Is America Heading for a National Divorce?

Plus: A listener asks about Supreme Court legitimacy, and the editors practice "libertarian Festivus."

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Is America Heading for a National Divorce?

In this week's July 4 edition of The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and special guest Christian Britschgi ruminate on the so-called Disunited States.

1:24 - The current conversation surrounding "National Divorce"

37:55 - Weekly Listener Question:

Where does Supreme Court legitimacy come from, and if it was lost, how does it get it back? Is the only cure to New Deal–era judicial activism yet more judicial activism today to rein in the Commerce Clause? Does this enhance its legitimacy because they are being faithful to the Constitution; or does that illegitimate the court because it upends the present order and is wildly unpopular?

41:52 - How the editors spent July 4, and "libertarian Festivus"

This week's links:

"Once Again, the Firework Cops Failed To Stop People From Celebrating Freedom With a Boom," by Christian Britschgi

"3 Myths About American Decline," by Nick Gillespie

"70 Percent of Republicans and Democrats Agree: The Other Side Are 'Bullies,'" by Christian Britschgi

"America's Founders Raged Against Qualified Immunity, Trade Restrictions, and Anti-Immigrant Policies," by Eric Boehm

"Randy Barnett: Abortion, Guns, and the Future of the Supreme Court," by Nick Gillespie

"Inside the Mises Caucus Takeover of the Libertarian Party," by Zach Weissmueller, Nick Gillespie, and Danielle Thompson

"Confidence in U.S. Institutions Down; Average at New Low," by Jeffrey M. Jones

"Spurred by the Supreme Court, a Nation Divides Along a Red-Blue Axis," by Jonathan Weisman

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

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Audio production by Ian Keyser

Assistant production by Hunt Beaty

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Nick Gillespie

• Pistol

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World

Christian Britschgi

• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Peter Suderman

• Barry

---

Comments

[Briggs Cunningham]

Is the only cure to New Deal–era judicial activism yet more judicial activism today to rein in the Commerce Clause?

If the New Deal era cases were "activist", then overturning them and returning the law and the powers of the federal government back to what it was is the opposite of activist. "Judicial Activism" doesn't mean "any time a court changes something" you fucking half witted hipster dumb asses. God damn the people who work at reason are stupid.

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[Briggs Cunningham]

Is this the real "Tony", "Joe Friday", "Reverend Kirkland", "ChemJeff", or all of the above? I am guessing Joe Friday but I could be wrong.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/07/05/biden-doe-official-defended-underage-sex-site/

A recent, high-level hire at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy defended a controversial gay prostitution website with a track record of allowing children to be promoted for sexual services on the platform, The National Pulse can reveal.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

All of whom are conspicuous by their absence today. Must be waiting on their talking points, which they will dutifully copy and post here.

[Mother's Lament]

They're going to need some doozeys.

Here's how he announced his first day on the job. Don't forget your eye bleach before you click.

https://twitter.com/sbrinton/status/1542288527920185344
It’s official. As of June 19th, I now serve my nation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy.

"Biden's bringing dignity back to government"

[NOYB2]

Sam Brinton seems to have the same sense of style as Ayanna Presley.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I dunno, at this point, this kind of shit is beginning to feel like Wednesday.

[NOYB2]

I'm not familiar with either site other than through the media, but I don't see the difference between the Backpage case and the Rentboy case.

They were both prostitution sites, both apparently primarily adults providing services to adults ("rentboy" is a term for adult male prostitutes, not boys, just like "callgirl" is a term for adult female prostitutes, not girls), the owners of both were legally prosecuted, and some providers on either site were probably underage and/or trafficked.

In both cases, some people made arguments that it was better to have these kinds of transactions handled by a website. Libertarians generally seemed to oppose the prosecution of the operators of Backpage.

Is the confusion here over the term "rentboy", falsely assuming that it refers to someone underage? Or what?

[Mother's Lament]

No, they got shutdown because of 16 year olds.

[NOYB2]

The question isn't why they got shut down; I assume both Backpage and Rentboy got shut down for illegal activity.

