Union, a reality Check
From my first votes in the Regan-Bush era, I could see the U.S.A. was not united socio-politically. As a youngster watching the red vs. blue map on TV, the regional divide was obvious yet unspoken. America appeared to be a patchwork held together by a federal election every four years. Objectively, the U.S.A. defies the definition of united. And it was ever thus.
The social and ideological fault lines have existed since the first slave ship docked. The Civil War wasn’t an aberration, and re-incorporating Confederate states on a map never brokered cohesion. Reconstruction in 1865 was quickly rescinded, and Jim Crow replaced racial oppression and voting suppression for the next century in Southern states. The 1964 Voting Rights Act cleanly split parties and regions. Bush v. Gore in 2000 demonstrated how a rightwing minority can game a democratic majority by strategic use of the electoral college from a base in the Red States. The Trump era hasn’t widened the chasm, only exposed the undeniable once again.
It’s high time to acknowledge the divide in America. We are separate countries.
Together Unequal
America’s polity is a gunshot wedding between disparate ideologies and cultures. The people occupying the southern and rural Red States have never embraced the founding father’s Enlightenment nor modern liberalism of the Blue States in the north and west. The latest version of the conservative movement, MAGA, desires the values of the old Confederacy and are willing to tear the country apart to achieve it. Rightwing politics in my life time have slowly crawled back civil rights gains and rescinded much of the economic equality legislation passed since the 1960s. Conservative activists want to drag the country back to pre-Constitutional feudalism, while the rest of the country resists the march towards fascism.
These cultural differences have not been transcended by soapbox persuasion from either side. Conservatives are offended by the pretense of progress and seek a homogeneous culture with patriarchal leadership—in polar opposition to the rest of America. One group imposing federal legislation over another is unfair and only inflames the discord. Red State voters want something very different than voters in the Blue.
The Great Experiment of democracy has failed because a chunk of the population do not accept in the hypothesis. Too much blood has been spilt and effort wasted on reconciling the foundational divergences on how to organize our society. The unnatural alliance produces a constant political tug of war.
Different Reunions
The Democratic states cooperate closely, and the governments are more aligned with Canada’s legislative record and the accelerating social democracy in Mexico. Blue State people’s culture, self-identities, and political organizations resemble Mexicans and Canadians across the borders more than their southern neighbors from within. A liberal continental republic spanning the entirety of North America exits despite the national lines on a map. In the wake of Trump, Blue States are further strengthening these cross-border bonds to resist his overreach.
Meanwhile, the Red regions act as a sub-state block as if resurrecting the old Confederacy, fulfilling the dreams of many people who already own the flags.
A New Map
I drafted a new map which shows how America actually operates. A true socio-political geography for North America is not difficult to carve out. The Blue States are contained governments, contiguous on two coasts, and border Canada and Mexico. The Red States are largely the same southern ones that seceded in the 19th Century with a few later additions (all physically connected except Alaska). In this map, I joined Utah to the RNA, since the Confederacy would not tolerate Mormonism. Iowa and North Carolina are also included due to their economic ties to the Blue States. Several Red states could decide their opportunities will not be fulfilled in the new Confederacy: Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska come to mind.
Cartography cannot illustrate the upheaval of a national split of this magnitude. Blue pockets in Red States would see a mass migration to the RNA. Cities and counties in the interiors of Texas, Georgia, and Florida may try to separate from the CSA, which wouldn’t allow a Blue enclave within it. People of color, immigrants, LGBT, and rural-living progressives would flee to the RNA, while white conservatives inside Blue States would head for the Red. The dissolution into separate nations would be on a scale second only to the Partition of India in 1947. Yet there’s a simple and practical logic to the map. This is how our country has always been divided.
Future Progress
Unburdened by the Red States, the Republic of North America could advance and fully cooperate with the other social democracies in the world. The Confederate States of America could finally realize their tax-free theocracy. The refashioned Confederacy’s economic and political situation would be less favorable and could quickly sink into turmoil, but this would be their own problem to resolve. No longer would the “southern way of life” suck all resources from the rest of America.
The U.S.A. has been artificially constructed from inception. People who wish civilization to progress have been halted by their reactionary brethren who wish to preserve chauvinism and plutocracy. Under the new map, all like-minded people are placed in the appropriate political systems in which to design their futures.