Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Politics But What If We Did Secede?
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 12:46 PM
We'd lose all our military stuff. People from Fort Campbell wouldn't live and shop in our communities anymore, and anything related to the military would immediately get yanked. We're landlocked, so the U.S. could make it very difficult for us to trade with people. Yes, we could wreak havoc on U.S. commerce on the Mississippi, and on the electric grid. But it seems like they could come up with ways around that.
Food would get much more expensive, as we could not grow enough food locally to feed us all, especially once conservative Christians got more power and outlawed birth control and abortion.
Sports would suck, as we'd have no opponents to play and we'd be stuck recruiting in-country.
Presumably, we'd still have country music and religious paraphernalia to export, but, when tourists were faced with coming to our fair country vs. just standing in Kentucky and peering over the wall and laughing at us, I'd have to think they'd choose Kentucky.
Really, about the only benefit I can think of to seceding is that there'd be plenty of jobs, because we'd have to hire a shit-ton of guards to stand at the borders and make sure Tennesseans don't try to escape.
Comments (18)
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Geez, there you go again.
1. Ft. Campbell is half in Kentucky; they'd just move to the other side. We could declare ourselves a tax-free zone for foreign (U.S.) military personnel and they would shop here in droves.
2. It would come as a great surprise that our sports teams could not play in foreign countries, given that U.S. sports teams routinely play (or played) in, oh, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver. And somehow, I doubt Alabama and Florida would cancel their rivalries with UT; it would give them even more of a motive to "whup them furreigners' Orange-asses."
3. You'd rather stand in Kentucky and look over the wall than attend Fan Fest?
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well i dont know how many border guards we will hire to make up for 100000 jobs lost from smoky mt tourisem,35000 jobs lost from DOE and oakridge,15000 jobs from TVA,60000 jobs from trucking and related industry,5000 other federal jobs,20000 jobs related to research grants in our colleges etc,.
Further:
1. Look at your map: we could erect toll gates on the northern and southern borders for I-65, I-75 and, someday, the new I-69 and charge U.S. motorists hefty tolls for drving through our state instead of having to detour a long-assed way around us. (That should more than make up for the loss of U.S. money for our roads, especially since we wouldn't send the federal excise tax on motor fuels to D.C.)
2. Since we lack a state income tax, we'd become even more of a tax haven for right-wing, taxaphobic loonies from everywhere else. They could establish residence here and escape the federal income tax too! (We could set it up like Delaware does for corporations; they wouldn't actually have to LIVE here.)
3. You've been hanging out in too many Metro Parks to know: there's plenty of greenspace outside Nashville to grow all the crops and raise all the livestock we need to feed ourselves.
I saw a comment on another site that suggested Nashville and Memphis get a West Berlin thing going and just stay part of the US.
Eh, but wouldn't the US charge us reparations for all the interstates we were taking over? They might even try to declare them free-passage zones or something and then evildoers would be able to infiltrate just by pulling off the highway at a Waffle House or something.
Ludovico, please. You need two acres of farmland to feed a person. We have 6.3 million people and under 11 million acres of farmland.
Betsy
Not to mention that lots of stuff cannot be grown here. Where's the local lemon grove or avocado farm? I'd bet Florida would charge us plenty to import their oranges and an extra surcharge if the Vols beat the Gators.
Would people from Kentucky and Alabama become threatening aliens? Would we demand papers?
Well, in that case, Kosh, we don't have to worry about an orange surcharge at all.
And Mr. Professor, how long would those nice federally built and maintained interstates last in a nation that would undoubtedly elect Gilbert Martin as Secretary of the Treasury? Only those rich enough to build their own roads could have them. and they could shoot and kill anyone else who tried to use them. It is sort of like Ethiopia, isn't it? The Pirates of Tennessee.
Kentucky and Alabama would still have avocados! And lemonade! I think we would become their threatening aliens as we tried to sneak across the border and have chips and guacamole.
Kentucky and alabama Ga and Fl NC SC ARkansa wiil all pass laws like arizona to keep them dam forigners from TN out of their state<,.
Memphis would immediately declare itself an independent city-state like Monaco and -- freed from its bluenose overseers in the legislature from the rest of the state -- turn itself into a giant casino where anything goes.
i guess tennessee would fare better than some of the other nearby red states, were they to try to pull the same bird-brained move - e.g., Mississippi (who gets ~$2.02 in federal monies for every tax dollar paid), Louisiana ($1.78) West Virginia ($1.76), Alabama ($1.66) and Arkansas ($1.53), but it would still be hilarious. i say do it!!
(i will be getting the hell out tout suite, of course)
Well, Georgia would go ahead and seize Chattanooga to get to Tennessee River water.
Re. red states and federal taxes: How about the General Assembly pass a resolution that federal spending in Tennessee cannot exceed the amount of tax dollars paid by Tennesseans? If the GOP and the teapartiers are as serious as they say they are about federal spending, they shouldn't have a problem with that.