What I don't understand is the attacks on Brinton for his article. Brinton specifically defended adult prostitution:

Rentboy.com may or may not have broken the law. I don’t know. But I do know, from the frantic emails filling my inbox, that the raid on its headquarters has thrown many gay, bisexual, and transgender young adults into turmoil as their main source of income has been ripped away due to irresponsible and archaic views of sex work.

Don't libertarians not support the right for adults to engage in sex work, at least in principle?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Don't libertarians not support the right for adults to engage in sex work, at least in principle?

They do. But Team Red doesn't pass up an opportunity to try to smear a transgender individual as someone defending underage prostitution.

They have an agenda, and that agenda is to try to reverse the tide of normalizing transgenderism. And their strategy, at least as far as I have seen, is to paint as many as they can as either mentally deranged, or dangerous sexual deviants. You don't want mental cases or sex perverts around your kids, right? Then it's time for them to leave polite society. That's the object here.

[NOYB2]

They do. But Team Red doesn't pass up an opportunity to try to smear a transgender individual as someone defending underage prostitution.

It's perfectly understandable why someone who is not gay and sees a crazy leftist defend a site called "rentboy" might falsely conclude that his article is a defense of underage sex, instead of the defense of adult prostitution that it was.

But instead of trying to educate people, you just insult them and attribute the worst motives to them. How is that helping?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

There is no confusion. The National Pulse knows exactly what they are doing. They are disingenuously twisting an article making a libertarian-minded defense of prostitution websites, into a defense of everything that the website might have done, including illegal behavior such as underage prostitution. They're doing this because Sam Brinton is a drag queen and Team Red has a fairly obvious agenda of trying to paint transgender drag queen types as immoral obscene dangerous sexual perverts. So they have to try to paint this mid-level government employee as a dangerous menace to society.

[JesseAz]

And Jeff rushes to the defense of pedos without reading the article or the case itself. The reason the website was shut down was due to actions by the company. But jeff is too ignorant and too lazy to inform himself on any actual facts so blindly lashes out hoping his ite betters give him a cookie for doing so.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I read both articles, dummy. And if you had read both articles, you would realize that Sam Brinton never defended underage prostitution. But the National Pulse here wants to disingenuously conflate defending sex work generally with defending every single thing the website did, including the illegal stuff. And it is due to a purposeful desire on the part of Team Red to paint transgender drag queens as dangerous immoral sexual deviants.

[NOYB2]

And Jeff rushes to the defense of pedos without reading the article or the case itself.

Did you read the article itself? Brinton explicitly, specifically defended the right of adults to engage in prostitution and pointed out that because this site disappeared, adult prostitutes are now at greater risk. That seems like a libertarian position to me.

Do you not believe that adult prostitution should be legal?

[JesseAz]

I read the case itself at the time. From other articles than one biased defending the website.

The owners were intentionally using weak age verification and helping posters to the site avoid age verification such as blurring photos. This was especially done in Asian countries.

No. This website was not for just gay adults. It catered to underage prostitutes.

Again, try reading up on the cases, not a single biased defense of ot.

[NOYB2]

Again, try reading up on the cases,

We're not talking about "the case". Brinton wasn't involved in the case. Brinton explicitly says he doesn't know anything about the case and he wasn't defending the site or its actions.

We're talking about Brinton's article.

Brinton's entire piece was about the impact of the site shutting down on young adults.

And for that, Briggs insinuated that he was a pedo. That's wrong. Brinton is a ridiculous looking crazy leftist and an embarrassment to the Biden administration, but that doesn't mean it is OK to smear him with such an unfounded, serious accusation based on a misrepresentation of an article he wrote.

Reason has written articles about how Silk Road and sites like that might reduce drug harm; that doesn't mean that Reason endorsed every illegal activity happening on such sites.

[JesseAz]

The company openly violated age verification especially in Asian countries.

[NOYB2]

We're not talking about the company, which probably was rightfully found guilty. Brinton wasn't defending anything the company had done.

Brinton explicitly and specifically defended the right of adult men to engage in prostitution in order to earn a living.

