“One thing we have really found is a place to feel comfortable being ourselves,” Dean said. Americans are segregating by their politics at a rapid clip, helping fuel the greatest divide between the states in modern history.

One party controls the entire legislature in all but two states. In 28 states, the party in control has a supermajority in at least one legislative chamber — which means the majority party has so many lawmakers that they can override a governor’s veto. Not that that would be necessary in most cases, as only 10 states have governors of different parties than the one that controls the legislature

This can only end badly as conservatives seem to have no problem ruling over land in empty states.

  • snowbell@beehaw.org
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    3 years ago

    It is a real shitty time to be a gun loving transgender anarchist…feels like there is nowhere for me to go.

    • reric88🧩@beehaw.org
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      3 years ago

      This is by no means to compete but to add, I’m an autistic adult and I don’t feel welcome anywhere. Living in the bible belt. It’s not the same, you have it harder, but even as a cis white dude, I can’t find a place.

      • snowbell@beehaw.org
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        3 years ago

        I know the feeling, I’m autistic myself and I’ve got C-PTSD so I find it extremely difficult to fit in anywhere. It sucks.

  • EthicalAI@beehaw.org
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    3 years ago

    The problem is that the real divide still is urban vs rural, not state v state. I always lived in red states and am very leftist. There’s always strong leftist communities in every red state, even in small cities. Most states are purple.

    • PostmodernPythia@beehaw.org
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      3 years ago

      People know that. But power isn’t divided that way. So when people look to alternatives to federal power, they usually look to the existing political infrastructure of states, not, for instance, less-organized/-powerful counties.

    • HumbleHobo@beehaw.orgOP
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      3 years ago

      Yeah, the urban/rural divide is awful, so now the question, how does that get addressed?

      • misguidedfunk@beehaw.org
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        3 years ago

        Democrats need to offer financial incentives to help bring back jobs to rural areas. There needs to be something to counteract republicans using Christian out as a means to get votes. Until that happens you want see the left winning anything in rural areas. It sucks but the democrat platform tends to heavily favor cities.

        • ArcticCircleSystem@beehaw.org
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          3 years ago

          We also need to figure out how to get people to stop choosing the worst possible reponses to crises all the fucking time. “Oh wages are stagnating? I want to commit genocide against trans people now! THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE AND I AM A GOOD FACTS AND LOGIC BOY!!1!” ~Strawberry

        • Azure@beehaw.org
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          3 years ago

          Why can’t we admit rual areas are a failure and get people closer to where they work and what they provide?

          Farms have been living on government hand outs for decades. It’s just unfair to act like rural areas arent ALREADY taking more than they give.

          Rural America is a failed state.

          • misguidedfunk@beehaw.org
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            3 years ago

            Ignoring their economic issues is not an option. Republicans run unopposed in many rural areas because there is no counter to their platform.

            • ArcticCircleSystem@beehaw.org
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              3 years ago

              How do we set one up? And how do we get people to stop responding to crises by rushing over to the first dipshit that says genocide is the best response? Why was that the response for many people??? ~Strawberry

              • misguidedfunk@beehaw.org
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                3 years ago

                I honestly think the infrastructure bill is the message that needs to be pounded into their ears. So many rural areas are absolutely crumbling from an infrastructure perspective. Literally everything is old, crumbling, and jobs are leaving. Democrats need to point out where the money for projects came from and where the new jobs came from. Then build off that. Representatives always have to run off of constituents saying, what have you done for me lately? Show them and plan for their future, cause the republicans don’t have anything but identity politics.

  • LassCalibur@beehaw.org
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    3 years ago

    It would be ideal if blue cities in red states seceded and formed their own 51st state of free cities. The rural voter oriented laws which emerge from state governments impede the right of city citizens to the pursuit of Happiness.

    • StringTheory@beehaw.org
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      3 years ago

      Move if you must to protect your safety and life. You are a precious valued member of society, and don’t let anyone tell you different.

      • thatgirlwasfire@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 years ago

        Thanks. Luckily I work in Massachusetts, which will hopefully continue to be a trans friendly state. So, i am planning to move there when i can.

  • kool_newt@beehaw.org
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    3 years ago

    Splitting us up is the goal, divide and conquer. It’s one thing to hate your queer neighbor, it’s so much worse when you can point to another geographic region of “queers coming to harm your children” that military force can be used against. The separation is for two reasons, one is to help hold on to senate power by getting blue voters out to make sure red states don’t turn blue or purple, the other I think is to prepare for war and make war more likely, separating the sides. Civil war is hard when everyone is mixed up.

    We’ve seen what "conservatives’ do when they have power, they literally owned other humans, chattel slavery. We’ve seen what the goals of the military industrial complex (arguably the most powerful industry), more war,everywhere. Giving these groups the benefit of the doubt is dumb and will lead to real bad things.

    • LootGoblin42@beehaw.org
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      3 years ago

      No one really wants a civil war. People are too comfy for that. Something will shift and people will realize they are being manipulated. The anger will just burn out eventually.

      • PostmodernPythia@beehaw.org
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        3 years ago

        Wanting civil war isn’t the question. The question is, what do we do when the right manipulates the system to give itself perpetual, absolute power? Give up? Fight? Leave? Leave and fight? Not many people want civil war because it’s not obvious to them yet that the alternative is worse. Give it time.

            • Senuf@beehaw.org
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              3 years ago

              Civil war in contemporary USA. And the right manipulating the system to give itself perpetual, absolute power.

              It’s an interesting alternate history novel.

  • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
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    3 years ago

    I agree it’s not great, but red states are actively persecuting minorities. Why would a minority willingly stay in a red state at this point? And if you’re an ally or liberal or whatever and see what’s happening clearly, why would you stay and be a part of it?

    Polarization is the logical outcome of Republican policies.

    • millie@beehaw.org
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      3 years ago

      Honestly? We should cut them off.

      All these red states rely on blue states for their money. They literally couldn’t afford to have roads and schools if it wasn’t for federal funding paid for by states with healthier economies and more liberal policies (no coincidence).

      So let’s take their fucking money. They want to drive the country into the dirt? Let them pay their own way and we’ll sit in our relatively progressive bubbles until they realize they do, in fact, need us.

      • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
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        3 years ago

        100% agreed, not sure why we’re subsidizing an entire third world country stapled to America that wants to drag us back to the dark ages and use our own money to do so.

        • millie@beehaw.org
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          3 years ago

          I’ve contacted my state level Democratic party representatives! You should too! If enough people bring the idea forward, maybe they’ll use it!

  • RobOplawar@beehaw.org
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    3 years ago

    This offhand comment that was quoted in the article is really unsettling:

    “Here, the tax dollars naturally goes to the citizens, not the immigrants,”

    This isn’t a conservative vs liberal policy thing, this is more insidious. This person’s worldview subconsciously classes “citizens” and “immigrants” as mutually exclusive groups. There’s “us, who were here before and belong here”, and “them, who came here from somewhere else and shouldn’t receive the benefits of our government”. It seems like it wasn’t long ago that the dominant left-vs-right conversations I observed were mostly discussions about economic and foreign policy where both sides had reasonable points and compromise was possible, but this isn’t that. This ideological divide built on religion, xenophobia, nationalism, etc. can’t end well.

    • Senuf@beehaw.org
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      3 years ago

      It won’t. Sometimes it feels like some people have been reading certain dystopian science fiction and alternate history novels and stories as if they were a blueprint instead of a warning.

      • RobOplawar@beehaw.org
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        3 years ago

        At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don’t Create The Torment Nexus.