Article author doesn’t actually elaborate on what they mean precisely by “cut them loose” but from context it seems to be cut off all their federal funding.
Not even sure how you’d do that to be honest - even Trump’s admin has struggled to legally withhold federal funds from states he hates, the funding gets pushed through in the end by legal action. So you wanna out-crime Trump? Dumb article.
If the author wants to make bold demands then along with that comes the requirement of suggesting how to achieve them, else it’s just performative whining.
The dumbest most neoliberal take ever. Maybe poor people deserve it?
Actually I take it back, dude is probably a white supremacist.
Christopher Armitage @chrisarmitage1 Most tell you what’s wrong. I try to tell you what works. Researcher, Former Law Enforcement Officer, Veteran, Author. Living in Spokane, Washington 🌲🌲🌲 with 3 feline roommates
Cut the Failed
RedStates LooseFailed and red basically are synonymous here
I meant the nation, in its entirety.
Never surrender a square inch of territory to those scumbags. Those states are ruled by corrupt, anti-democracy elites, and the decent people there deserve a chance, not to be written off.
So. NO. This is what we are fighting against. We need to make a society where everyone can be included, happy, heallthy, and free. Not just exclude those we don’t currently agree with.
Many of these hard core MAGA people are like super fans of a sports team. They are looking for something to identify as and a group to be part of. Give them better options and they wouldn’t exist.
Nope, fuck maga. i have no sympathy for nazis. they want to hate everything and everyone, let them be miserable in their little hate worlds.
You realize you think like them and they think like you, right? Dehumanizing someone unequivocally and wishing ill upon them is the easy and default human condition you find yourself living in right now.
i do realize that and it weighs on me, and i hate it, but i refuse to tolerate intolerance.
I am fully willing to have rational conversations with maga, but after trying 100s of times and making no progress, i see no reason to continue with the olive branch. i would have better luck teaching my dog mandrin, than making maga see reason or have empathy.
The problem is that you can’t separate most of MAGA from the hate. If a black person in Mississippi benefits from a federal state service, that cannot be tolerated, even if many whites benefit as well.
It’s more important to protect a non-viable embryo, according to these people, than to protect the mother’s life or health.
I feel like King Theoden from LotR, who says “What can men do against such reckless hate?” Though, it’s valid to substitute “hatred” with “stupidity”
Yes.
They’re hyperfocused on states rights. Fine. Here’s the thing though - with rights come responsibilities. One can’t claim the right to make one’s own decisions, then dodge the responsibility for those decisions.
They.make their choices, they have to deal with the consequences themselves.
So they can grow the fuck up and join the modern world, or they can just wallow in their ignorance and incompetence. It’s their problem - not ours.
with great states rights comes great states responsibilities
So instead of ignoring the fuckups of countries all over the world we are expected to ignore them here as well. Clearly ignoring the problem is not working.
Seems like we are playing right into their hands and sacrificing our own citizens in the name of politics.
The mistake isn’t ignoring the problem - it’s subsidizing it.
They’re free to continue to be ignorant, short-sighted fuckups because we’re there to bail their pathetic asses out.
If we’re going to bail them out, then that means we’re taking responsibility, and if we’re taking responsibility then they’re going to sit the fuck down and shut the fick up and do as they’re told, because obviously they can’t take care of themselves.
And if, on the other hand, they’re going to do as they please, then it’s not our responsibility - it’s theirs. And if they can’t bail themselves out of the trouble they’ve caused for themselves, that’s their own fucking problem.
It has to be one or the other. Authority without responsibility just creates moral hazard. Either they have the aurhority, in which case they also have the responsibility, or we have the responsibility, in which case we also have the authority.
I like this way of framing it because it doesn’t abjectly give up responsibility.
It plays right into their Atlas Shrugged sensibilities.
I love it
Hmm, I like this approach. How about this though. When a state fucks up bad enough to need a federal bailout, and it has to be the states fault not something like a natural disaster unless the state itself either caused it or demonstrably failed to prepare for it (looking at you Texas power grid) then the federal government does the following.
First they decide how much they’re budgeting to fix the problem. Then the State needs to decide if they’re going to provide a plan to keep that problem from happening again. If the state provides a plan then the federal subsidy payments are done in installments and those installments are conditional on implementing that plan. If however the state either refuses to make a plan or doesn’t make one that’s acceptable instead that money is put into a fund that people can claim some amount of to cover expenses for moving out of that state and into another one. This could potentially go all the way up to the cost of buying a house in a different state, although they then actually have to move out of their current state including selling any property in that state or else the money gets clawed back.
