This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.
Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, First Inaugural Address
Seventeen states have now joined in support of the Texas suit. The Trump campaign has petitioned to intervene. A long shot, most certainly. However this case is now very important, and it goes to the core of what the Union means. If one of the two main political parties can cheat with impunity, our entire political system is undermined. If this country does ultimately split apart, this presidential election will be a dismal milestone on that process.
Update: Arizona has signed on to the suit, so it is eighteen states plus Texas.
It was a great move by Texas to take in the states having corrupt elections. This could get national attention, SCOTUS attention and form the basis of a multi-state coalition to plan for the future.
I bet there are many in Texas who wouldn’t mind seceding and some of them believe they have the right to do so.
I bet there are many in Texas who wouldn’t mind seceding and some of them believe they have the right to do so.
Those same people engaging in such loose talk have no idea of the sheer human misery that a Civil War II would entail.
Is there a gofundme for this? Asking for a friend.
I just started reading “The Fourth Turning” by William Strauss and Neil Howe. The simplified version is we have major wars every ~80 years because that’s how long it takes the people who remember how bad it is to die. Recent events and talk make that theory sound more and more plausible.
How do they explain the sequence of World War I and World War II?
Re WWI and WWII. WWI had an armistice. Is that different from an outright victory? Though some of the countries changed sides, could one say WWII was a continuation of WWI?
“could one say WWII was a continuation of WWI?”
Some have made that contention but I find it non-persuasive. World War I and World War II were separate conflicts with different causes and outcomes.
They say the ~80 year cycle has 4 phases. WWI and WWII would be an extended “crisis” phase. From an American perspective, you could also argue WWI wasn’t as significant as WWII in terms of time involved, loss of life, and existential threat. Even the British didn’t face the same existential threat in the first war. Doesn’t explain Germany’s actions though.
Although the Brits suffered far more wartime dead in World War I: 880K as opposed to 384K in World War II along with 70K civilian dead.
I haven’t trusted Strauss and Howe due to their descriptions not really lining up with recent generations. Can the millenials really be said to be a “hero” generation, and the modern equivalent of the greatest generation? Are they admired for their coming of age triumphs?
Brian Niemeier has a theory that the framework can be salvaged with the notion that post WWII (partially fallout from the war, but also the effect things like mass communication and entertainment) screwed things up so that now “generations” effectively consist of ten year cohorts. This would make millenials a mirror of the Baby Boomers, which is more plausible.
Similarly the “standard” view of the Zoomers would be that they are “artists” who are overprotected and grew up in a world without any real crisis. But the revised version of the theory would put them as “nomads” who never knew structure to begin with and who rebel against the established order, which also seems more plausible. This would also put “Zoomers” more as high school/college aged students, with younger children being a new generation, and one predicted to be born a time of societal unraveling. Also very plausible.
Meanwhile, states with Democrat attorneys general have filed their own amicus brief on the opposite side… these include all the well known blue states such as NY, CA, IL, WA, etc., along with NC, which Trump won but whose AG is Dem. Only about 5 states have not picked a side.
illustrating the deep divisions within our nation.
RH,
I noticed that about millennials too. The Fourth Turning was written in 1997 before it was obvious how whiny and entitled the generation is (speaking as someone who is borderline part of it). Doesn’t endorse the predictive quality of the theory though. Unless we’re doomed because millennials are the “heroes” we’re counting on to bring us through the crisis.