Let's rewind back to October 2008. George W. Bush is president; McCain and Obama are running for president. There is nary a thought about the Union falling apart.
November comes; Obama is elected and people are either elated about the first Black president ... or people just shake their head and know that America will be different after 4 years of Obama.
Then in December 2008 an amazing and bold prediction comes out - from a Russian academic - that America will collapse in 2010. I noted this article on my Book of Mormon Inspection blog because of the similarities between the prediction and what happened in the Book of Mormon (see United States Divided). If you click on the WSJ link, be sure to read the comment section as it shows a progression of "this is a bat-crazy idea!" to "wow, this Russian might be right!"
Now in November 2012, a week after the re-election of Obama, numerous states have signed a petition to peacefully secede from the Union. Texas has accumulated the required number of petitions to have the White House formally review it and respond to it.
To put an LDS slant on all of this talk of division and secession, let me reference the I Have a Question section from the June 1976 Ensign. In this response, Richard Bushman, Dallin H. Oaks, and Charles Didier, among others, addressed these exact same concerns.
other articles:
White House 'secede' petitions reach 675,000 signatures, 50-state participation
Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation
