GOP firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene says, “We need a national divorce,” and while her idea of splitting up red and blue states won’t work, it’s not worth another civil war to keep Republicans in the Union.
The divorce part is easy; we’re already divorced. Republicans aren’t dating Democrats anymore, and vice versa; and Republican family members aren’t on speaking terms with Democratic family members, and vice versa.
The geography part is much harder. There are just too many practical difficulties with splitting the country into two (or several) pieces along state borders. What about Democrats who own property in red states? Would they have to forfeit their property or face being left behind?
What about the large blue enclaves (e.g. major cities) in red states? Is it fair to make those people citizens of a hostile nation?
What the many military bases in red states? Would we close them, or turn them over to an adversary? How about access to Gulf and East Coast ports? Would you let a hostile nation control the roads to the blue enclaves, the mouth of the Mississippi River, or the Galveston oil terminals?
What about sovereignty? How would you keep Red America from making treaties with Russia, China, and North Korea, that allow them to place military bases and missile installations on North American soil?
Fortunately, there’s an available precedent and template for all this. America already is two nations, the American nation, and the Indian nation. The latter has self-governing reservations, which are sometimes referred to as “sovereignties within a sovereignty.” This is an accurate description; the federal government retains overall control; for example, the tribes can’t conduct their own foreign relations. But they’re free to live as they please, according to their beliefs and customs.
Having already set up white reservations for red men, there’s no reason why we can’t set up red reservations for white men. Military bases, interstate highways, essential transportation networks, airports and ports, etc., would be outside these zones. Blue Americans would be free to travel to blue zones in red states, and those states would retain their state boundaries and governments, but members of the Red Tribes would only vote in their reservation elections.
There, they can have all the abortion restrictions they like, as many wives as they like, machine guns, public executions of shoplifters, child labor, no minimum wage, no public schools, no books, and shamans instead of doctors and hospitals.
Because the tribes determine qualifications for membership, as on the Indian reservations, they can exclude LGBQT people, non-Christians, and people of color; we won’t care, because it’s their reservation and how they treat their members doesn’t concern us. Neither will their tribal politics.
The point is we’ll be rid of their tribal politics. That may be enough to make the entire enterprise worthwhile.
