I seriously think we are seeing the beginning of America seperating into two or three countries.

[Douglas Carpenter]

189. a split could only occur if people in a definable geographic area believed that they were going to

lose their way of life. When the South saw that the end of slavery was coming they correctly realized that the end of slavery would mean the end of their traditional way of life. As long as we have a country were socially conservative people can more or less live as they see fit and operate more or less freely in their socially conservative world and conversely as long as more socially liberal minded people can more or less live as they see fit and more or less operate in their more liberal minded community - there is no real reason why a split could occur.

If the tensions between the socially conservative and the socially liberal became so great that a desire for seperation could occur - there would still be the question of where do you draw the lines? I don't see how it would be possible to draw a geographic line separating these different levels of consciousness.

Even still if one community did become convinced that they could no longer protect their way of life and even if it were possible to draw a geographic line - there simply is not any evidence of an economic community that would benefit from such a split. The leaders of American independence had the backing of an economic community that had every reason to see a great advantage in political independence and disadvantage in remaining under British sovereignty. For that matter the Southern aristocracy as the time leading up to the Civil War had every reason to see an advantage in independence and every disadvantage in remaining with the Union.

As divided as Americans are we can still pretty much live as we see fit, operate in our communities pretty much as we see fit, with no definable geographic boarders separating the different world views and certainly with no conceivable vested economic advantage in political separation.