It has become commonplace to observe that the American people are now divided into two distinct camps, roughly approximated by the opposing voters in the recent presidential election.  The Blues, concentrated in the Northern tier and Pacific states, are the progressives, marching on into the brave new world of polymorphous hedonism and limitless ethnic transformation.  We Reds are people who like the Old American way of life and think that Christian morality is still valid.  The division and its likely progression are beautifully laid out by Mr. Patrick Buchanan in his latest book, Suicide of a Superpower.

Where a population is critically divided, one might hope for a bit of compromise and restraint, live and let live.  We Red States, generally speaking, might be happy to leave the Blue States alone to do their own thing.  But the Blues will never leave us alone.  First, it is in the economic interest of Blue politicians to continue to transfer as much as possible of the national product to their constituents.  Second, the Blues are sure that their way is the true and right way and that we Reds are merely ignorant yahoos who must be educated and, if necessary, coerced into the light.

France is divided into irreconcilable political ideologies, but she manages to get along because of her cultural core.  Switzerland consists of three or four different ethnic groups, but unlike the United States, she has a genuine federalism that allows mutual cooperation as needed.  None of this is to be hoped for in the American situation.  We the governed literally have no appeal against centralized executive and judicial authorities that fall just short of controlling the air we breath.

History seems to be stacked against us Reds.  The last election may have registered the high point of our political power.  The demographics, whether measured by age group or ethnicity, are all against us.  Nearly all the institutions of our society are under effective control of the Blue elite.  The Culture War is over, and we lost.  Most of our troops surrendered without a fight.

There is still a greater obstacle to building political power to defend the Red states.  That is the Republican Party, an historical holdover, an electioneering machine that collects the Red vote but does not represent it.  Both parties are eager to sacrifice the people to the bankers.  Both to varying degrees support the global empire, which they will never give up except in the wake of a major disaster, and probably not even then.  Both are indifferent to the ongoing marginalization of the old American identity.  Both participate in the pervasive distortion of public discourse known as political correctness.  On the pretense of making us secure, they have cooperated in erecting the surveillance/police state that has almost rendered individual liberty null and void.

The true solution to our present dilemma would be a dismantling of the federal monopoly of power—through secession, nullification, devolution, what you will.  This is, at least at the moment, a poor hope, though there are stirrings that could bear fruit.  The Blues will not relinquish power, and a great many among the Reds are people unable to tell the difference between “my country, right or wrong” and “the government, right or wrong.”  Or between national defense and foreign aggression.

I am much tempted to fall back on a couple of old Southern sayings: “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference,” and “Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn.”  Just color me gray.