We have a case studies on this. It doesn’t work. Beliefs are malleable, so even if you were able to perfectly divide boundaries by party or religion those boundaries would need to be remapped every generation. America is a free country. If you don’t like your neighbor, you can move.
This is not constantly going on in the Balkans. @YellingAtClouds
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Of course that’s possible. And why would that be a problem?
My example of neighbors might not have been a good example. If someone moves from one location to another in the US, he’s still in the US! Balkanization involves breaking up into smaller countries.
Additionally, people broke away from each other in the Balkans along nationality/ethnicity, which are not malleable. So did Czechs and Slovaks.
I think I understand the theme you’re going towards, but I think the Balkans are not a good example of this necessarily.
From what I understand-
Historically the ethnic groups in the Balkans kept getting lumped into single nation-states largely because significantly stronger foreign states kept absorbing them or trying to exert influence over the region and force one ethnic group to have supremacy over the other.
The Balkan nations that formed after WW2 were completely arbitrary lines on a map. They didn’t form organically, so thinking they’d just stay nice proved to be silly.
I think the lessons to be learned from the issues that arose in the Balkans is that nation-building done by foreign people who don’t have an understanding (and frankly don’t care) of the situation on the ground is fraught with dangers.
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Sounds a bit like the U.S.
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I get what you’re proposing. I don’t think it’s a solution. CA is different from NJ is different from TX is different from Idaho. You have options.
Yes.
Due to perverted interpretations of the Supremacy Clause, those options are pretty much subject to the whims of the majority. People can’t agree to move to X to escape Y, if the U.S. decides it also likes Y. If there were true federalism(as was desired by the “anti-federalists”), there would certainly be options.
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Ask a foreigner and he might not see any difference between Americans.
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Most Americans don’t see any difference between the people in the countries between ours and Antarctica, the people in any of the countries in all of Africa, or the people from Japan to Europe with the exception of Arabs.
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Because most don’t know anyone from those countries. Most couldn’t name those countries or find them on a map.
I went from a high-tax blue state to a low-tax red state. Not quite Belgium to Bermuda, but the differences are considerable. I agree that we’ve corrupted Federalism, likely beyond repair, but Balkanizing is the nuclear option.
Why? Why do you believe local and State governments, in addition to communities and individuals, are just lackeys of a bully(U.S.), and can only get along under bully-threat? And let’s assume you are correct: Are the people of the Balkans better off under multiple governments, or under one?
The result of cramming mutually hostile people under one government and into one “country”.
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Wars of religion and secession, neither of which are solved by Balkanizing. You can try to draw boundaries based on religious or political beliefs, but there is always some minority left behind in a sea of hate and massacres usually follow. If Rwandans can find a solution other than Balkanizing, so can we. Red Wave and state rights are making a comeback. Just look at Roe v Wade.
I do not understand this. Balkanization was not solved. It was the solution.
They didn’t just break up because of religion. These were distinct, different nations.
Are there massacres going on today in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Montenegro? I’m ignorant to this.
I know hardly anything about these people.
Also, the construct of Yugoslavia was forced upon several nations—twice.
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Balkanization wasn’t the solution. Balkanization (starting with Croat and Slovene secession) pre-empted the wars. When countries balkanize, risk of civil war increases dramatically. Do you think the American govt is going to let red states secede without a fight?
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Umm, they would not have Balkanized if they weren’t forced together in the first place. @YellingAtClouds Hence where the term came from.
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Right.
People with different religious or political beliefs can and have co-existed for the entirety of civilization. People in a highly homogenized society can and do commit mass murder against the minority.
What are some of the ways you see life improving for yourself if Republicans seceded? I would personally prefer to reduce my federal tax bill, or at the very least not see it wasted, but I have a much higher level of personal freedom than my peers in the rest of the developed world and can’t think of another country I’d rather live in.
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