In 1975 I hitched from Amherst, Mass to Seattle. In 1979 and 1981 I drove from NY to LA. The postwar, high public investment socially mobile opportunity society I grew up in still existed. It had not yet been shattered by the deregulated, financialized capitalism of Reagan, Thatcher, Bushes 1 and 2 and Goldman Clinton's Robert Rubin/Larry Summers. Now we're left with the shards of the 11 American Nations Colin Woodard wrote about; and a cold civil war threatening to become a hot one. My solution: Secession 2.0 so our neo-confederate, low wage, low service Darwin Prize huntin', fishin' and churchin' theocrats can live with the consequences of their preferences. But forget about letting them use our $ reserve currency after they blow up their financial systems: https://medium.com/illumination-curated/secession-2-0-the-big-sort-continues-d45527935a78.

We're sorry for Grant and Sherman. Please return to your plutocrats' plantation so the rest of us can become a civilized country like Canada or Norway. But Austin, El Paso and Houston will secede from Texas, Atlanta from Georgia and Broward and Miami Dade from Florida, which would trigger an invasion from the Redneck Riviera.

I'd say let's give Texas back to Mexico, but they wouldn't take it.