Secession Fever

It's not just the San Fernando Valley any more.

Pockets of secessionists are popping up around the country, and many are meeting this week in Chattanooga, Tenn. Attendees include distressed liberals from Vermont, Confederate sympathizers from the South, disgruntled Hawaiians, angry Alaskans, and even some of our fellow Californians.

It all may sound a little wacky and fringe, and indeed it is, but it still ought to be taken seriously.

Jonathan wrote a great post a few months back about how civilizations tend not to fall in a single, cataclysmic instant, but crumble, slowly, over time. The same is true for countries. We tend to assume the United States will continue on as it is forever, but history gives us no reason for such confidence.

And when you look at the strong political and social divisions in this country, it's easy to imagine how our unity could be shattered. Even after the 2004 elections, some despondent Democrats grumbled about splitting blue America away from red. Mariel wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about it -- a joke that worked precisely because it connected to a greater truth.

It's largely our prosperity that still holds us together, and if something were to happen that, all bets for "one nation under God" would likely be off.