The gerrymandering decision today locks us into being two different countries

[Recursion]

We're going to be "The West Coast plus NV, NM, and CO" and "The East Coast from Virginia up". Illinois will be an island in the sea of misery.

Oh, there may be incremental changes back and forth: the GOP may take OR, and we may take NC, but that's just border skirmishes. This locks in partisan control of most states for the foreseeable future.

As faith in the national government erodes, the blue states will build on state or regional levels the sort of social infrastructure we've been pushing for nationally; think a "New England Regional Healthcare Co-operative" and a "Mid-Atlantic Regional Jobs Bank". The red states will strip every social and economic protection they can.

I've often thought it odd that the right was so insistent on Federalism and the left so opposed to it. There's nothing inherently small-government about federalism, and nothing inherently large-government about centralism. What we're going to wind up with is a right-wing national government where all the economic activity is happening in left-wing social-democratic states. The trick will be to stop subsidizing the rest of the country.

[stillcool]

1. when you throw in the affects..

of climate change, things get really interesting. I don't see this country staying 'united' for too long.

[MarvinGardens]

2. I totally agree with your comments on federalism

and have felt that we should embrace it more. Actually I couldn't have said it better myself.

I've often thought it odd that the right was so insistent on Federalism and the left so opposed to it. There's nothing inherently small-government about federalism, and nothing inherently large-government about centralism. What we're going to wind up with is a right-wing national government where all the economic activity is happening in left-wing social-democratic states. The trick will be to stop subsidizing the rest of the country.

But I am not so sure that this locks us into the type of regionalism you describe. What it does is preserve partisan gerrymandering as a "feature" of our system. And it has been a feature since the country's founding, hasn't it? The thing about gerrymandering is that it only works to a point, and it eventually bites the gerrymanderers in the butt. As popular opinions shift, they have to institute more elaborate gerrymanders just to barely hold on. Then when it shifts a little more, the dominos fall and fall hard. I think what locks us in a little more is the Senate, which can be viewed as a permanent, immovable gerrymander.

[Cicada]

3. Cavalry is on the way. Millennials favor Dems 57 to 32

That tidal wave will go over many of the gerrymander walls. And we can add two states, DC and Puerto Rico.