The bicoastal distribution of liberalism is a result of Yankee migration out West, starting with Oregon and the Old Northwest, and the only partial acculturation of the Atlantic Slope "deferential society" (as historian T.R. Fehrenbach calls it, I haven't seen the phrase elsewhere but it works) to Middle American values. Living in big cities and studying under immigrant Frankfurt School Communists does that for some people. Others are simply still half-European and never really got off the boat, but were intercepted on the wharf by ward heelers who took charge of them.
My idea of a new Constitution, same as the old one, but with New England and downstate New York disinvited, would give us the political heft to invite the rest of the "New America" to emigrate to Uruguay or Paraguay, where the Gay Left is going to create a fabulous new society and show us all how it's done (instead of leeching off us and stealing people's kids).
The bicoastal distribution of liberalism is a result of Yankee migration out West, starting with Oregon and the Old Northwest, and the only partial acculturation of the Atlantic Slope "deferential society" (as historian T.R. Fehrenbach calls it, I haven't seen the phrase elsewhere but it works) to Middle American values. Others are simply still half-European and never really got off the boat, but were intercepted on the wharf by ward heelers who took charge of them.
My idea of a new Constitution, same as the old one, but with New England and downstate New York disinvited, would give us the political heft to invite the rest of the "New America" to emigrate to Uruguay or Paraguay, where the Gay Left is going to create a fabulous new society and show us all how it's done (instead of leeching off us and stealing people's kids).
"Deferential society"? Read your book again. What part of America was more deferential than the Tidewater and the Lowland South? Old Virginia? Charleston? New Englanders had a reputation for being unruly disturbers of the peace -- Roundhead regicides in the 17th century, Sons of Liberty and Minutemen in the 18th, Abolitionists and Transcendentalists in the 19th. At least that's what Southern militants said about New England before and after the Civil War.
Of course there were long periods when New England was one of the more conservative parts of the country (say from the 1880s to the 1950s). This indicates that it's not so easy to make generalizations about the political culture of different regions. Connecticut and Alabama or Vermont and Mississippi are almost always going to be on opposite sides of political fights at any given time, but the positions taken may differ widely from era to era.
Of course, Portland OR has more in common with Portland ME than with a lot of other places in between. But the main factor is (as you suggest) that cities tend to vote Democrat and rural areas vote Republican. States dominated by cities and urban ways vote Democrat. Southern cities tend to vote Democrat. Atlanta and Jackson MS, say, weren't that far behind Northern cities in their vote for Obama. But there are more rural voters in Southern states. I know that it's more complicated than that, but heavy urban support for Democrats puts a monkey wrench in your plan.
"Middle America"? Does that include regions settled by Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch, Czechs? You might be surprised at how "half-European" by your standards some of them may be. Certainly, you'd be surprised at how little enthusiasm many of them would have for your plan. If the country splits up, it splits up in a big way. Ohio and South Carolina, Idaho and Arkansas, or Iowa and Alabama may realize that they don't have that much in common and don't want to subject themselves to some government over on the other side of the continent.
The thing about "Middle America" or the "Silent Majority" is that it's people coming together against something. Take away that something and people on different sides of the country may find that they don't have that much in common. It's also people coming together for something, but if the country's being torn apart we might see just how weak that "something" binding different states to the union has become. None of the pieces would be able to play the kind of role the US does in the world today. On balance, that would probably be a bad thing.