Is America Too Big?

A Country Divided Into Those Who Live in Fear and Those Who Don’t

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

It’s a crazy question, but maybe we are not thinking this through. I live in New York state. My friends in places like Arizona and Florida have lived very different lives over the past 15 months and some have adopted the politics of those states, which are very different than here, culturally different.

Some have come to believe that our cities in the Northeast are hellholes of violence and mayhem, which they are not. Yes, crime is rampant but it is out of control all over the country, especially with the endless litany of mass gun violence. Responses to Covid look very different with entire regions basically in denial of science.

Are these cultural differences reconcilable?

It has been a core belief in this country that our diversity was a unique and positive contributor to our culture. We took pride in the wide range of ideas and people, that call themselves American. But in the last four years, too many people have embraced the notion that those who are different are wrong-minded.

It is a time-honored tactic of fascism that playing people off against each other is a powerful way to build a power base based on fear, hate, and ignorance. And uncertainty, which opens a path for a savior. Our previous President, who definitely lost after one term, was fully aware of this approach and did almost unbelievable damage to the fabric of our society.

I don’t know if we can recover. Or if we want to.

Maybe we need to rethink the union

It’s a radical notion and one I put out there as speculation, but it is worth consideration. What if we divided into regions and created a European Union type alliance for security and economic purposes? I can see the southeast, the northeast, the midwest, the far west, California, and Texas. Drawing the lines would be a challenge but there could be advantages.

First, each region would be responsible for its actions without being rescued by the rest of us. If, for example, Texas chooses to ignore the reality of climate change and not winterize its power infrastructure, then when storms cripple it the…