New question.

[conuly]

Is there any way for a state, or group of states, to secede from the union, legally and without creating a war? Because this country is fucking huge, and this means that a huge portion of the population is always going to feel under-represented. Instead of one huge nation, we could have 3-6 smaller ones.

Comments

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

The various member states of the Confederate States of America seceded from the United States of America through thoroughly legal means, by acts passed by their legislatures and signed by their governors. They were forced back through extra-legal means, i.e., war.

Afterward, what had been a federal union of several nations, the United States of America became one super-nation, the United States of America.

This is why in many parts of the south (more often to whites rather than blacks, I'm sure) what is known to mainstream historians as the American Civil War is instead called the War for Southern Independence or the War of Northern Aggression.

Robert A. Heinlein included a balkanized United States in one of his possible futures -- see his novel Friday.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

You said it probably better than I could, and I would add that the possibility of [legal] secession is supposedly one of the things that persuaded the southern colonies to sign the damned Constitution and articles of Federation.

[conuly]

Times have changed. Maybe we can get it to work this time. *ponders*