[JesseAz]

He defended a company y knowing the facts regarding the company. Because he left out the details that led to it being shut down doesn't mean he didn't know about it. It was pretty well advertised as to what the issues were. His intention to leave out those details was not done in ignorance.

Stop defending it.

[NOYB2]

He defended a company y knowing the facts regarding the company.

Show me anywhere in that article where he was "defending the company". He explicitly said that he didn't know anything about the legal case.

He just made the same kind of argument about a prostitution site that Reason made about Silk Road: as sites whose primary purpose (adult prostitution, drug sales) are purposes that libertarians generally favor.

In both cases, the sites clearly were used for other, very harmful illegal activities. But talking about the potential benefits for one use doesn't mean an endorsement of these other uses.

Stop defending it.

I'm not defending "it", whatever "it" may be. I'm saying that if you accuse someone of something as disgusting as what you accuse Brinton of, you need to do better than guilt by association and "he looks funny" (which he does).

[Nardz]

Probably a pretty easy guess who it was...

[Bill Falcon]

NAMBLA....this is just sugar coating NAMBLA's agenda by tying them tight to the Gay rights movement. And it will come back to haunt the Gay community as it becomes more and more apparent the groomers are really pedos trying to mainstream their behavior. NAMBLA controls the DOE....

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Originalism [and the understanding of liberty and individual rights] stands in the way of progressivism. Why do you think they hate it so much?

[Dillinger]

>>more judicial activism today to rein in the Commerce Clause

correcting activist idiocy is not activism.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Is America Heading for a National Divorce?

Only when the leftists finally follow through on doing what they threaten every time they lose.

[Briggs Cunningham]

The thing that the morons on the left who are always threatening to leave and the morons on the right who are always wanting a civil war don't understand is how heterogenous the politics of this country are. Even in a really deep blue state like California 40% of the population are Republicans. The same is true of deep red states. There are tons of Democrats who live in those states.

So, you couldn't just break off part of the country and make a new one without literally having mass forced migration and likely genocide the likes of which has rarely been seen. The 40% of the public who live in the proposed "Redtopia" are not going to take being suddenly thrown out of their own country and into another one lightly. It would be a complete mess. Amazingly, there are tons of idiots on both sides who can't seem to understand that.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Yeah, even a deep red state like Alabama has Birmingham and Montgomery balancing it out somewhat. Wyoming has Teton and Laramie Counties as its own containment zones. If California broke off, all the eastern counties would immediately seize control of the water sources and dare the coastal freaks to come get some.

[Karen24]

Which would be mirrored in Texas by all the cities seizing the power stations and starving Methtopia out in the Panhandle.

[Karen24]

Which is not to say either side SHOULD do those things.

We need to find a way to turn down the heat on our disputes.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

There's a lot more people in the hinterlands than just the Panhandle, and a lot of those people lived without power up until the New Deal.

[mpercy]

Indeed, and when people try to complain about things like, say, red state murder rates or red state poverty levels, they disingenuously (at best) or intentionally ignore the fact of the concentration of those problems in the blue cities.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Honestly, the best short-term solution would be to break up the states in to smaller chunks and increase the number of Representatives. It doesn't even have to be along political lines, either--the American West states would be benefit tremendously from reforming along their watersheds rather than gridlines, for instance.

[Square = Circle]

the American West states would be benefit tremendously from reforming along their watersheds rather than gridlines, for instance.

^

At some point, the American West will be redrawn, because its borders make about as much sense as those in Africa or the Middle East.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Just from an environmental standpoint, I don't see any other option. The region can't continue on with these dumb multi-state river compacts and applying a gold rush-era mining law to mass water usage. Not with a 20-plus year drought going on and no end in sight.

[mpercy]

I've shared this before, but it bears repeating vis-a-vis California weather.

NY Times article "In California, a Wet Era May Be Ending" indicates that the last 150 years (i.e., since about California statehood) has been unusually wet, and that current conditions are essentially a reversion to the norm:

"Equally as important but much easier to forget is that we consider the last 150 years or so to be normal," he added. "But you don't have to go back very far at all to find much drier decades, and much drier centuries."

