Oh, and by the way, these upstate people?... - unlike the losers in New York City - are ARMED, know how to use their arms, and immensely dislike downstate Liberals with an attitude!
Posted on 11/17/2004 8:30:09 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
ITHACA--The 2004 Presidential election may be decided, but that doesn't mean everyone is pleased.
The divide between the red and the blue states (states were divided by color depending on whether they voted Republican or Democrat) seems to run even deeper than simple political lines. Some Cornell University students are looking to help New York secede from the Union.
"After the election we were all sitting around commiserating in the office and conversation turned to this divide between the red and blue states," said Harsh Vishwasrao, a graduate student in the applied and engineering physics department at Cornell University.
Vishwasrao says the ideas to create a flag contest for a new United States of Canada and to write a letter of secession to Paul Martin, the Prime Minister of Canada, about their plan were the brainchild of post-doctoral students Rebecca Williams and Liz Rhoades.
The students are currently working on a draft of their letter to Martin and plan to include a copy of the winning flag from the contest.
There is no criteria for the flags other than that the blue states join Canada and the red states remain on their own.
"There is a flag with a Smurf holding the Canadian maple leaf," Vishwasrao said. "Some flags are serious, some are whimsical."
Passersby simply put a checkmark on the bulletin board to indicate their choice judge the flags, and judging follows an honor code.
"We hold an honor code that you only vote once, which didn't hold in our election, but we hope will hold in our flag selection," Vishwasrao said, adding that judging seems to be wrapping up this week.
He added that there is no formal statement that the group is trying to make. The whole contest originated from a casual observation of the division of the United States in terms of politics.
"The thing that was really interesting," Vishwasrao said, "was that after this came about I was talking to a friend on the Internet who was sitting in an office in Seattle who said, 'We had the same idea over here.' So we're not just the local leftist nuts."
Vishwasrao stresses that the division of the Democrat and Republican states has been present "since the Civil War" and is not something new over the past two presidential elections.
"The blue states have more in common with the political ideology of Canada than we do with the red states. Make of that what you will," he said. "It's not treason or anything; we're not saying it's a serious course of action."
This time I saved it. :)
We want Florida too!
Oh, and by the way, these upstate people?... - unlike the losers in New York City - are ARMED, know how to use their arms, and immensely dislike downstate Liberals with an attitude!
. It's apparent that Harsh is not a history major.
What are the odds that any of these geniuses planned on staying in New York after graduation to begin with.
The problem is that if you choose too big a geographic area, there will inevitably be a lot of Republicans in that area who will block secession. But if you pick a small area which is overwhelmingly Democratic, like NYC, then almost everyone would be happy if they seceded.
New Yorkers would find out after it's too late that being the financial center of a country that they are not a part of doesn't work too well.
They can "go" to Canada, but they can't have NY.
They're all talk - no lib has the guts to push secession. Ironic libs use states rights only when it's convenient and suits their needs.
This is soooooooo typical of liberals: Nothing is beyond the pale provided it suits their aims.
So, after the election, you have liberals discussing an idea (secession) which was formerly anathema to them.
I for one love it. All this foolish talk about secession or going ROTC (Running Over To Canada) should demonstrate to any astute observer that many liberals are nihilists whose only moral touchstone is personal whim and the ever-shifting currents of fashion.
I hope they can pull it off. Quite frankly, I don't think there will be a shot fired this time.
coool... me too, an 8 shot Military&Police. i'll never part with it. gotta love the Model-37!!!
OK. Can we give the Panthers to Winnipeg, in that case?
they're in King Ferry now aren't they???
Zac79, I do not have an answer to your question; only an extended hand of welcome. Welcome to FR. You post as if you are a rational person albeit one that I will probably not agree with very often if at all. I hope you enjoy your stay here and I hope that you continue to post as a rational, sane person instead of the normal liberal lunatic troll posters that run in here to take a dump on the carpet and then run away.
Open a branch campus of Cornell in Manhattan, secede New York City, leave us red county New Yorkers alone. NYC doesn't equal New York State any more than Philadelphia equals Pennsylvania.
I imagine many of these New Yorkers want the NYC secede to become the new Singapore perhaps? An island of sanity in a sea of lunatic failed big country? Boy, they will quickly discover Singapore succeeds with:
1) A big intolerance of all major and minor crimes. Lee Kwan Yew and his successors make Rudy Giuliani look like John F Kerry.
2) Jesse Jackson, Spike Lee, Al Sharpton, and even half of the New York Times editorial board will quickly land in jail for "inciting racial hatred".
3) There is no free health care, no compulsory social security. If you are not prepared to buy medical insurance or fund your own retirement mutual fund, sorry, the state won't help you and it doesn't care.
4) Public homoexual acts, extra-marital co-habition are both illegal - this alone drives 1/3 of New Yorkers away.
If NYC imagines it can still be like itself if it survives on its own, they will quickly discover they quickly become the rubbish heap of North America (outside Canada of course).
I wouldn't ask to be called anything more than rational. Thank you for your civility.
So lets talk about this secession idea. As a general audience, you all seem to actually be pretty open to the idea. Really, whats so crazy about it?
First off, lets not approach it from an "I hate you, you hate me" framework. A lot of "blue" people like a lot of "red" people and vice-versa. But lets face reality. There are sharply divergent philosophies in this country regarding the role of government in domestic and foreign affairs, and the role of religion in the government. I think the primary reason for all the animosity is that currently we're living in the same tent. Maybe its time for separate tents.
Let me clarify something to those who accuse us of "hating America" or being unpatriotic. We love this land. We wish to see it prosper and thrive, but we have a different philosophy about how to go about that.
So, as it stands right now, you don't want us, and we don't want you. So why are we making each other miserable and bickering like small children? Lets go our separate ways. Done right, this is a mutually advantageous course of action. You guys will be free to scale the government and conduct foreign affairs as you see fit. Our desire for legitimate gay marriage and national health care will no longer be your problem. The corollary is that we would probably get along a whole lot better once we weren't fighting all the time.
There would, of course, be several obstacles to acomplishing this. We would have to ensure that Blue America had adequate agricultural production and Red America had enough access to ports and the water table. But we can figure it out.
We'd love to have the Panthers in Winnipeg. They are going to be one of the best teams in a few years. Lots of great young talent. And Mike Keenan is a great coach.
Yeah, I was shocked to see Calgary and Tampa Bay in the Finals last year. Tampa Bay?!?!?!
Although, I admit, it was nice for my Avs to crush Florida in four a few years ago.
The one place Keenan didn't work out too well was Vancouver.
I wish this guy would take a look at the county by county map of New York State!
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