50 Little Americas

http://www.newsforreal.com/
July 20
House Divided
Stephen Pizzo

snip

That's about to change as the Supreme Court shifts to the right. A conservative Court, hostile to the power of a central government, will slowly but steadily return power to the states. The process has already begun. State and local governments can now, thanks to the Court's decision just last month, seize your property and give it to a private developer in order to increase the local tax base. Local politicians seeking tax revenues teaming up with private developers seeking profits. Has there ever been a more unholy alliance sanctified by the Court?

Get ready for more of the same in the years ahead. Conservatives have been waiting fifty years for this moment, when they can begin turning around the ship of state. Just where they think they are taking us is not be entirely clear. They are seeking a return to an America that few of them actually know. They think they know it, but they never lived it. What lures them is a gauzy Norman Rockwell-ish vision, an America where men are men, women are women, kids mow suburban lawns and set up lemonade stands. And, though they would never admit it, a vision in which everyone but waiters, gardeners and doormen, are white.

And what about women in this vision. Well, they stay home, bake stuff, raise kids, go to PTA meetings and arrange church raffles. And, if an unmarried girl should get pregnant? Well, the little tramp!

As this new conservative Court rolls back earlier rulings protecting equal access, personal choice, freedom from religious indoctrination, rights to a speedy trial, even the right to a lawyer, states will fill that vacuum. Citizens of progressive states, like California and New York, will see little change. They will just have be more careful while on vacation in those other states. Don't get caught with a joint while in vacation in Georgia or try to get an abortion for a daughter attending school in Mississippi, for example. Oh, and why did their daughter get pregnant in the first place? Because Mississippi passed a law allowing pharmacists to refuse to sell contraceptives on religious grounds. (Coat hanger, anyone?)

The biggest changes will come in redneck states which will quickly pass redneck-friendly laws. Their public schools will become Christian-oriented madrases. Creationism will be taught as science while doubt provoking science like evolution will be dismissed as godless "theory." School vouchers will again allow white kids - using public money - to attend private all-white schools as their parents exercise embrace their newly returned right of association – association with other white folks. And yes, there will be a copy of the Ten Commandments in every class -- but that would be the least of our worries by then.. Conservative states will reinstate the right of housing developments to have charters that exclude "undesirables," like Jews, blacks, and -- under the rubric of national security -- Arabs would be the newest excludees.

After a century of creating a common house, the new Supreme Court will begin dividing it up once again. In a decade or so it will no longer be one nation, but fifty, each with it's own take on what rights Americans within their boarder have and what rights they no longer have.

...or any sort of environmental regulations. In those and other cases, the power of the Federal government reigns supreme.

Which actually means the power of Corporate America reigns supreme.

I am not so sure that the American people would tolerate such changes, wouldn't we then stand up and say "No, this isn't happening? We have worked so hard to attain what we have now."
Or would they continue to be complacent and just let the conservatives steam roll everything.

I don't know if this would be plausible but would the more progressive states then demand to secede from the Union, thus sparking the Second Civil war?

Hmmm, only time will tell.


Dee

...would probably have a better world reputation than the "United States of America" under Bush....

http://www.fuckthesouth.com/ Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don't get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I've been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off. more

Sure, the southern states were on the wrong end of the Civil War. I'll grant you that one. But that was a long time ago.

Today, we have an electorate that is around 40% liberal, 20% genuinely conservative, and 40% racist, bigoted, backwards, etc.

Your numbers up north are more like 50% liberal, 20% conservative, 30% racist, bigoted, backwards.

I don't recall any of your blue states giving Kerry that impressive a margin of victory (unless you count DC, which, by the way, was carved out of one of the former slave states.)

As for the crap about the founding fathers, I seem to recall that there were a few southern ones, too. George Washingon, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry come to mind.

Thank God we have a leader now like Howard Dean, who is not willing to abandon the rest of the country for some idiotic "win with 18 states" strategy that has failed the Democratic Party time and time again.

Please don't fuck the south. But if you must, at least buy us dinner somewhere nice beforehand and wear something sexy (hint: we like black lace).

might be a record.

thought we fought a war about that one...this is what happens when history is not taught. Out here in CA, we will just continue to go our merry way. If the red states want to walk on all fours, who are we to stop them.
We can then pitch Arnie into the La Brea tar pits to do battle with the saber-toothed tigers. He might have fun.

Free associating/brain meltdown after a week of too-high temps. Who says global warming isn't happening?