Civil War II Is Already Underway

A new Southern strategy?

The Republican Party did in fact enter a period of post-election self-reflection. After about ten minutes, its various guiding lights -- they have guiding lights? -- figured out what went wrong: There was nothing wrong with its message, there was something wrong with its messaging.

Wow.

So it's back to business as usual, which as we all know is that of stopping the Black Muslim Kenyan, you know, the one with the better messaging.

However, as I had suggested in a couple of earlier posts, we face a new incarnation of the Civil War. Its framework is already starting to take shape. A few bits and pieces:

• Petitions for secession emanating from all fifty states reached the federal government's web portal for grievances, We the People. At last count, seven of those petitions reached the 25,000-signature level that requires an answer from the government. Unsurprisingly, the top petitions were from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Remind you of anything?
• Many Republican governors have announced that they will not participate in building the state health-insurance exchanges necessary to enacting Obamacare. Among those states are Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Maine, Nebraska, and Alaska. Although a number of Southern states are on the list, the real line of demarcation is that all are run by Republican governors. Oddly, refusing to set up the exchanges and thus forcing the feds to set them up runs counter to any states' rights arguments we ordinarily hear from red states.
• Some of these same state governors have also rejected federal Medicaid money that would help them pay for the uninsured. The Supreme Court's decision allowing Obamacare to move forward did declare the Medicaid mandate to be illegal, giving these states the right to opt out. How long will these states hold out after the near-certain uproar occurs when Obamacare goes on line a year from now? It's anyone's guess.

Map remind you of anything?

Right. Got it. (Thanks, BuzzFeed.)

Without question, the suggestion that an actual Civil War 2.0 is underway is at best hyperbolic and at worst incendiary. Still, there is a steady stream of crazy talk -- and a fair amount of crazy Republican action on the state level -- and to not notice the venom that still flows freely in the right-wing nut-o-sphere would be nearly impossible. Kos over at Daily Kos sampled a comment thread over at World News Daily that defied imagination. Is the right wing really this crazed? I offer a couple of samples:

Forget about the white wash job here, Secession is the only way to permanently deal with the know nothing and do nothing politics.  The NWO is running scared now realizing the Republic is rising up and fighting back from is lame grips.  Sound the battle cry you Patriots and keep pushing, lift up your voices you people of the land the stage has been set, the irons forged, it is time to plunge the sword into the fire and GOD renew the Republic in blood. A patriot 's call to the Constitution and the many that have died before us defending its values, and to those that what security and safety by giving up liberty deserve neither. BF

Another:

if 0bama really loved his country he would step aside so [a civil war] wouldn't happen but he won't.   he doesn't care enough about the country and is more concerned about being the person who won.

Check out the original article -- which was about using the Electoral College to negate Obama's victory, which couldn't happen, by the way -- and its entire comment thread here.

How can we miss you if you won't go away?

But wait, there's more. Although Ron Paul rides off into the sunset this coming January, he's still at it with his crazy talk. He now maintains, coincidentally, that secession is in the great American tradition and is somehow patriotic?? Yep:

Paul wrote that secession must still be an option to be used as leverage to make sure the government doesn’t “encroach” on Americans’ liberties.

“In fact, the recent election only further entrenched the status quo. If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it.”

Paul wrote that secession is a form of American freedom.

"At what point should the people dissolve the political bands which have connected them with an increasingly tyrannical and oppressive federal government?” Paul wrote.

He added: “And if people or states are not free to leave the United States as a last resort, can they really think of themselves as free? If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government, they cannot truly be considered free.”

I'll add to this post as more examples of this crazy talk emerge. Trust me, they will.

Update. This is a couple of days old, but the gun shop owner in Arizona who banned Obama voters from spending money in his shop deserves his fifteen minutes.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84058.html#ixzz2CzGhf025