Thomas Paine once asked in <i>Common Sense</i> why an island should be allowed to rule a continent. Maybe it's time to ask why a mere <i>city</i> should be permitted to govern a continent.<p>I'm fine with red state secession as long as blue states maintain porous borders so I can vote with my feet — and as long as red states don't get a single dollar in foreign aid from what remains of the US. If the neo-Confederates think they can manage on their own, I'd love to see them try, because blue states have been the Germany to the red states' Greece for years.<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-business-local-taxes-ap-top-news-politics-2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c" rel="nofollow">https://apnews.com/article/north-america-business-local-taxe...</a><p>Hell, we should have let the South secede in 1861 and then encouraged slaves to run away by granting automatic citizenship and equality with whites if they made it across the border — but Abraham Lincoln was hellbent on preserving the Union by any means necessary.