[who_would_fardels_bear]

Civil War, maybe. Secession, no.

How are the big metropolitan areas going to secede from the vast rural areas or vice-versa?

Not gonna happen.

What might happen:

1. Violence erupts with skirmishes
2. Sane people move out of megacities
3. Suburbs and rural areas crack down on crime and limit those who can come in
4. US degenerates into a feudalistic conglomeration of walled cities, some red and some blue.
5. Feds have to choose up sides. Who do they go with?

[The Duke]

Feds have to choose up sides. Who do they go with?

Only if the dollar maintains value somehow. Otherwise they will be Feds in name only ("FINO").

[central_va]

How are the big metropolitan areas going to secede from the vast rural areas or vice-versa?

Take OR, they have the votes necessary to get the entire state to secede, so yes it could happen.