The Unitedish Stateses

I think it's safe to say that the population of the United States is about as divided as it's been in a very long time, probably since the Civil War. Or as Pew puts it "Democrats and Republicans More Ideologically Divided than in the Past."

And it's not just political affiliation, or even ideology for that matter. While the country has always had major differences, the massive differences in opinion exist between Democrats and Republicans; Blacks, Whites, Asians and Hispanics; rural, suburban and urban; young and old; southern and northern and even eastern and western, but more particularly coastal vs flyover country; religious and non-religious; college grads and high school grads; rich, middle class and poor; married and unmarried; and to a lesser extent, men and women. 

Indeed, the United States is ossifying into separate factions that seem to more or less hate each other. Some of this has to do with migration patterns as described in The Big Sort (liberals moving to liberal cities and conservatives moving to conservative cities). Some of it has to do with the huge influx of immigrants and the change that has brought to the country. And some of it has to do with the Internet and the ideological ghettos it creates. Throw in some economic turbulence and a new strain of very angry and very loud social justice warriors driving the sides even further apart along with an in-you-face, loud mouth on the other side as president, and well, you've created a very combustible mess.

Regardless, while it's debatable how much of each of these different components has had in shaping the modern American political landscape, there's no doubt the hyper-polarization exists. The big questions to me are 1) Are we even still one country? And 2) Should we be?

A few years back, Texas was talking about seceding. Liberals mocked them. Now California with the Calexit proposal and perhaps even the entire West Coast is at least seriously considering it. On an aside, I do find it humorous how quickly liberals have jumped on the nullification and secession bandwagon. I guess those things aren't racist anymore. Good to know.

You can find more than a few proposals online for breaking up the United States into smaller parts, many are somewhat tongue and cheek, but I do think it's something we should be thinking about. Perhaps the West Coast, Southwest, Rocky Mountain and Northwestern (but not coastal) states, Midwest, Rust Belt, East Coast and South could all form separate countries. Maybe they would be in a loose EU or Articles of Confederation-esque type arrangement. Maybe not. Regardless of the how, we should be asking why exactly should 325 million people be governed by one swamp on the east coast? Especially when we seem to hate each other.

Indeed, the average New Yorker has far more in common with the average Londoner than the average person in Topeka, Kansas. In my judgement, other than language, the same would go for Berlin, Madrid or Paris as well. 

With the "big sort" and Internet ghettos, SJW's on college campuses and Donald Trump in the White House, I see no reason for this hyper-partisanship to abate anytime soon. In the end, a peaceful dissolution may very well be the best option available. Indeed, it might be the only option left that could honestly be described as peaceful.