Planning the Next Great Migration

I want to return now to the topic of American political collapse, which I began earlier and quit in order to make a few digressions. Recall that civil war expert Barbara Walter calls attention to the perils of factionalization, especially when politics is based on the interests of “superfactions” that share multiple group identities, such as geography, race, and religion, and especially when a faction that has held disproportionate power feels itself losing it. That all sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Our politics, our social lives and even our science are increasingly eaten up by Red vs. Blue Faction battles. Many of us have not fit happily into either of the major-party factions and, if we do not feel personally threatened by one, wander back and forth according to which issue exercises us at the moment. Do you want low taxes or equal rights for women? Liberal gun laws or a functioning environment? They aren’t obviously mutually exclusive, but nobody’s offering both, so pick one!

I will make my position explicit: although I don’t love the Democratic Party, the text posted below is written from the position of a Blue Faction supporter, because the single issue I now consider paramount is whether we will continue to have free elections. (Free and fair would be nice, but our elections for many offices are now semi-fair at best.) I would vote for promoters of an easily accessible universal franchise who were anti-choice and pro-coal over pro-environment, pro-choice people who wanted to not just stop as many opponents as possible from voting, but arrogate to themselves (only) the right to simply discard the results of elections that didn’t come out their way. Unfortunately, that latter is increasingly the Republican Party’s official position. I have nothing against the majority of ordinary Red voters, for whom I will later have plenty of red-state destinations to suggest (I want them to be safe and happy too!), but I regard the Red factional leaders and their extremist followers as a profound danger to our country and many of its residents. If that will offend you, you may wish to skip reading this article.