by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
With the Dobbs decision, the United States is once again a nation half free and half slave. Women in free states have bodily autonomy, and those in slave states, do not. But it gets worse — both sides accuse the other of being the slave state. From the point of view of Red States, THEY’RE the free states because now “every life is precious” and an egg is free to be born in absolute terms, damn the consequences to the adults involved.
How do you fix that particular problem?
But the core issue remains — with the Dobbs decision, a pretty big bolt has popped off of America. The process of division that began decades ago has lurched forward yet again. The Dobbs decision is one of those rare times in America’s process of dis-Union where the lives of the average person is being demonstrably changed.
Usually, this process of division is far more abstract. We all know that Blues and Reds are beginning to have a fundamental difference in what it means to be an American, but it’s rare that its demonstrated in concrete form.
What makes the Dobbs decision so alarming is it gives an economic element to the differences between Reds and Blues. Previously, our differences were just a matter of self-perception, with Reds thinking Blues are all “groomers” who want to use their woke cancel culture mob powers to “cancel” anyone who doesn’t want third graders to be gay.
As such, the case could definitely be made that Dobbs is a ping from a very dark future. That it is a sort of modern day Dred Scott decision, the thing we’ll all look back upon and say, “Well, obviously there was going to be a National Divorce and, as such, a Second American Civil War.”
But everything is still very much up the air. I just can’t game out if we’re going to have a civil war or if we’re just going to follow Turkey, Hungary and Russia into autocracy. There are just too many known unknowns.
All of the macro trends definitely point to a Fourth Turning or Great Reset around January 2025. But how that Big Historical Event expresses itself is huge mystery. At the moment, I think Blues simply do not have the leadership — or balls — to leave the Union. They’re so wrapped up in how many genders can dance on the head of a pin or which pronoun to use — or too busy getting securing their new home in the south of France — that we’re probably just goig to slip peacefully into autocracy without a struggle.
Not that particularly want a “struggle.” I don’t want any violence, but if there was a National Divorce with Blue States leaving the Union, states like Virginia and Texas would implode into vicious, bloody violence.
Anyway. We have a few years to figure out what we’re going to do on a personal basis. I have a vested interest in there not being a civil war — I have six novels I’m working on that I’d like to have the opportunity to publish in a peaceful — if even autocratic — America.
