Are We There Yet?

Balkanize
     verb
: to break up, divide compartmentalize

Balkanization, division of a multinational state into smaller ethnically homogeneous entities. The term also is used to refer to ethnic conflict within multiethnic states. It was coined at the end of World War I to describe the ethnic and political fragmentation that followed the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the Balkans. (source) 

Are we, here in the disintegrating US of A, getting to the point where this will be inevitable? Has it always been the most likely endpoint? Can the right wing, my-way-or-get-out-of-the-country, extremely shortsighted, racist, misogynistic, reactionary, christians-in-name-only ever live peacefully in the same area as folks who dare to be any different than them?

I see the map memes where the US is carved up into new countries based on which states voted for Stinky and the couchfucker and which voted for sane, intelligent leadership. These are, on the whole, deceptive. They don’t take into consideration that Texas has been gerrymandered to Hell and back.

The World Population Review lists these eleven states as the most gerrymandered in 2025:

•  Arkansas
•  Kentucky
•  Louisiana
•  Maryland
•  North Carolina
•  Ohio
•  Pennsylvania
•  Texas
•  Utah
•  West Virginia
•  Wisconsin

All but Maryland are rigged in favor of the Republicans.

There are intelligent people living in even in the darkest Republican holes of hate AND I’m sure some of the hate holes aren’t as vile and dangerous as I imagine. That’s NOT to say that I’m inclined to take a vacation in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi or Louisiana. I’d also consider myself quite the daredevil if I got out of the car at a rest stop when driving through Idaho (AKA Militia Central). 

So, IF the US does end up getting all balkanized, what makes the most sense in terms of smaller, more manageable nations?

For the Northeast, if we figure that Pennsylvania was rigged for Stinky by Leon, we could include that in the new, expanded New England or whatever our union decides to be called. The Northeast Union? The Atlantic Alliance? Sanity East?

The West Coast is all set. Washington, Oregon, and California are in accordance. Perhaps they’ll be named Pacifica or Cascadia?

As for the vast interior of the US – despite the usual Republican pushed maps showing the majority deceptively red, it’s mostly purple. Just a big mix. Land doesn’t vote. Neither do oil rigs, cows, pigs, wheat, soy or corn. There’s loads of farmland, lots of empty space, vast stretches of nothing out there. People vote.

Which reminds me, if we get to the other side of this fascist Hell, we need to kill the electoral college. It began as a racist, classist, bullshit compromise between having congress elect the president and having we the damn people elect our own leader.

No, it's totally not.

States, based on the size of their population, were assigned electors who voted directly for their preferred candidate. The allocation of electors in each state, however, was entrenched in systemic racism. Under the precepts of the Three-Fifths Compromise, enslaved individuals were deemed as only three-fifths of a freed citizen and therefore disproportionately represented in state populations. The voices of people of color, women, and white men without property were effectively silenced when the Framers devised the Electoral College process. (source) 

AND I only mention it but, did you know, according to Moneygeek, seven of the 10 states most dependent on the federal government were Republican-voting, with the average red state receiving $1.24 per dollar spent. Another good reason to balkanize.

So yeah, if I was queen of the US, we’d totally break this shit up. We’re too big to truly succeed. Dipshit governors in states that are always on the receiving end of federal handouts get away with wreaking havoc on their own citizens as well as the rest of the nation. 

ENOUGH!