Right below this article, I wrote one asking the question of “Why does Texas keep talking about secession?” and actually answering it instead of standing around scratching my head screaming “the world’s gone crazy” (the default position for most millionaire media pundits). But it isn’t just Texas. Even a brief glance at bot-plagued social media sites like Reddit or Quora or the Yahoo comments section shows that you can’t swing a Russian sanction around without Boris–I mean, “Bubba” asking about splitting America (the most powerful military and biggest economy the world has ever known) in half.
Even professional lowlife Ben Shapiro (real occupation: convincing fools he’s smart) has said he thinks the best outcome America can hope for is a conscious uncoupling between “Red America” and “Blue America.” Of course, all of this is completely forgetting that there really is no such thing as a “red state” or “blue state.” After all, California is at least 30% Republican and the state has produced Reagan, Nixon, Tucker Carlson, Greg Gutfeld, and–wouldn’t you know it?–Ben Shapiro himself. Likewise, New York has made half of Fox News (Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelley, Ann Coulter, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Rudy Guiliani) and even “the Great MAGA King” Trump himself. Similarly, even a state as “red” as Wyoming is 30% Democratic or left-leaning, and Alabama Liberal is living proof of what anyone who can read data will tell you: even Alabama is roughly 40% Democratic or left-leaning.
But let’s say we forget for a minute that the only three “red states” that can actually support themselves (Georgia, Texas, Florida) are actually just red-leaning states that are usually separated only by 2-to-5 points in statewide races. And let’s say we also forget that the most successful areas within “red states” are actually blue cities that drive the vast bulk of their actual economy.
Let’s play along and ask “What if America was split in two: a red half and a blue half?” Short answer: that would be fine for the liberal “half,” but not-so-good for the conservative half.
Blue states and/or blue cities control the vast majority of GDP (2-to-1). They have better schools, better healthcare, more money, more personal choice (gay, transgender, abortion, marijuana), generally happier, and vastly better standard of living.
Plus, blue states pay a disproportionate amount of taxes, and are actually subsidizing the red states. This means the red state budgets and poverty would get even worse than they are now. Many red state problems like lack of healthcare, pollution, obesity, violent crime, or teen pregnancies would get even worse without liberal pushback or counter-balance.
Reported violent crime rate in the U.S. by state 2019 | Statista
[This shows the five states with the least violent crime are all blue states. Other than New Mexico and DC—which isn’t a state—the 12 states with the most violent crime are all red.]
This Is the No. 1 Most Polluted State in America
[This shows the most polluted states in America are red states.]
Then there’s the reason red state men are so angry and even online constantly talking about secession: they can’t get laid. Red states have a disproportionate amount of men over women (Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas). Countries with more men than women aren’t great places to live usually (the Middle East, North Africa, China).
Blue states would have Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, all the world’s trillion dollar companies, the best colleges, a majority of Fortune 500 companies (even tiny Minneapolis has a disproportionate share like Target, Cargill, Best Buy, United Health), most of the nation’s coastlines, a majority of the most attractive women, Scientists and scientific innovation, technological innovation, highly-skilled immigration, international tourism, etc.
Then conservatives usually say things like “but we have the military!” However, Virginia would surely be considered a blue state and it (plus Maryland) has the military intelligence apparatus, Pentagon, and several huge military bases. Not to mention, California actually has the biggest military presence, believe it or not. And since things are escalating to drone warfare and cyber, the blue states have a clear advantage there.
Conservatives can live in a halcyon dream of the “glorious red nation” that would happen over a split (the way many of these same people think “if only…” about the Civil War’s outcome), but they’d be in for a rude awakening if they ever got what they think they want.