I posted this mostly to get the phrase "Soft Secession" into the
   HN search  index.  But it seems  to me red and  blue camps could
   have some  beefs with  federal over-reach.  It's  interesting to
   note  there  are several  places  where  individual states  deal
   directly  with  each other  without  going  through the  federal
   government.  I'm thinking mostly  of how Uniform Commercial Code
   is coordinated  between states (spoiler alert:  it's not through
   the US congress.)

   I do sort of wonder if we're headed for a Soviet-esque conscious
   decoupling  of the  union.  It  seems you  could probably  do so
   officially  and  mostly  non-violently   if  75%  of  the  state
   legislatures  voted  to  dissolve   the  union.   Not  that  I'm
   recommending such a thing.  Times  are hard, but the uncertainty
   of having  to reconstruct  polities after the  end of  the union
   seems... risky.  I  can easily imagine a  post-union world where
   The   Empire  of   San  Francisco   slaps  tariffs   on  hoodies
   manufactured  in  the Berkeley  Free  State.   I don't  live  in
   Florida, so  I guess I'm  okay with them declaring  themselves a
   constitutional monarchy  run by the  Trump family.  But  I'm not
   sure I would want to visit.

   It has always seemed to me  the political union is a venue which
   requires you  to step outside  yourself to find  what's possible
   among  a large  group of  people,  each with  their own  agenda.
   People often make the mistake of thinking states like California
   or Texas are political mono-cultures (they're not.)  But I think
   every  place  would get  a  little  more  extreme if  they  were
   unmoored from their political rivals.

   Anyway... this  article on  "soft secession" is  interesting and
   unrelated to the Silverberg-esque fantasy  I am relating in this
   comment.