What Would It Look Like If Red States Actually Seceded?

Continued from previous page

But gold-buggery is now a mainstream proposition in the GOP. Just last week, Virginia legislators approved a plan to study the feasability of the state minting its own coins in order to survive the inevitable collapse of the federal government. And distrust of the Federal Reserve would probably make a common fiscal policy all but impossible.

Minority Rights

Liberals would no doubt worry about minority voting rights in Alabama and conservatives would be equally worried about the right of Montanans to own firearms. One way to adress these concerns would be to have both new countries adopt our existing Constitution. If they want to amend it, they can do so through a constitutional convention, or by passing an amendment with a super-majority in both chambers of Congress and then having it affirmed by three-quarters of their states.

This is a high bar, which means that only constitutional changes with very broad support would be possible. It may not be ideal, but it would go a long way toward protecting minority rights in both new countries.

They would also have independent Supreme Courts, and over the years those courts would no doubt come to very different interpretations of the Constitution. That's probably a good balance; significant change would eventually be apparent, but absent new amendments, its core principles would remain intact.

Alimony

The “blue” states currently subsidize the “red” – eight of the 10 states that took in the most net federal dollars are solidly Republican, and all 10 of the states that pay the most net dollars into the federal system are solidly Democratic. Also, in any rational division of the country, the Blue States of America would end up with the lion's share of economic capacity – we'd have California, New York and Chicago, just for starters.

If we want to make this a friendly divorce, we'd have to consider paying the national equivalent of alimony to the new Red States of America, at least for a certain period of adjustment. This would be in our own interests – when a marriage ends amicably, and one spouse is the primary breadwinner, he or she pays alimony to help the other spouse land on his or her feet.

What Else?

Those are a few things one should consider before calling for secession – or for other states to secede. I'm sure there's much more to consider, so feel free to hash it out.