I'm really making this based off discussion and personal values/beliefs, but it does of course have the ability to drive a discussion forward in NSG.
Let's say it's November of 2012, and radical candidates have been elected in to the United States Congress as well as in to the White House itself. Minnesota, a rather moderate or left-leaning state by U.S. standards for the most part, has decided it no longer has a place in the Union and decides to peacefully leave, even passing a referendum with the voters of the state to leave the nation which passes with a "Yes" vote in favor of secession with 79% of the votes.
I realize this is already a bit of a stretch, but let's also say that the United States, currently distracted by something else, just lets Minnesota go and lets Puerto Rico take its spot as a state or something so they don't have to bother changing the flag and whatnot. However, they also embargo Minnesota, though this is a unilateral action as Canada for some stupid reason fears Minnesota, who have now been joined by the Dakotas in their secession due to geographic neatness and a somewhat similar culture between these states.
Could Minnesota and the Dakotas, as an independent nation, survive in an international economy as well as being somewhat self-sufficient, or would it collapse as a state?
I say it could, if most agriculture was moved to the Dakotas while Minnesota became the manufacturing center of the new nation due to the fact that Minnesota has Minneapolis, Duluth, etc. as well as companies like 3M and General Mills, who, for the sake of the scenario, stay with the state due to historical locations within the state as well as nationalist ties within the corporations.
