Whats Wrong With the World?

I can word this a lot of different ways but since this is a school project I'll be PG. The world is realistic and realistically the world is full of problems and has a ton wrong with it most of which we have no power to control.  In this post, I at random picked a news article and have written a response/reflection on it. I know the news is a touchy subject and everyone has their own opinions and just like you I am entitled to mine. So before you read anymore you need to know that in the comments I don't want to hear complaints or other annoying bs. If you want to state your argument or tell me what you agreed or disagreed with that's awesome. If you have more information on the topic and want to add please do but I don't want to see comments that say "this is dumb" or "are you stupid?" Nah, if you're going to comment that don't bother reading this post. Thank You.

Now that that's out of the way let's get back on topic. I picked an article written by Tom Mullen titled "Can the U.S. Survive the Pressures for Secession?" This was at random so I don't really have a reason I picked it. In this article, Mullen talks about the hatred of presidents from both sides, the growing violence in the country over government policies and how the U.S. would be affected by states seceding. Mullen also brings up points on attempted secession around the world. I don't what to do an in-depth summary of the article; I want to tell you my thoughts when reading certain parts and what I agree and disagree with as a whole. The intro talks about the haterade that both sides of the political party had for the last three presidents and in his words "Trump has inspired new levels of hostility- even for politics" he then says that "Americans have been hating the president for this entire century." The presidents he is referring to are president Trump, Bush, and Obama. Both the left and the right sides of the political party have "mobilized armed groups, not just carrying signs but ready for violence" explains Mullen. This line is pretty straightforward and I think it's pretty self-evident that this is true. Mullen believes that " Government makes nice people do terrible things, things that even they themselves would have considered barbarous before taking office." I both agree with and disagree with this statement. I think the government affects what the presidents do but to blame all the terrible things and bad choices that our leaders make on government seems ludicrous. Mullen then moves on and starts talking about secession and how the United States is not a "nation-state". A nation-state is by definition; a sovereign state whose citizens or subjects are relatively homogeneous in factors such as language and common descent.  I agree that the nation can not be a nation-state because we are extremely different and extremely diverse state by state. People living in Kansas City Kansas, for example, will have very different culture compared to Miami Flordia. Mullen continues to bring in examples of attempted secessions around the world from the Catalonia referendum to the Scottish referendum in 2014. Mullen says this line before bringing in examples from other countries " Secession movements are gaining momentum all over the world for precisely the same reason American politics are becoming more vitriolic." This line is telling us what Mullen believes is at the base of secession; a need to break away from an overbearing government that stretches and manipulates your rights. This line brings up lots of questions for me. First does the U.S. government manipulate our rights? Second, do we even have rights or are they just privileges that get given out for a time and then taken away? Third, if we don't have rights or they are being manipulated is secession the best option for the United States to fix the problem? Granted I can't answer these questions but I thought state what ran through my head after reading that line. Moving on, Mullen continues talking about secession but now focuses on what it means for the rest of the U.S. if a state did secede. But I can sum this up pretty fast since he said " Would the lives of Americans in New York, Georgia, or Utah really change substantially if California were no longer being governed by Washington? No." I think Mullen should have been more specific. He should have said, "would the everyday lives of Americans" instead because California leaving the United States would cause changes in politics and government which affects everyone. My everyday lifestyle wouldn't change because of a state leaving the U.S unless it was the state I lived in. The last section in the article is about solutions and the lack of a perfect one. Mullen argues that localities and regions have different wants and secession isn't the answer to all these problems. He states that "while Catalonia, Scotland, Venice, and Tibet have no other choice but secession, the United States of America do." His answer to my third question from earlier is that " getting back to the Constitution" is " a realist outcome of whatever conflagration lies ahead." The Constitution is our source of rights and freedoms that bind us together as a country. I'm in agreement that is a "realistic outcome" but I'm unsure if it"s the best option for us to take. This concludes this weeks post and I hope everyone remembers what I asked in the beginning of the post. Thanks for reading this and I realize I don't know what I'm talking about so if that thought runs through your head I completely understand.