Today’s political debate between Red and Blue seems toxic from the trivial to the most consequential. Even the basic premise of what constitutes an actual problem causes fierce conflict on all forms of red/blue television, social media, etc. The analogy that comes to my mind is a couple on the edge of divorce. Let’s call it Mr. Red and Mrs. Blue. Now splitting into 2 separate countries seems (or at least previously seemed) absolutely insane. Just splitting red and blue America peacefully like Czechoslovakia is surely too big a task to consider. Even if Mr. Red and Mrs. Blue aren’t ready for a full complicated divorce...maybe a trial separation? Enter the latest demand for a roughly 2000 mile wall.
This got me thinking. Why not build a roughly 2000 mile wall, not along the Mexican Border, but rather in a 500 by 500 mile square smack down in red America. Let Mr. Red have a quarter million square mile box apartment to get some space from Mrs. Blue. Let Mr. Red build a wall. Maybe double or triple wall it. No doors. Give Mr. Red some rope to build his utopia state inside the box. No Mexicans. No Middle Easterns. Outlaw abortion and birth control and safety nets. Mandatory loaded assault weapon carrying by everyone over the age of 5….yada, yada, yada. Meanwhile let Mrs. Blue run things the way she wants back at the home (outside the box).
Although I’m not completely serious, I think the broken marriage and broken nation has some merit. At some point, if red and blue are consumed with hate for each other and you can’t communicate or even agree what reality/facts/etc look like...you are not really fundamentally a nation anymore. Administering some separation may be the only long term solution.