decided at the local level? Fine. We won’t formally secede, in the Civil War sense of the word. We’ll still be a part of the United States, at least on paper. But we’ll turn our back on the federal government in every way we can, just like you’ve been urging everyone to do for years, and devote our hard-earned resources to building up our own cities and states. We’ll turn Blue America into a world-class incubator for progressive programs and policies, a laboratory for a guaranteed income and a high-speed public rail system and free public universities. We’ll focus on getting our own house in order, while yours falls into disrepair and ruin.
-we now endorse cutting the federal income tax to the bone—maybe even doing the full Wesley Snipes and abolishing it altogether. We will raise our state and local taxes accordingly to pay for anything we might need or want. We ask nothing more from you and your federal government. Nothing for infrastructure, or housing, or the care of the poor and sick—not that you gave us much, anyway. All we want is our money, and you can keep yours, dollar for dollar.
-No more Obamacare? Hey, that hot mess was tricked out the way it was mostly to appease you in the first place.
-Since we have nearly all of the country’s leading hospitals, medical schools, and medical research institutes—and a much healthier population, one that’s happily short on automatic weapons—I’m sure we’ll come up with something better.
-Still think FEMA is some kind of liberal welfare scam? Poof—it’s gone! We will never again beg the people you elected to office to help us in the wake of what should have been considered national tragedies, such as September 11 and Hurricane Sandy. Meanwhile, best of luck with all those tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, forest fires, and—all new!—Oklahoma fracking-earthquakes you always seem to be having.
-What’s the matter with Kansas? Who cares! This is the good thing about a divorce—the chance to get all of your crazy, deadbeat in-laws out of the house. How can we save Detroit? Hey, she’s your baby now.
-There are still a few kinks to work out, of course. What to do, for instance, about the likes of Illinois and Minnesota, blue states adrift in a red sea? Or all those individual “blue cities” trapped in red states, like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, or Cleveland and Columbus? We’ll need to reach cooperative agreements with them to exchange goods and services as needed.They will become stops on our new information superhighways, or on our superfast rail networks, or self-driving highways. Our cool new trains and cars will glide past you all the faster, now that we don’t have to stop in between. Be sure to wave!
Whether you stay or go, we’ll be reaching out around the globe to recruit the most talented, intelligent, and ambitious individuals we can find to come to our America. Actually, we already do this, thanks to institutions from Silicon Valley to the University of Chicago, MIT to Wall Street, Hollywood to Broadway. Oh, and be forewarned: We will also be coming for your best and brightest in Red America, offering them free rides at many of the finest universities and research centers in the world. But don’t worry: You’ll still dominate college football!
-Many of my fellow blue staters, of course, would prefer to persuade you to come around to our way of thinking. That is, after all, what elections are supposed to be about—instead of, say, suborning the head of the FBI, or getting foreigners to commit felonies on your behalf.
-This is the bleakest new reality of all: That common ground is gone. You Trump Staters don’t read or listen to the same news sources we do. You don’t even care what a legitimate news source is, as the rise of all those fake news sites has demonstrated. Two-thirds of you believe that unemployment rose under Obama, even though he actually cut it by more than half.
-Since you will not hear our words, we will need to convince you by our actions. We will need to run our states and our cities so well, in such an effective and enlightened manner, that we can make you understand all over again what every page of our history should already tell you.
The school system must be proud.
Huh? I wonder why then is Gov. Moonbeam begging Trump for money?
Where would California get its water?
This fucking idiot seems to not realize that, take for instance, Illinois is the 4th least federally dependent state, but they have THE HIGHEST FUCKING STATE TAXES IN THE COUNTRY!!
If we abolished federal taxes the states that are “oh so dependent” on the feds would raise state taxes. Red states have lower state taxes.
You think they’re stupid???
Amtrak makes money to this clown. I stopped reading.
Okay. I gave up at the halfway point, or thereabouts.
Fine, dude. Enjoy your empty grocery stores. I don’t go into your crap hole cities anyway. You actually need us more than we need you.