That raises the possibility that California has built its water infrastructure — indeed, its entire modern society — during a wet period.

But scientists say that in the more ancient past, California and the Southwest occasionally had even worse droughts — so-called megadroughts — that lasted decades. At least in parts of California, in two cases in the last 1,200 years, these dry spells lingered for up to two centuries.

The new normal, scientists say, may in fact be an old one.

[NOYB2]

So, you couldn't just break off part of the country and make a new one without literally having mass forced migration and likely genocide the likes of which has rarely been seen

I don't see why "mass forced migration" or "genocides" follow. If you're a conservative living in California, you have a choice: continue to live in a progressive shithole or move somewhere else, same choice you had before a national divorce.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Even in a really deep blue state like California 40% of the population are Republicans.

When left to the voters, gay marriage failed in California. Failed.

[Stuck in California]

Couldn't be! No way! The progressive left has always believed exactly what they believe now and we should unperson anyone who doesn't meet current orthodoxy.
Oh, wait. That was hillary?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1-r1YgK9I

Or maybe the religious Christian bigots:

I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian -- for me -- for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God's in the mix.

Oh... wait. That was Obama https://justfacts.votesmart.org/public-statement/658545/full-transcript-saddleback-presidential-forum-sen-barack-obama-john-mccain-moderated-by-rick-warren/

[Mother's Lament]

To be fair Obama was probably lying... unless the god he was referring to was the one in the mirror.

[Nardz]

All amendments after the original bill of rights need to be nullified, then you need a court that won't be corrupted.
Otherwise, we're fucked.

[SMP0328]

So bring back slavery and revoke Constitutionally guaranteed voting rights for women and minorities?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

You are largely right. The solution here isn't a civil war. The solution here is for more people to, first, break out of their little bubbles and actually talk and listen to others; and, second, to reject purely partisan news sources in favor of ones that actually inform you, not try to propagandize you. Partisan news media is like junk food for the brain - it might make you feel good momentarily as you get your dopamine hit from the stories that paint the other tribe as outrageously outrageous, but in the end, it does far more harm than good.

[Dirk Honkler]

Would be interested to know what these non-partisan sources are?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Well IMO here is a good place to start:

https://adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/?utm_source=HomePage_StaticMBC_Button&utm_medium=OnWebSite_Button

[JesseAz]

Daily wire is right next to reason lol. Any you constantly denounce it.

Fucking hilarious.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

According to this chart, Daily Wire is below Reason when it comes to reliability. Would you agree?

[JesseAz]

According to this chart it is right near reason. Are you denying that? They are also green for news guard. Are you going to deny that too?

[JesseAz]

Anyone that goes against his preferred narratives. See him attack the site above. Yet he freely links to jacobin, justsecurity, salon, and others.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Yup, more of that "honest argumentation" from Jesse.

[JesseAz]

Pointing out who you've linked to in the past is dishonesty? Lol. Holy fuck jeff. Remain a complete delusional hypocrite.

[Nardz]

Jesse's statement is completely accurate

[Nardz]

For those new here, collectivistjeff is one of the least honest commenters on this site.
Some of it fundamental psychosis, some of it is pure lying, and it's often a combination of both.

[R Mac]

The nickname Lying Jeffy is well deserved.

[Bill Falcon]

Actually it is much easier than that. Go by county and any that can contiguously connect to a Free State could then be part of said Free State. Take Pennsylvania...much of the central and western countires could become part of Ohio. Much of Western and Central NY part of Ohio. Most of Cali, Oregon, Washington could become part of Nevada and Idaho. Much of Illinois part of Indiana or Missouri and so on. Eventually you would have islands of wokedom not connected. Give the country five years to self locate and then have two countries. The national debt stays where it was created in DC which can become a state in wokedom. Free States will have their own currency and no Federal Debt. Military will be a shared resource with funding by both countries as well as decisions to declare war. 100 year no tarifs between Free and Woke States as well. Very easy...very easy.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

More like deep blue cities, inner suburbs, and posh resort areas vs purple to red everywhere else. And if we parse by dedicated progressives vs everyone else, and not just D vs R, the break-away nation would look like a bunch of pimples.

