The Divided States of America
Every four years we get further and further away from agreeing with each other. In 2016 it is not even close. I am completely amazed that anyone could ever vote for the candidate I do not choose and I have good friends who are equally amazed at my choice. Because of the incredibly wide divide we now have in our country, I think it is time that we go our separate ways. I will try to write this proposal with as much neutrality and non-judgement as possible. But like everyone else, I am definitely on one side and NOT the other.
The proposal is simple: The United States of America should divide itself into two separate countries. The division should be based upon “Red” and “Blue” voting preferences yet be as contiguous as possible. There will need to be some concessions and trade-offs for both of the new countries.
So as you can see it is not perfect. This is as close as I can get to “contiguous. It’s more like the British empire’s solution for India. And it obviously does not map perfectly to voter preferences.
But with a few exceptions, it is fairly close. Four major swaps:
VA & NC ← → IN & OH
NM &CO ← → AZ & NV
As an update, I did this before 2016 election results. But I still think that overall this is a pretty reasonable split.
In naming of the two new countries I think we should follow the ideals of our “Liberal” or “Conservative” values. I suggest:
The Liberty States of America or LSA (Blue or Liberal states)
The Constitutional States of America or CSA (Red or Conservative states)
Both new countries will be modeled after the current USA. I don’t think anyone will have a problem with that. They will both have their own Congress (House and Senate), Executive and Judicial branch. I would recommend we do away with political parties now while we don’t really need them.
The military will be a shared responsibility, funded by percentage of each country’s GDP. We will start at 3%. This seems like a good compromise — probably not enough for CSA but too much for LSA. This part could get complicated but the one thing that will always unite us is our enemies (think Pearl Harbor and 9/11).
The best part of the new countries are the policies! No matter who you are I suspect that one of these two countries will be perfect for you.
All citizens of either country will be automatically become citizens of that country where they live unless they self-identify and decide to become citizens of the other country (where they do not currently live). All citizens will have the option of living in either country but must abide by that country’s laws.
All citizens will be able to freely travel between both countries. There will be no border crossing checkpoints. However, the laws apply. As examples, if you travel from Oregon to Idaho, you will need to leave your marijuana at home or risk arrest and prosecution. If you travel from Iowa to Illinois you will need to leave your guns at home.
The friends of mine who are amazed at the choice I make can live in “the other” country and I can live happily in mine. We will still be friends! We can still visit each other. We will just agree to disagree and go our separate ways.