This way the problem gets solved one way or another, either the state improves or else there are fewer people stuck in shitty states.
Seems reasonable.
Maybe, but on the plus side it’s the ignorant, hateful citizens. Win-win.
That is just pure propaganda. They are not anymore hateful than you or I. They have been led astray.
I get it, othering is as appealing as it is toxic.
If they are still “astray” at this point, it’s by choice. Fuck them.
So children raised in these environments, fed lies day in and day out are ultimately choosing to be a certain way?
Republicans don’t care about children, why should I?
It seems that’s not the only thing you have in common with Republicans…
Blame the people for being lied to just doesn’t have that self-righteous energy you are looking for.
Yours is the unpopular but adult position that will ultimately get us past this crisis
Secessionists are dangerous and malicious
This is simply what the red states want and it will not improve your lives but leave us with highly dangerous neighbors and a completely destroyed society
Do not fall for this shit
Review “soft secession”.
and plays exactly into what Putin wants, to weaken the US even further.
No country can last forever, renewal is just as important for governments as forest fires are to restoring the balance in nature.
Is it painful? Yes.
Is it necessary eventually? Also yes.
So basically what we already have
Do you think it can’t get much much worse?
Just because it can get worse, doesn’t mean it’s not already here
Cut them loose and trail of tears every republican voter out of the blue states to live in their own backwards pedofile supporting cesspool
Of course we all know that Republicans have no concern for human life unless it’s an embryo.
This is not really true. Republicans do not really care about embryos any more than they care about the pro-life flags their voters fly. Like the flags, the embryo is just a symbol, a tool to be abandoned as soon as it has served its political purpose.
Yeah the main reason they care is because abortion gives women agency, the ability to control their own lives. In the conservative ideology women are subservient to men.
They love secession so much.
They love Jesus so much.
Let them have both.
Is… there any precedent or process for… un-granting statehood, and returning it to being a territory?
No.
But there’s plenty of historical precedent for countries splintering.
Would be useful if those fed dollars the author is decrying was much more than military jobs and general entitlements like ag grants, Medicaid, and SNAP. Like yeah, their legislators don’t care about those folks either. But we ain’t exactly pulling a TVA anymore here so playing like neolib Clinton era bare minimum spending on poverty is a grand handout is pretty silly. For the most part nobody in the South or the Rust belt has gotten shit post NAFTA. The new deal has been dead for a long time but we’re sure they owe us for managing poverty.
I’ve said it before, but we need to start shutting down all these miniscule towns that have no reason for existing. They are nothing but an economic and social drain on the country.
I fact checked the ratios of federal spending to federal tax receipts, for the three states mentioned in the substack. https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2022
Could I have help with more fact checking? The reasoning is sound, but I’ve been burnt before by poorly sourced opinion pieces
I don’t know why they gotta show that photo. I see opportunity there. A good neighborhood is one where I can take my welder and grinder to the backyard and do whatever the whole day and nobody is bothered by the noise. Not that they accept the noise but that they live far enough from me to not hear or be bothered by the noise. If you can do that, that’s a good engineering neighborhood.
Disagree. A better neighborhood would have much denser, often multi family housing. But provide actual proper workshop spaces for that sort of thing so not to disturb the neighborhood. Suburbia and exurbia are two of the most corrosive societal forces.
Disagree. Different people like different things. Both high density and low density should exist. The goal should be happy people.
Agreed. I lived in a small town and hated it. I need the buzz of a city, the opportunities, always things happening.
Also, in a big city you can find groups of people to fit with your identity however niche you are. In a small town it’s the opposite, you have to adapt yourself to them to fit in, they are very monocultural. I can’t do that.
I don’t disagree. It’s just that suburbia can’t continue to exist. If you can dig your own well and are going to provide your own power, et cetera, more power to you. Bua lot of places like that. Where there’s little opportunity, and far too much resources invested in minimally used infrastructure. Are unsustainable as they currently exist.
But nobody you was talking about suburbia. The guy above was discussing rural living, not suburban
Exurbia, I didn’t repeat the term and that tripped you up. Suburbia, exurbia/rural areas especially. Where you have to run miles of wire or pipe to service three or four people. Completely unsustainable.
Miles of wire is easy and low maintenance. Miles of pipes doesn’t make sense, but water is also not hard to localize. Miles of stroads is what defines suburbia. A rural highway with a driveway every 2-3 miles defines rural living and it’s perfectly sustainable. It would be better if the rural hubs were connected to cities via railroads, like they used to be, but still they aren’t too bad as is.
