Slavery?
I grew up hearing tales of Russians killing Poles, Catholic Hungarians fighting Prussian Protestants. Endless divisions, but here in America we say that West Virgina couldn't get along with Montana?
You pretty much imply New York or Vermont and Oklahoma or Mississippi can't get along, why be surprised if other states can't? I didn't mention those West Virginia and Montana, but now that you mention it having to cross international borders a few times to drive from one to the other might convince them that they really don't need to belong to the same rump country.
Of course you could fly, but the point is, once you start breaking up the country, talk about "the Real America" won't count for much any more. There might be some resolve in the beginning to create a conservative "real America" that unites the states that are currently Republican, but I don't see it lasting. Get a new flag, get a new capital, get new institutions, and different states and regions will start to wonder about just what does hold them together.
Talk about Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln will sound quite hollow if we couldn't keep their country together and can't visit their capital or homes without a passport. It's sweet to talk about a common ideology, but if ideology couldn't save the US, it's not going to save some big, ungainly successor state.
People come together against a common opponent. Without the blue states to fight against the red states will come to ask what really holds them together, what they really have in common. And the same thing will happen in the blue states without their common enemy. Little differences that don't amount for much now are going to seem more significant when today's differences don't matter anymore.
If being part of a world power couldn't keep us together when we needed to we'll have gone over a major cliff and there won't be much need for Idaho and Mississippi or North Dakota and South Carolina to stay together simply because they don't like New York or California when the latter are out of the picture (I suspect the rural states and urban states don't really dislike each other as much as people think, though).
If Idaho and Mississippi or North Dakota and South Carolina don't have to be part of the same country and get together to vote against New York or California and if the big "American idea" breaks up, they'll find that they have different interests and different values and go their own separate ways. Once you get beyond the idea of sending your money to Washington, are you really going to settle for sending it to some other, new capital for other, new bureaucrats to mess with, or are you going to want to spend it closer to home with people who really have more in common with you?
Slavery?
Sorry, I should have phrased that better.
What I meant was that the Civil War STILL divides America.
Why Georgians Still hate Indianians for Burning Atlanta?
That is the kind of Sh!t you have over in Europe.
I thought our values pulled us together better than that.
"Talk about Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln will sound quite hollow if we couldn't keep their country together and can't visit their capital or homes without a passport. It's sweet to talk about a common ideology, but if ideology couldn't save the US, it's not going to save some big, ungainly successor state."
Maybe your right. I just thought we could pull together as a country better than that.
The Founders wanted Federalism, like what you describe of NOT sending your money to some far off Rome to divvy up to its favorites.
Washington D.C. had grown fat off the Labor of Kansas, Tennessee and Michigan.
Yet they party like its 1999, our system is broken and you are right the longer that goes the more animosity is going to build up.