Unrealistic and poorly imagined. The author is almost indifferent to local character and not terribly well informed on weapons outside those in use by the USMC.
- He doesn’t have Salt Lake City take charge of Utah plus the surrounding Mormon areas, as they would in such a crisis.
- He doesn’t have significant friction between urban areas and their rural surroundings, as we would certainly see from Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia.
- He has Virginia take Maryland - why would they want a far-left freak state that produces almost nothing they need?
- He has Texas fighting wars of conquest - why would they want the other states?
“The war reached a turning point when a New York based flotilla made a decisive push to take Washington D.C. In response, a nuclear device was used on the fleet and all the ships, sailors and Marines on that mission were lost.”
Nope. Nukes are not magic, and warships need far more elbow room just to sail safely. Unless the “flotilla” is two or three ships total and they are sailing too close to each other, that’s not happening.
“The West coast was now controlled by the two main powers-California with its seat of power in San Francisco and The North West Union (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) centered in Seattle.”
There is no way in the world that Idaho could be controlled by a government centered in Seattle. They have lumber, minerals, beef, corn, potatoes, sugar beets, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power. They don’t need anyone else. The state as a whole is not fond of (moderate) Boise’s comparative liberalism, and they despise Seattle as much as they despise California.
I could go on, but I found his fantasy useless. Texas is not California but with less fruit and vegetable acreage for their agriculture. The states still have distinctive characters, as do rural parts of states controlled by their urban zones, and he doesn’t take either fact into account at all.
Maryland wouldn’t stand a chance if Pennsylvania crossed the Mason Dixon line.