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Letters: Secession as an option today

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Re “Irreconcilable differences,” Opinion, Nov. 18

Regarding the recent efforts in some states to petition for secession, people should recall that 150 years ago this was no joking matter.

When 11 Southern states tried to secede in 1861, it caused a tragic Civil War in which more than 600,000 lives were lost. President Lincoln dealt severely with those states that tried to secede, and rightly so.

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The people today who want to follow those treacherous citizens of the 1860s (who didn’t like the president then either) ought to consider their actions more carefully. Should they try to rip our country apart? I think not. They are potential traitors.

Lenard Davis

Newport Beach

Paul VanDevelder seems to be OK with dividing the country into blue and red states in total and by individual cities, including Austin, Texas, which would become a “protectorate.” Let’s take that a step further just in our corner of the U.S.

Blue California would consist mostly of its coastal counties. The rest of the state, which includes the bounty of resources VanDevelder enumerated, would not be in his blue nirvana. In Nevada, only two counties, which contain Las Vegas and Reno, would be part of blue America. The same pattern exists in Oregon and Washington.

An examination of voting by county nationwide would result in a similar division. Let’s do it.

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Harold Schieve

Whittier

VanDevelder’s reality check for those calling for secession is clever and funny, especially because it understates how much the blues support the reds with taxes.

The fact is, though, VanDevelder affirms the red-state gripe that the blues are a condescending elite. There are no blue and red states — they are all blended. And the tiny percentage of Americans secessionally opposed to President Obama’s policies have legitimate gripes against their government, yet they are still part of our common society.

Tit-for-tat is not the way of democracy.

Bill Puka

Los Angeles

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