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The Panarin Nightmare
A hypothetical dissolution of the United States revisited
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the sad state of affairs in the United States.
In the wake of the recent Supreme Court dismissal of lawsuits to overturn the election for Donald Trump, key figures in the Republican Party have openly advocated secession in protest.
On December 8th, Representative Kyle Biedermann (R-TX) expressed his desire to file legislation for Texas to secede from the Union. Within 48-hours, GOP Chairman Allen West echoed Biedermann’s calling in suggesting several Republican states form a new Union.
This is not an entirely new phenomenon, however.
On the eve of George W. Bush’s re-election in 2003, a group of Vermont-based intellectuals and professors formed a movement (the Second Vermont Republic) to advocate the peaceful secession of Vermont from the United States.
The re-election of Barack Obama in 2012 prompted citizens in all 50 states to file petitions advocating for “peaceful secession” from the United States.
With the rise of Donald Trump in 2016, small groups such as #Calexit and Oregon-based secessionist movements made headlines in their calls to divorce from the Union as well.
