More than 100,000 Texans have petitioned the White House to let Texas secede from the Union.  Epicureans would reply, ” if that gives you pleasure and happiness, go ahead!”

Texas has its own independent power grid, has “a rock solid infrastructure” and is blessed with a wealth of “refined oil, natural gas, cattle and cotton. It is a lead player in agriculture, aeronautics, computers and many other sectors, and its $1.2 trillion GDP would make it the 14th largest economy in the world. Culturally and politically, Texas is also distinct, with little in common with liberal northern states.

Thompson suggests giving Texas a measure of quasi-autonomy in return for diminished influence in Washington, somewhat like HongKong or Scotland.   But I suggest that the American Civil war should never have been fought in the first place.  The slave states should have peaceably gone their  own way (nationalist cries of “shame”).  Let the discontented follow their own path.  Of course, this has all sorts of implications , not all of them bad.  Being an Epicurean I will not enlarge on them, but let the intelligent work it out for themselves.

Adapted from an article by Chuck Thompson in  New Republic