[JFree]

It would really help if states stopped doing the whole winner take all in the electoral college. States like CA whine about WY having too much power. When in fact it is CAfns who disenfranchise their own minority voters in order to steal power for their own majority party voters.

[mpercy]

Yeah, California cries about the Elector College being unfair and demands that the nation follow some mythical "popular vote". But not once have they said "It would be more democratic and representative to allocate our electors proportionally instead of winner-take-all. Trump might have had 20 California electors to Biden's 35 (giving Biden the rounded-up whole elector). Instead California chooses to ignore the voting habits of 40% of their population.

[mpercy]

Wrote this after the previous election to highlight the mythical nature of the popular vote...recall that "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct..."

Electoral College magic trick...California passes legislation that allows the governor to simply appoint the state's electors. Perfectly Constitutional as far as I can tell.

Had this been in effect this election, we can assume Jerry Brown would have appointed 55 Democrats for Sec. Clinton.

The EC remains unchanged, but the "popular vote" swings to Trump by about 1M. Without popular votes from California, Sec. Clinton would have 8.7M fewer popular votes and Mr. Trump would have 4.4M fewer popular votes. So the final tally would be Clinton with 57M and Trump with 58.5.

I notice that Democrats have no problems with Sec. Clinton winning 3/5ths of the California vote but getting all the 55 of the state's electoral votes...

[NOYB2]

Is America Heading for a National Divorce?

Not if progressives can help it. The idea that anybody in the world chooses to live differently from the way they imagine is correct drives them crazy. That's why they are on a war path with red states, and why they are trying to bring "the liberal world order" to every nation on this planet.

I guarantee you: Democrats and progressives would rather turn Texas into a nuclear wasteland than allow it to choose independence.

And don't kid yourself: so would many of the "libertarians" writing for Reason, or our most libertarian legal authority, Barnett.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

California has proven, explicitly, that when another STATE AND a different COUNTRY does something they don't like they attempt to interfere. So right, creating a separate national entity is going to stop the bickering.

[NOYB2]

I'm not concerned about California bickering and complaining; I'm concerned about California sending a whole bunch of radical nutcases to Congress and buying elections in the rest of the country.

If they are a separate nation, they can ban chickens, cars, and whatever else they want from anywhere they like. And if they are a separate nation, we can prosecute any Californian for trying to influence American elections.

[NOYB2]

If they are a separate nation, we can also prevent the inevitable exodus of people from that failing state to the rest of American, bringing their failed ideas with them.

And if they are a separate nation, the bankruptcy of their public pension system won't be a problem for the rest of the country.

[JasonAZ]

"Where does Supreme Court legitimacy come from, and if it was lost, how does it get it back? Is the only cure to New Deal–era judicial activism yet more judicial activism today to rein in the Commerce Clause? Does this enhance its legitimacy because they are being faithful to the Constitution; or does that illegitimate the court because it upends the present order and is wildly unpopular?"

This cherry picked question by Reason editors, that claim to be Libertarians, makes the assumption at the end that the SCOTUS is wildly unpopular. Maybe within the blue check mark, Twitter universe that far left progressives live in; and of course, where Reason editors live.

News flash to Reason editors - get out of LA county, NYC or Washington DC and most people are celebrating SCOTUS. You know this is true because the MSM hasn't trotted out any poll numbers showing how unpopular SCOTUS is after last week. And if a poll did exists, it would show that SCOTUS is still more popular than Biden or the Congress.

[R Mac]

I understand there is disagreement between libertarians on abortion, and that everyone at Reason is pro-abortion. But most of the other decisions by Scotus during this session are clearly pro-liberty, but Reason is so emotionally invested they don’t see this.

[Nardz]

They don't care.
Reason employees are totalitarian leftists at heart, and simply pay lip service to freedom/liberty to gaslight readers into thinking leftist doctrine is somehow consistent with those values.

