Bridging the Great Divide: Peaceful Separation of States?

Tea Party goers have made great strides in developing grassroots movements in every state of our country. Our efforts to have government return to its conservative roots is admirable, but is it realistic? I'm beginning to think that we are expending our energies and efforts on the wrong end-goal. It may be time to refocus our hard-work on an outcome that might actually make everyone happy.
It is safe to say that our country is ideologically polarized and while it has been going this direction for some time now, probably since Carter, the distinction between both sides of the spectrum has grown into a chasm as wide as the Royal Gorge, and it is quickly approaching the Grand Canyon in size. This political divide is truly irreconcilable and both sides of the issue believe they are 'right.' We as citizens seem to have lost our ability to tolerate opposing points of views, primarily because our opponents' views are so diametrically opposed to our own--and frequently are issues of deep, personal significance to each individual.

Can we ever expect any of us to move to the center and get along? Can gays ever agree to be satisfied with civil unions and not traditional marriage? Probably not. Can pro-lifers ever agree that abortion can be legal but rare? Maybe some can, but many will still believe it is murder and will fight against it. Can the fiscally conservatives every find compromise in supporting higher taxes to offset deficit spending? Doubtful. Can the liberal ever move to the center and accept that hand-outs aren't the best solution to our economic ills? Unlikely.

So we stand on the opposite sides of this great chasm, and jumping into the middle of it seems unsavory to us at best, and downright suicide at its worst. How can there ever be a united states again? I'm sure I wasn't the first to think of this, and it may not even be practical or constitutionally legal, but let's imagine this scenario, for just a moment...

These United States, in order to form a more peaceful union, each agree to individually designate its alignment with two distinctive forms of federal governments: Progressive and Conservative. A progressive government (such as the current administration) would have all three branches of government outlined in the constitution for oversight of those states which align with its federal government. Likewise, the conservative government would do the same. These two governments would be free to operate under the constitution of the United States and interpret it as it sees fit. States would vote democratically in elections to determine with which governmental ideology it wished to align itself. In order to be practical, 'alignment' elections would only be held every generation, so that citizens wouldn't be subjected to sudden shifts in paradigm that would create societal chaos. Presidential, congressional and local elections would continue to be held as the constitution requires.

This scenario enables each state to select for itself how the federal government will govern its state. Liberals and progressive states can have all the nationalization and socialism they want within their states. Individuals who don't like the federal oversight chosen by democratic vote in their state are free to move to a state more aligned with their ideology. Taxes, schools, marriage, abortion, criminal justice, welfare, immigration, international trade, all would be freely interpreted according to the federal government under which they are aligned. Each federal government will be responsible for defending its citizens as it sees fit, funding it as it determines necessary.

A conservative federal government would have to be created and such details could be worked out in the process of peaceful separation of the states. But why could this not work? It would certainly be an opportunity to 'test' each of these philosophical ideals in a real world laboratory without using half of the opposing unwilling population as guinea pigs.

The present solution of making one side of the ideological spectrum vehement every four years and just having them "get over it, while the new administration enacts legislation that makes a mockery of advances made by the previous administration is no longer effective. It's just like a river flowing down a valley, each year the chasm gets wider and wider until you can no longer see the other side.

If the United States is to survive, I think it's time some of us start to consider pursuing this option with all our energies. You can't make people change and no matter how many times we march on our local or national governments, they aren't listening anymore. We the People have got to consider that perhaps this is the best way for us all to maintain the country we love, living the lives we choose without our liberties being taken from either side of the political spectrum.

What is beautiful about this option is that it is one that the liberals would also probably agree to! They'd jump at the chance to prove that their way is better. At least, the uneducated ones would, and they're the ones who vote. The political elite probably know that the money is all in the producers and they are mostly conservative. They know what would probably happen--that corporations, the wealthy and most taxpayers would move to conservative, low-tax states. Their revenue base would dry up and they would be finished. But there's not that many of them. The vast majority of American liberals are ideologues who don't know enough about issues to vote intelligently on them, and they're angry, too. They are convinced that they are right on everything and will love the opportunity to 'see those conservative states crash and burn!'

Honestly, is it time to begin this dialogue? It's not full out secession, which a lot of people shudder at the thought of because most states don't want to go it alone. They can't afford to. But a union of like-minded states governed by a like-minded federal government might be a way to save our sinking ship. If we focused our tea party energies into developing this idea, couldn't we make more progress toward a more practical, realistic solution? Every day for the past 100 days, I've cringed to see what this administration has done to further erode and destroy the country I once loved. I know millions of you out there agree with me. Let's make these tea parties mean something. Let's take our way of thinking back for those of us who wish to continue to live the way we choose...before we all are forced to live under tyranny in a country we don't recognize anymore.