The red states are like the far-flung French overseas territories in the carribeans and in the Indian ocean: they complain loudly about France and keep talking about independence all the time, but the last thing they want is to actually get it, because then they’d become the ultra-poor shithole countries they truly are.

A union of red states only would be a third-rate nation. And it’s not hypothetical: the Confederacy was notably poorer than the North, even though they had slavery. A new confederacy today would be even poorer.