Reply #66: While the US could very well break into many smaller states,

[MadHound]

It won't be a pleasant process, and it won't be without a lot of violence.

The biggest obstacle in the way of your fantasy scenario is the simple fact that there is too much infrastructure and other assets that the government, along with the powers that be, will allow to go peacefully.

Furthermore, in order for this scenario of yours to happen, this country will have to go through a major crash and burn first. Think the fall of the Roman Empire on steroids, with nukes in play. There will be major violence involved as the central government tries to hold onto its disintegrating power base, and regional players try to take over as much land, and power, as they can.

Once the die is cast however, the balkanization of the states would continue unabated. Historical evidence speaks to this. After the Confederacy broke from the Union, within just three short year, the Deep South states of GA, AL and MS were already talking of going their own way, out of the Confederacy, as their own nation.

Speaking of history, you would be taken a lot more seriously if you didn't repeat that revisionist dribble about the Civil War being all about states' rights. That is simply after the fact claptrap designed to pull a polite fig leaf over the brutal fact that the South went to war in order to retain slavery. Don't believe me, go check your history. Every single Statement of Secession, including the one for the Confederacy itself, prominently refers to the retention of slavery(or, if you like, "our peculiar institution) as the primary reason for going out of the Union and going to war. Slaves were property, slaves were wealth, and the wealthy elite went to war in order to protect their own interests, their wealth, their slaves. Noble sentiments about state's rights were so much hokum to feed to the poor in order to get them riled up enough to join the Confederate Army.

Your breakup could very well happen, but we will all have to go through a dark, dark period of war, death, hunger, despair and violence in order to see that happen. It will be the break up of the modern Roman empire, followed by the modern Dark Ages. It isn't going to be peaceful, pretty, or fun.