This is not the post it started out to be.
I was going to write about the issue of a “national divorce.” ACE takes credit for the term:
BTW, I think I invented the term “National Divorce.” I knew “civil war” didn’t sell. And “secession” had too many negative connotations.I thought branding it as “National Divorce” would make it more conceivable.
I saw it first as articulated by Davie Reaboi on his substack, National Divorce Is Expensive, But It’s Worth Every Penny:
For the last several years, I’ve been among a handful of commentators (along with good friends Michael Malice, Jesse Kelly, Michael Anton, and others) talking about the possibility or desirability of National Divorce, the political separation of Blue and Red America—or, to get more specific and inflammatory, the breakup or dissolution of the United States.This week, my friend Karol Markowicz has written a typically thoughtful piece on the subject at the New York Post and concludes that, as much as many people long for some kind of separation that would solve the many real problems of America’s current disunion, it’s not a solution that’s currently feasible….National Divorce isn’t at all an immediate action plan–or, at least, I don’t see it as such. Rather, it is a rhetorical strategy to prepare the ground for crucial discussions about what comes next in America, as the country grows even more divided, bitter, and angry.More than anything else, it is a reminder for Red America to think about economic and cultural autonomy for itself, and what it would take to get there.Autonomy for Red America is of crucial importance, regardless of the status of political or real separation. It is the ability for Americans to be self-sufficient from the financial, educational and cultural institutions that are hostile to its beliefs and way of life, and make reconciliation increasingly impossible.
Tempered by some contrary views:
But “national divorce” sounds quaint compared to the terminology Democrats are using, as John Sexton articulated at Hot Air, Why is the left suddenly talking about a second Civil War?
Just a few months ago the Atlantic published a piece claiming that there was a group of conservatives preparing for a new civil war because the country was now so divided between the conservative right and the woke left. Since then, it seems the left is eagerly picking up on the civil war theme. A few days ago the Guardian published a piece titled “The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it.” The author of the piece has just written a book predicting a civil war is coming soon….I’m condensing this longer argument down to just three short paragraphs but I’m doing that because I think it gives you a sense of the beginning, middle and end of an argument that is gaining traction on the left. The war is here. The right is ready for it but the left is not. We need to burn down everything (including the Constitution) and start over because it’s the only way. An even simpler summary might be: Panic now and then start the revolution….Finally, yesterday NY Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg also wrote about the next civil war, looking at various arguments and concluding a shooting war isn’t likely but some kind of lower-level conflict seems inevitable. Goldberg herself notes the odd phenomenon of this topic going from the farthest fringes of the left and right to the pages of major papers in remarkably short time…
All of which caused me to ditch talking about a national divorce, or even a civil war.
I found myself wondering, what is the left so afraid of?
They control virtually everything: The presidency, Congress, Higher Education, lower education, professional schools and organizations, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, Big Tech and every substantial social media platform, all the large mainstream broadcast, digital, and print media with the exception of News Corp. entities, the HR department of almost every major corporation and many of the boardrooms, the permanent federal bureaucracy, the Joint Chiefs and senior military leadership, the FBI and DOJ, and I could go on and on.
It’s hard to think of any major national institution the left doesn’t control, except maybe the U.S. Supreme Court depending on which side of the bed Roberts and Kavanaugh wake up that morning. Which is why they want to symbolically blow it up through court packing, if they could.
It’s hard to imagine it ending. I’ve written many times about the dread of living with the loss of institutions. It’s something only people in the center or right-of-center have to think about. So many of us don’t see a way out.
What is the left so afraid of at their moment of near total control? Do they know something we don’t?
For one, there are cracks in the armor. They don’t control all the states, and that is a warning to them. The Free State of Florida is thriving, people are fleeing blue states for red states. People yearning to be free scares them. The parents movement scares them, because it’s a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, cross-party movement to reclaim the children. Internet platforms not under their control scare them. People who disagree with them and refuse to be silenced scare them. At some point, it can’t be contained.
Like the animals that sense a tsunami coming long before it’s visible and run to higher ground, they feel it coming. It’s not a guarantee, but just the thought of it is creating panic.
Perhaps they know their strength is something of a charade, it’s unstable, it’s not organic, it’s coerced. When it collapses, they fear it will collapse like a house of cards.
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