And don’t let us know how it turns out. We don’t care.
Wow, did this guy leave any kool-aide for anyone else? (I hope not.) Complete absence of critical thinking skill. Blindly arrogant and stupendously bigoted.
I love how Detroit is a red state problem! LOL What planet is the fool living on? Republicans destroyed Detroit…. yikes, totally clueless.
He’s not alone in his line of thinking. The urban leftists actually believe the are the smartest people in the country. They’re lucky the red staters don’t stop their food shipments.
All these folks ignore the amount of federal land – and thus federal dollars – in the red states. Federal dollars flow to military bases and Indian reservations. They also fail to note the high level of retirees in red states like Florida and Arizona who receive Social Security.
Remove those payments, look at taxes (as BFH rightly notes) and look at unfunded pension liabilities coming due, then get back to me about how the high population blue states are net contributors. They’re all teetering on bankruptcy.
That said, I wouldn’t mind cutting them loose with strict provisions that they may not move to the newly freed red states – ever.
95 million people drop out of workforce and this jack wagon thinks unemployment went down under Obama. I hate smug democrat socialists!
VPF Very Punchable Face
It’s fun to have a tantrum on a website that disallows comments, isn’t it, poopypants?
There are too many gaps in his thinking to pick just one- but I will try. He is talking about literal isolation between the cities and the fly over country. Between the liberal Doctors & lawyers and the farmers and truckers. They will hold back their legal advice and medical services and just wait until the rest of us realize the error of our ways and after we have been properly humbled and chastised they will think about allowing us back into their good grace?
Oh how I would love to take that bet. We keep all the food and resources and means of distribution. The Doctors will be fleeing the hell hole that is any given city within 2 days after the trucks stop bringing in the food to feed their filthy masses. By week 2 every major city would be in complete societal collapse with a Donner Party flair added in. The whole “the left eating their own” would have a completely new meaning after such an implementation of this idiot’s wet dream.
I look forward to the resurgence of Mom and Pop grocery stores in small town AMERICA!…I needs me some penny candy….
Bless his small, ignorant, and blue heart! Sheesh, what an idiot!
I think Liberal fantasies are the most entertaining of all.
🙂
the sad news is this puke is eligible to vote.
The guy is a dick but the biggest problem with his secession plan (in whatever the form it takes) is that while he figures that the US is divisible he thinks that the state is not. Up here in Canada we went through two Quebec referendums where it was made clear (although ignored) by a number of areas in the province that they would not be going with Quebec but would be staying with Canada. This drove the Parti Quebecois crazy. It was also mentioned that most of northern Quebec (including the huge James Bay Power Project) was on land given to Quebec in trust for the rest of Canada. This started quite the punchup. In any event if these Blue states wanted to go they better be prepared to lose the national parks as well as territory that voted to stay. In California I gather there already is a plan for the state of Jefferson which would consist of a pile of northern and western land. Hell, they may strike first.
Onginer, I had the same thought about Detroit. No, no, no, Detroit is not a “red-state problem.” If you’re leaving, little dweeb, you are taking Detroit with you. And all of Dearbornistan as well.
Enjoyed eating your tough and stringy vegan neighbor. It would taste a lot better with potatoes and carrots, though. Too bad.
Blue states think food comes from the grocery store and water comes from the tap. I would love to see reality bitch slap this goofball!
he looks like an unfunny, stupider version of Lewis Black the comedian
I thought this was a conservative site and we should be backing him if he wants to stop interstate welfare!!
Just on an an intuitive basis, no need to delve quite so deeply, this guy’s premise is asinine.
Blue people (forget the states) are comprised at a much higher percentage by native womyn studies graduates, felons, welfare recipients, drop outs, thugs, drug addicts etc.
If every blue person, of this type, in the country were shipped out of the red states and into the blue states, which “country” do you think will fail faster – the blue or the red one?
And, of course, the blue states will not be permitted to adopt any red state policies for the purposes of this experiment.
