Thursday, February 20, 2014

Into the vortex of madness, secession in New York

At the Daily Caller website there is an article advocating secession in New York state. The article is here:

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/18/founders-to-new-york-you-dont-need-congresss-hall-pass-to-secede/

There has been some desire by some people in upstate New York to have their own state. Primary motivation is that they lost the election and can't get their own way.

The writer of the article at the Daily Caller, Mike Church, a professional ranter with his own show, claims that there is no impediment for secession, that Upstate New York if they want to have their own country and not have to worry about the U.S. Congress granting them admission as a state.

As for my "professional ranter" label, I think if you read Mr. Church's article you will see that it fits.

In the competition to see who can get the most attention, who can best stoke outrage, by talk show hosts the conservative movement is being led into the vortex of madness. Also, it doesn't occur to conservatives that in talking about secession they are losing their claim to be more patriotic-than-thou. I am sure Mr. Church could care less what the consequences are of proposing secession as long as he can improve or hold his ratings and take out a position among his fellow ranters.

The article doesn't review the flow of income in the state of New York. It would be interesting to see where the cash flows in New York. How many rural areas in New York are subsidized by the whole state. Whether Upstate New York largely benefits from revenue from the down state region of New York. I do know that the State of New York is spending billions for an advance semiconductor manufacturing facility in Upstate New York to make the region a focus of the semiconductor and advanced technology. Something only a big state with a big budget could do.

In the 1970s I reviewed the representation in the Senate of the population of the United States. I found that 40% of the American public had 10% of the representation in the U.S. Senate and 10% of the American public had 40% of the representation in the U.S. Senate. Representation in the U.S. Senate is fairly unequal already. I don't think that this representation needs to be made more unequal by the admission of states which have very small populations and whose desire for statehood is that they didn't get their way in the last election.

Also, there is no great principle that all political bodies have to be homogeneous in opinion. In fact is probably is a good thing when political bodies have dissenting voices.

It will be interesting how far this secessionist thinking will go into the conservative movement, whether secession thinking will consume it and discredit it.


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