I will admit I wasn’t thrilled to see the ISA, but mostly put it off to the cyberpunk origins of the game (I think Shadow run has a similar region).
I don’t think the Confederacy had anything worth trying again, but I also get that there’s a lot of lore and glamorization around it that’ll mean there’ll always be someone who thinks it’s worth a second try.
I’ve also been only been in a few parts of that region a few times. I know it’s a diverse area with a lot of history and complexity and that opinions are all over the place. I’m skeptical you can discuss/conduct secession in the American south without dragging the lost cause mythos and it’s inherent racism and revisionism along with it. So even if people from all groups were largely in favor of secession, I’m uncertain as to how much confederate branding end up being included, especially in a more solarpunk world. It’s another of those things I don’t feel qualified to write about. I just don’t know the people well enough.
I think what I’d really like is to find a few people from the area with a different vision for what a solarpunk southeast could look like, and to break the sort of Confederacy default attached to the place.
All of that said, I think this is fairly mild and leaves room for changes in future drafts. I’d almost prefer a handwavy ‘the US broke up during the Global Climate Wars’ and we can add to it in future editions but I’m not against what’s here either.