:hatsoff:
I see you didn't choose that name just because you thought it sounded cool. Good read. :clap: But in addition to what you've said, recall that the central government of Rome, by the late imperial period, was ill-prepared to effectively deal with famine, disease or barbarian invasions. All too often you had what Violator79 is suggesting would work here: quasi feudal states, (potentially) ruled by the military, some goofball chosen by the military guard or even a government propped up by a foreign power, at odds with our Roman... er, I mean, our American way of life. Human history provides many examples of why this would be a bad, bad idea. But to the Tea Party crowd, or those who think that the federal government is the root of all evil, they latch onto these fantasies and go with them... despite all of the historical and practical evidence to the contrary.
And if Mr. Violator cares to look back at the OP, it is about California counties wanting to secede from their own state. So I guess now that the nation-state doesn't work, Mr. Violator would go to the county-state??? Perfect! Just perfect! We'd have 3100+ "nations" within what was the United States. So there again, yet another example of why this notion of the U.S. breaking up into a series of nation-states or county-states(nations) is wishful (illogical) thinking. It would be the first step toward anarchy!
Well Ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy did pretty okay being made up of separate units competing with one another.Sure, this chaotic liberty brought down Ancient Greece as it was easily conquered by Macedon and then Rome, but there was another element thrown into the mix..Class warfare..When you're fighting amongst yourselves, e.g, amongst people from different areas of the country, but then fighting against members who live with you but belong to a different class, you try holding off a much larger power like Macedon or Rome.
As for secession, that issue was solved with some 650,000 Americans who died during the Civil War.Not to mention California would be too over represented if we granted Southern California the right to secede from California and enter the Union..It would set a pretty bad precedent for the future..
However, there are some instances where you need more local control, as in medieval Europe circa the 8th and 9th centuries.When you've got Vikings raiding everywhere from the Seine to the Loire, you can't just call up your warriors and send them out to clobber them..They would already have left and gone off to ****** another area..So you had to have a more local means of defense when you're dealing with fierce raiders.Also, it was quite expensive to raise cavalry, so you had to have nobles who could supply themselves with the necessary equipment..Remember,the Kings of this time period lived off what they produced on their estates.
Well, not to get off topic.The border is really and truly fucked.When you've got a country as hypocritical as Mexico telling you, "Don't put up a wall.", when they're doing it on their border with Guatemala, or when they say we're too hard on illegals, when they have WAY tougher immigration laws, it's just ridiculous.
