“An Unpleasant Speculation”

Thinking in the shower this morning, I engaged in wild speculations about the possible future breakup of the United States. The question being, where exactly the boundaries would be between the old “Union” and the old “Confederacy.”

The thought came after reading online postings about gun control and the recent killings in Connecticut.  I’m more and more aware that people have visceral reactions to certain events and issues; and different people have wildly different reactions.

I’ve known this for a long time.  But recently I’ve become much more aware of how important gun ownership is for some people.  The idea of gun control hits them very personally.  Some people feel vulnerable and feel they need guns to protect themselves.  Other people feel threatened by knowing that people around them own guns.

For myself, I will issue a disclaimer:  Although I try to listen to other people’s points of view and understand them—and I think I do understand a lot of them—my natural inclinations tend towards the liberal side of politics.  So I have to work harder to understand the more conservative viewpoint.  But I try.

The United States started as thirteen colonies that agreed to come together as a loose confederation, then as a “more perfect union.”  We fought a bloody civil war when roughly half the country decided they’d rather opt out on what they saw the country becoming.  They were forced to remain in.

But what if the differences become too great?  The Soviet government eventually could not hold the Soviet Union together.  Czechoslovakia eventually split into separate Czech and Slovak countries.  Those dissolutions occurred peacefully; Yugoslavia became a disaster.

The Jihadis who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan take credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union.  I’ve always thought Bin Laden had something similar in mind for us, and I always thought it was silly.  We don’t have the same extremes of ethnic and religious hatred as existed in Yugoslavia.  We have a long and strong democratic tradition, unlike the Soviet Union.

But I’m beginning to wonder.  I thought the 2008 presidential election was pretty disgraceful, and 2012 was worse.  And watching the defensiveness and fear of various political, social, and religious factions in the United States, I’m not as confident as I used to be.  I used to think, “We’re all Americans, after all!”  

But the very meaning of America is becoming vastly different for different segments of the population.  Is the “American Dream” about freedom of thought and expression?  Or is it about becoming financially independent?  Or is it about becoming, to use an expression, “filthy rich?”  Is it about becoming more powerful than everyone else, so that you can thumb your nose at them?  Or is it about building a community where everyone is welcome—and where, possibly, everyone is cared for?

I don’t know.  I envision a “New Confederacy” of roughly the old southern Confederacy and the general area of the Louisiana Purchase, as well as Utah and Arizona.  What is left of the “United States” is split into three separate enclaves:  The northeast, the Pacific coast, and Colorado/New Mexico (maybe).  Not a pleasant sight.

My father once mused that the U.S. had lost its vision, and that the Soviets would triumph.  I’ve always been more worried about our own internal stresses.  I’d like to think we’ll pull through.