[Mother's Lament]

"it would show that SCOTUS is still more popular than Biden or the Congress."

What's really terrifying the Reasonistas and Team D is that there's been no post Dobbs bump in Biden and the Democrats poll numbers like they anticipated.

https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/jc31tyncsl/econtoplines.pdf

They were pinning all their hopes on abortion and the Ukraine to save them in November, but nothing is working.

[Nardz]

Their destruction of the economic condition of working, middle, small business class Americans is working

[ElvisIsReal]

With 94% of people saying prices are Very Important or Important, it's easy to see why none if it is working.

[NOYB2]

The fact is that 99% of Americans don't give a f*ck about abortion because it doesn't affect them.

What most Americans care about is inflation, the economy, the stock market, education, and being generally left alone.

A minority cares about maximizing the amount of money they can receive from the government.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yeah, most Reason staff can pretend to be libertarian when at cocktail parties dominated by hardcore progressives. If they ever did wander out of the blue bubble, actual Americans, and actual libertarians, would scare the shit out of them.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Question for the group:

Reason's masthead has always contained "Free minds, Free markets".

It seems to me that Reason has, as of "late" taken that position literally... or perhaps a better word would be neutrally. Meaning that they seem unconcerned with philosophies and ideas which are antithetical to Free Minds and Free Markets.

It seems that when an entire movement begins to capture every institution that is explicitly antithetical and... openly hostile to Free Minds and Free markets, that they simply shrug and treat this idea as if it's just another atomized idea floating about the aether of the 'marketplace of ideas'. At some point, it seems that you have to take a stand and aggressively oppose these ideologies.

No one is expecting Reason to call for government censorship of these ideas... but it would be nice to see more aggressive ideological opposition to them. No, I don't have a problem with harumphing about a Trump tariff. But there's an aggressive movement to recruit your toddlers into an explicitly activist ideology whose central aim is the destruction of Capitalism and Free Markets, and also states clearly in its literature that criticism of this ideology is verboten. For instance, your children may ask questions about the lesson plans for clarification, but they are not allowed to ask questions which challenge its core thesis.

Not every idea is just a neutral bit of carbon, bumping about in the universe of ideas. Some are bad ideas.

[kcuch]

At some point, it seems that you have to take a stand and aggressively oppose these ideologies.

The implementation of the ideologies

[Mother's Lament]

"it would be nice to see more aggressive ideological opposition to them."

That's not what Charles pays them for.

[Nardz]

Wouldn't want to offend his BFF George

[R Mac]

Because those ideologies also support open borders, and are being opposed by conservatives.

Open borders uber alles, and ignore the “culture wars”.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So Reason should adopt the moral panic du jour?

But there's an aggressive movement to recruit your toddlers into an explicitly activist ideology whose central aim is the destruction of Capitalism and Free Markets

One could say the same thing about Communism in the 1950s, or religious zealots at all times. And libertarians, and Reason, rightly oppose communism, and rightly oppose extreme religious zealotry (to the point of theocracy). But that doesn't mean it's necessary to go full Joe McCarthy on the communists, or that it's necessary to go full militant atheist on the religious.

[Nardz]

"One could say the same thing about Communism in the 1950s, or religious zealots at all times."

And they'd be right, as now all institutions have been captured by zealots of the totalitarian communist faith.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Also, your comment sounds a little bit like the idea that there are some ideas that are so dangerous, that they cannot afford to be tolerated in a free society. Is that what you are saying, or is that overstepping things?

[Nardz]

Collectivistjeff thinks that the US should not have the right to reject/deport migrants who molest children while awaiting their asylum hearing.

[NOYB2]

Where does Supreme Court legitimacy come from, and if it was lost, how does it get it back?

SCOTUS has been at the heart of the massive expansion of federal power in the 20th century. Under the original Constitution, SCOTUS was largely irrelevant to most Americans. If it gets "delegitimized", that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Let Hochul #resist the incorporation of the 2A by passing one gun bill after another. I applaud her for it. The BoR should never have been incorporated. And that's the blueprint for what conservative states can do as well.

