Secession is the natural order of things, it is the means by which all nation states evolve. Thirteen nation states met with the UK in 1783 in Paris, not the US. The UK has had more colonies and states calve off from it than left the USSR in two years in 1989-91. History, East and West, is rife with examples but the average American buys into the myth of US exceptionalism and that this mess will go on forever.
These states either carve out a partition or take over the entire governance of a nation like the Basques and Eire respectively.
In the US, this will start with nullification by braver state legislatures. If just one state leaves the union, there will be a stampede.
The US is done as a federal entity, it is now only a matter of time before it breaks apart and who knows what that will look like, the entire US intelliegnce community was caught with their pants down in 1990 as the USSR fell apart; they had no clue. These are Black Swan events.
It can be violent like Yugoslavia or peaceful like the Czeck-Slovak divorce or a slow death like the Irish in Northern Ireland or a bitter civil war after liberation like Eire from 1920-22 or a thousand other permutations in between. For the US, it is not a matter of if but when. The US is too big to succeed and the dual suicidal impulses of imperial military over-reach and fiscal stupidity on a gargantuan scale have sealed the fate.
If the Feds can't provision the FSA with loot taken from drained producers, what will be the glue to hold the Fed together?
Some possibilities:
http://zerogov.com/?p=2689I gave a speech on secession at PorcFest 2012:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O28aiatbmuMYou can dismiss it but secession is the natural order of history. Those who study history are doomed to watch it repeated.