Comment by barry-cotter

> If a distant metropolis does not have to care what people in the flyover land think, why not declare independence?

The distant metropolis is rich enough to pay a lot of taxes to support a long war. Flyoverland is definitionally low density meaning it has relatively few people. All they have to fight the war is some extremely stubborn people. That can be enough but an awful lot of people are going to die. There’s a great deal of good on avoiding civil war.