This moron doesn’t seem to realize that the Berlin wall was erected to keep people in, not out. If we divided the country in the same way, the wall would be to keep blue stater people from fleeing this idiot’s “utopia.”
Yes but don’t you think you should master shampoo first?
Yes, and we ‘happily’ have all kinds of weapons and can defend ourselves against outside invaders, and eat heartily doing it.
Have fun until bed time, junior
Owebama is the Unemployment leader, over 95,000,000 served!
As the Maxine Water’s constituent said “we don’t need no stinkin’ gas and oil, we rides the bus.”
Somebody doesn’t like “people of color,” in our red states, AKA, the most prominent folks who suck up government welfare $$$S. Especially our new vibrant Hispanic community, (approx 47% are on some type of welfare, 23% are on more than 3 types of assistance), so he suddenly is ok with the new left voting block being frozen out? Heh. Interesting.
Everyone has hit the good points so I will make my adolescent comment. Dang! He looks like the toilet mop at church we use on volunteer janitor Saturday.
Oh. I almost forgot.
We’re going to need you to surrender the coopted term “patriot”. You, sir, are anything but a patriot. A patriot has love of country. You have nothing but contempt for yours.
Finally, a batshat crazy lunatic I agree with. It’s a superb idea, if only they’d keep their end of the bargain and stop relocating to my red state after they tax themselves out of their blue nirvana.
I never received the opt out memo after the 2008 housing crash caused by these leeches of superior intelligence who assumed 103% ARM mortgages on million dollar 2nd homes, but I’d swear I’ll be paying for their mistakes for the rest of my life.
Also the companies will leave to be taxed less. If California had had weather the companies would have left a long time ago. The other thing is most Doctors that are specialist that I know are more red then blue.
Can you eat hubris?
Here are some of the replies when the author posted his article on Twitter (as BFH points out New Republic does not allow comments):
Dennis Enderson @denderson Mar 9
@bakerauthor I read this essay with repeated fist pumps and exclamations of “Hell Yes!”
✌️Man About Town ✊ @cranstonl1972 Mar 13
@denderson @bakerauthor then you’re a piece of shit
Jonathan Mallard @JonathanMallard Mar 10
@bakerauthor Good, Get out.
With all the industry leaving CA its not a prosperous as you suppose. Good luck with that.
@JonathanMallard @bakerauthor Calif would be very prosperous without propping up failing states.
Jonathan Mallard @JonathanMallard Mar 13
@LyleMSpencer @bakerauthor Lets try it. GET OUT! What happened to your Toyota plant though? Did it move to Texas? Why is that?
CigarsJazzandCoffee @Bitojavaruss Mar 11
@bakerauthor @NewRepublic yes please go. Go now. Right now, we’ll help ya’ll pack.
LionoftheSenate @LionoftheSenate Mar 11
@bakerauthor @NewRepublic you should call your article “white power”
Lyle SpencerVerified account @LyleMSpencer Mar 13
@LionoftheSenate @bakerauthor @NewRepublic No. White power is this elitist regime in power.
Devin Balkind @DevinBalkind Mar 10
@bakerauthor This is my favorite post-election article. Do you think this thinking could this fit within the libertarian party?
Dennis Peters @den_peters_ogde Mar 13
@bakerauthor @NewRepublic welcome. Now you know how we have felt trapped under your rule.
William King @billo39206 Mar 13
@bakerauthor hard to think that so much ig’nance could be packed into one article. Seems written by a 22 yr old
Q Continuum @Q_Continuum_XXX Mar 11
This article is the best read in a decade. You, Kevin Baker (@bakerauthor), are a genius! Great work sir!!!
Jack Montgomery @jxnmtg Mar 12
@bakerauthor Well done. Been thinking along similar lines.
Let’s give it a try!
One-way ticket, though.
izlamo delenda est …
@Engelburka Ha! when I sent the article to BFH I also literally described it as “batshit crazy”! I also said it is a deep look into the liberal mind.
“Fact is, the Northeast Corridor is the only part of our national train system that makes an operating profit”
Please cite your source, Leftie nut.