Courtesy of Wednesday morning’s Lucianne.com comes this pull
quote from Geraldine Ferraro, the now getting long in the tooth
former vice presidential candidate of the Democratic party:
“You know what? Just let me make one point. You were
talking about the map before. If indeed all those blue states all
got together and seceded from the union, think what would be left
for those red states, nothing. There would be no educational
system. You would have nothing. What would be left to you? I mean,
where is all of this talent in this country? It’s on both sides,
the Northeast corridor.”
— Geraldine Ferraro to Sean Hannity on Hannity and
Colmes, November 6.
The “map” Ms. Ferraro refers to is, of course, the original one
published in USA Today, showing red states and blue
states, Republican vs. Democratic voting. Modern news has moved
fast enough to discredit the state by state notion that it’s hard
to find that map on the Web anymore. Here’s a little
one from John Zogby’s home page. The first thing to say about
secession is that it’s not going to happen. We fought a war about
the idea, remember? The second is, never mind a state by state
division. Individual jurisdictions within states wouldn’t stand for
it. Look, more correctly, at the county by county map, here
here. That’s what everybody has been writing
about lately, and that’s what’s pertinent to the ridiculous notion
of the blue states seceding.
The blue states aren’t all blue, with few exceptions.
Look just at California. The Central Valley, which supplies much
of the U.S. (and the world) with food, registers solid red, as do
San Diego and Orange County, San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt. Would
the military folk of San Diego and the farmers of the mid-state
region want to join what Washington Post editor Joel
Garreau, in The Nine Nations of North America, calls
“Ecotopia”? Nope.
Or consider even almost-solid blue Connecticut and Rhode Island.
These states are home to the Electric Boat Corporation, the premier
manufacturer in the world of nuclear submarines. It employs more
than 11,000 people in Groton, Connecticut, and in Quonset Point,
Rhode Island. Do the good liberal burghers of Connecticut and Rhode
Island want to stay in the fast-attack and boomer business? Uh-uh.
What happens?
Intellectual capital the blue capitals may have, as Ms. Ferraro
says, but how will they eat? How will they defend themselves? Were
I the base commander a military base in California, what would I do
upon a movement toward secession by my county? I think I might be
on the growler to my counterparts in Kansas and Nebraska, arranging
to move in.
Among various kinds of fixed assets, only harborage appears to
offer blue states an advantage. The Blues would have Boston,
Baltimore, and New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego,
Seattle, and Spokane. They could probably control the St. Lawrence
Seaway. The Reds would take Galveston, New Orleans, Mussel Shoals,
Charleston, Newport News, and Tampa and Miami. Airports would break
just about even, with the edge going to the Reds for big, capable
regional hubs like Atlanta, Dallas, and Memphis.
The blue states would have television and movie production. But
what are movies without distribution networks of theaters? And what
is TV without affiliates? The shattering of conventional media
would proceed apace.
No, the interesting thing about all the current secession talk
is its similarity to the pre-Civil War era. At that time, an area
of the country felt itself threatened by the impending loss of a
key portion of its agrarian livelihood. Kicking and yelling, it
resisted being dragged into the new industrial age.
So what are the blue confederates kicking and screaming about?
What well-nigh irresistible movement toward modernity do they
refuse to recognize? Oh, I could name a few things.
