There was a depressing Opinion piece by Niall Ferguson in the LA Times this morning ("The New One Party State"), arguing that as democracies progress they tend to coalesce around a single political party, and, that in the U.S., that party is the Republican party. He cites Japan as the model example of his theory, and infuses other examples from Sweden, Israel, Germany, Italy, and Britain to support his argument(admitting momentary problems with this theory).
If he's right, I say we secede now! Wouldn't California, Oregon and Washington make a lovely country? Maybe throw in Nevada so we can get to Vegas easily!
Check out the LA Times article here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ferguson10oct10,0,7950701.column?coll=la-util-op-ed