[Mother's Lament]

DOOCY: "Why is there a voicemail of the president talking to his son about his overseas business dealings...?"
KJP: "I am not going to talk about alleged materials from the laptop."
DOOCY: "Are you disputing that it's the president's voice on the voicemail?"

https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1544406719668916225

Video in the link.

[Mother's Lament]

"WEGMANN: You seemed to dismiss Peter's question about his conversation with his son Hunter Biden...how is that silence consistent with the president's promise to always level with the American public?"
KJP: "I can not comment on any materials from the laptop."

https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1544415992025153537

[JasonAZ]

Wouldn't it be great if the GOP had ANY BALLS WHATSOEVER and started impeachment investigation related to Biden's illegal activities? Sadly, cocaine Mitch and the spineless GOP will simply revert to their Establishment ways and hope to win favor with the MSM.

[TJJ2000]

It took 30-minutes to get to the heart of it...
Problem ---> There is no 'just' disagreeing with Gov-Guns...

A Power-Mad government dictating everything is exactly the problem. The ever-growing growth of National Socialism (i.e. Nazism). Talks of divorce are exactly the fault of Tyrannical Politics.

And yes; SCOTUS who has proven to be entirely inept to uphold the LIMITED government of the U.S. Constitution.

The USA is totally awesome.. What treasonous acts have been allowed to continue growing is what is making it SUCK.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

A good first step to avoiding civil war would be to increase the size of the House. There is no reason it has to stay at 435. More representatives in the House means more effective representation of diverse groups that now are forced to be represented by one representative in one district. Smaller districts also means that gerrymandering is less powerful with legislators trying to create a pre-ordained outcome by choosing their voters.

Also, get rid of the law that requires states to choose representatives by districts. Why not let states experiment with choosing them by slates, or by some other method?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Also, states should adopt electoral reforms. No more gerrymandering, no more ridiculous ballot access rules, no more manipulation of the voting process in order to try to game the system. And if states don't do it, then Congress ought to step in.

[Brian]

As a libertarian, we have 1% of the population, but zero representatives.

Districting by geography disenfranchises me. I want a representative, or else this entire show is anti-democratic tyranny against me, and I have no moral obligation to go along.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Well, in certain parliamentary-style systems, seats are apportioned both based on districts (geography) and based on party. See for example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party-list_proportional_representation

[JesseAz]

Did you ever answer the question as to how you think fair elections are decided? By the voters through a legislature or individuals picked by the "elite." You sure avoided that one.

[Brian]

Who gets the kids?

[Eeyore]

Just abort them all and start over.

[Dennis]

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[Bill Falcon]

The GOP will never downsize DC...a national divorce if it occurs will be driven by the States and Governors. Not anyone in DC ever. Too much money and power to lose.

While I don't think it will come to a divorce the truth is there would be no civil war this time. The north would like the midwest/south go..no one would want their kids to get drafted. And the Feds would never try and send in the military, most of the enlisted folks are from the south or conservative areas..they are not going to kill their kin or invade their States. Biden would be impotent...totally.

[NoVaNick]

Might not be a civil war like the first one, but if the red states do split, I can see the blue ones funding terror groups like antifa to sabotage the red states, and the red ones cutting off natural gas, water, and electricity to the coasts. The progs will go beserk if the can’t have their lattes and pilates, so no question who will win.

[Nardz]

Sounds good.

[mpercy]

And food.

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1544363778200014848?t=MF_qLZoaObzp5gZ9IO2wrg&s=19

Here is what was left over from the U.S. flag burning #Antifa did at the veteran's memorial in Lownsdale Square (across from the federal courthouse & the Justice Center) on July 4 in Portland. The memorial is regularly vandalized by the violent extremists calling for murder.

"Are they peaceful?"

BREAKING: TikTok star @HaileeBoBaileee & her family were in shock as they were attacked by #Antifa black bloc in downtown Portland on July 4. One of the extremists smashes her window while another photographs her & her family to dox.

