The Great Divergence
What do you call a cold civil war?
Ronald Brownstein, writing in The Atlantic, believes it might be time to start considering, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, America as two separate countries entirely — maybe for good.
All of this is fueling what I’ve called “the great divergence” now under way between red and blue states. This divergence itself creates enormous strain on the country’s cohesion, but more and more even that looks like only a way station. What’s becoming clearer over time is that the Trump-era GOP is hoping to use its electoral dominance of the red states, the small-state bias in the Electoral College and the Senate, and the GOP-appointed majority on the Supreme Court to impose its economic and social model on the entire nation — with or without majority public support. As measured on fronts including the January 6 insurrection, the procession of Republican 2020 election deniers running for offices that would provide them with control over the 2024 electoral machinery, and the systematic advance of a Republican agenda by the Supreme Court, the underlying political question of the 2020s remains whether majority rule — and democracy as we’ve known it — can survive this offensive.
This divide is only going to get wider.
First, the justices who lied under oath regarding “settled law” should be impeached. If potential Supreme Court justices can lie under oath to members of Congress, the rule of law is finished.
I’m not hopeful regarding the midterm elections and I’m not hopeful anyone involved in the attempted coup will be charged with anything.
