Devolution

[GeauxSioux]

I remember reading a piece years ago by a professor named Popper about the future of the Plains called "Buffalo Commons". I scoffed back then, but some of what they said about small towns dying has come true.

I read a piece in the WSJ about the possible future of America in light of the rapid growth of the federal government.

Divided We Stand

Remember that classic Beatles riff of the 1960s: “You say you want a revolution?” Imagine this instead: a devolution. Picture an America that is run not, as now, by a top-heavy Washington autocracy but, in freewheeling style, by an assemblage of largely autonomous regional republics reflecting the eclectic economic and cultural character of the society.

There might be an austere Republic of New England, with a natural strength in higher education and technology; a Caribbean-flavored city-state Republic of Greater Miami, with an anchor in the Latin American economy; and maybe even a Republic of Las Vegas with unfettered license to pursue its ambitions as a global gambling, entertainment and conventioneer destination. California? America’s broke, ill-governed and way-too-big nation-like state might be saved, truly saved, not by an emergency federal bailout, but by a merciful carve-up into a trio of republics that would rely on their own ingenuity in making their connections to the wider world. And while we’re at it, let’s make this project bi-national—economic logic suggests a natural multilingual combination between Greater San Diego and Mexico’s Northern Baja, and, to the Pacific north, between Seattle and Vancouver in a megaregion already dubbed “Cascadia” by economic cartographers.

The gist of the piece is that America has become too big and will fail. In contrast to what we hear lately about "too big to fail". It says that America would be better off breaking up into smaller pieces, such as the North Star Republic, Novacadia and Cascadia. This somewhat goes back to what the founding fathers had in mind with the original idea of states and the 10th Amendment. Washington has gotten powerful and bloated beyond control.

With this type of scenario it made me wonder what would happen to ND? Would it become part of Manitoba? To a lesser degree, what would happen to athletics, not just at UND, but across the country?