[Thread, videos]

[Liberty Lover]

This is why you should have to take a test to vote or hold office. The Constitutions is where the Supreme court's legitimacy comes from. It's job is to keep a check on the executive and legislative branches and make sure our laws are Constitutional. Low information voters that get their information from social media are ruining this country, we even have a legislator, the political moron AOC, who also thinks the same way.

[CindyF]

The sooner the United States breaks up and becomes just "The States", the better it will be for all. Six different regions sounds about right. The left can then be free to sacrifice their children to the climate change "gods" until those regions are no longer populated. They can live without "fossil fuel" and all the modern conveniences it brings while doing so. Eventually, after those people die off, the people from the other regions can move in and take over the land and make it prosperous once again.

[Joe Friday]

No, we'll have to deal with the stupid fuck MAGA cousins until that generation passes and the future wins. Unlike 1861, we are spread across all states with most votes breaking in the 50s something to 40s something. We also agree on most things, unlike in 1860, when slavery was a thing. Today our battles are over abortion and gun control with solid majorities in favor of both, not slavery which involved complete economic systems and millions of slaves, or even segregation. The overwhelming majority of Americans favor equal rights for all, federal control of trade, and even specific once controversial programs like Social Security and Medicare. Yeah, I know I know, not Libertarians, but hey you guys are battling the transgender for smallest group in America.

What we have are constant ginning of culture fights by 24/7 cable news, right wing radio, and the GOP in attempts to distract from agreement and real problems. Remember also, that Trump counties represent 30% of our GDP vs Biden counties at 70% so we own your ass.

[Bill Dalasio]

National divorce is only a suboptimal idea because of the practicalities involved (borders, who gets the nukes, who owes the debt, etc.). I can tell you that, in many regards, different states in different parts of the country really are like living in different countries. They're different cultures, different sets of interests, and different values. And, historically, they always have been. They were kept unified by federalism. The role of federal decision-making was limited and the individual peoples of the United States were able to organize their affairs at the state and local level. The aggrandizement of the federal government is what is making national unity impossible, not idiotic platitudes about understanding one another.

If you want to avoid national divorce or civil war, restore federalism.

[Joe Friday]

That's false Bill. Regional and state differences have never been weaker as the great unifiers of national media, big box national retail, national employers, and automobiles means interracial couples in Biloxi and LA and purple hair in Omaha and Myrtle Beach. Political opinions are specifically nationalized thanks to 24/7 cable news and right wing radio.

These forces are undeniable facts and are similarly at work globally. You may or may not like it, and like every kind of major change, you almost certainly can't stop it without stopping the future and it features problems and benefits. It's up to us to adjust and make the best of it.

[Bill Dalasio]

It's up to us to adjust and make the best of it.

And as your insane progressivism collapses everywhere, as mothers in Northern Virginia declare CRT unacceptable and Florida throws out child grooming from its schools and the Supreme Court defers abortion back to the states, I guess you'll just have to "adjust and make the best of it". Your side's moment in the sun is quickly fading. The Millennials are hitting their 30s and 40s, settling down, raising families, and moving to the right, like every other generation before them did. Federalism was a shot for you to keep your preferences. But, if you aren't interested, if you need to keep in the 20th century mindset of national media, big box national retail, and national employers, well, your loss.

[Azathoth!!]

There will not be a 'national divorce' because there are no blue states.

There are only blue population centers. Pinpoints on the map, shaded deep blue.

The more you granularize, the redder the country becomes.

We will not give up our territory to the left.

[Joe Friday]

You don't the population or the means to defend it even if that nightmare - probably a wet dream for you - happened.

[Bill Dalasio]

They don't need the population. They have the resources. New York City and California can't feed themselves. Or water themselves. Or generate the power to keep the lights on.

[Angelus Solus]

"you may feel forced to choose between echo chambers in mainstream media and conspiracy-obsessed alternative media." Wow. So the entirety of alternative media is conspiracy obsessed? What a f**king self-righteous joke. I guess when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[Otis R. Needleman]

No national divorce. Got red and blue in every state, no clean division possible. No big civil war, could see something like the Irish "Troubles".