Excellent post! A wonderful job of clearly explaining your thoughts! Do have some alternate views as below.
The divide is mostly urban vs rural. I am coming to the realization that it's cultural more than ideological. The urban culture has become completely disconnected from people that live closer to the earth and in small communities. Paradoxically they claim to care about the planet, but they are now generations away from having to grow their own food. They don't actually have a relationship with nature yet they see themselves as protectors of their ideal vision of "the environment" (a vision based in fantasy). They do not supply their own energy, it comes to them over wires and they barely have any understanding of how it gets there. They feel superior to "country hicks" and "rednecks" and with every generation the separation becomes wider. The overwhelming majority of people have barely any understanding of the economy, couldn't give you a definition of "socialism" if their lives depended on it. They vote Democrat simply because they are surrounded by others who vote that way, and are steeped in media that paints conservatives as the Face of Evil.
Do agree that the divide is more cultural rather than ideological. Believe that is more a matter of the evolution of our society. As we have grown and advanced technologically, more specialization is the result. While it is true that urban populations have become less “conversant” concerning life in the rural areas, I don’t see that
most urban folks are somehow disrespectful of the rural population. I see it as more of a symbiotic relationship. While it is true that the folks in Augusta MT probably supply the beef to the folks in Lynn MA, there is a trade in the fact the folks in Lynn MA can manufacture the turbines that supply the electricity to Augusta MT. Neither rural or urban areas would have the level of success they now have without the other. While there is no doubt some city folks have the opinion that they are somehow superior to the “hick” rural folks, there are certainly folks in rural America that think city dwellers are stuck-up, condescending leeches. Neither opinion is entirely correct. Urban areas supply concentrated intellect and labor. These are necessary in today’s society.
This country is in reality a huge red mass with small spots of blue, but the small spots are so densely populated, and so ignorant of the people in the red areas, that they exist in a seething self important bubble. The big shock of the Trump win is that they were forced to recognize that real people exist in that empty "flyover country". These inferior "rednecks" forced them to take notice by denying them the assumed first female President. It's just taking a toy from a toddler is all. I'm convinced that the great majority of rioters and cry babies have no real clue about the policy differences between Trump and Hillary, they are simply shocked that people they so look down upon were able to take away their expected result. I don't even think they give a crap about Hillary. Their real problem is they feel like a parent swooped in and took something away from them, and that parent is the horrible, racist, unenlightened stupid person they have, until now, forgot existed. The cities don't like being reminded we exist because without us, they have no food and no energy. This is their deep subconscious fear. Their hatred of us is due to their dependence on us. Like a toddler resenting his dependence on mommy and daddy. But it's worse. It's more like masters who depend on slaves to work the plantation, or royalty in a medieval castle who have serfs that must turn over a large portion of their crops and goods. They are most comfortable pretending we don't exist, as long as they get their food and energy (and tax dollars). You can expect extreme efforts to overthrow the Electoral College, because the EC is what gives us large red areas power.
I suspect that the part about the “huge red mass with small spots of blue” comes from the voting results by county. While accurate, its use does require some caution. If a county voted 50.0001% Republican, it is red. Perhaps a better view might be a map that such as this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states#/media/File:Gastner_map_purple_byarea_bycounty.pngThere are LOTS of areas of purple, where the differentiation between red/blue is much more muddled. There are very few areas where it is clearly red or blue.
As far as that “hatred” between the left and right, that certainly exists on both sides and the media does tend to highlight the events in urban/suburban areas. Understand your point of the “crybabies” and their ignorance of other people. The protests and whining by some on the left just shows their level of information, I agree with you in that they need to “grow up”. On the opposite side however, there are many people who professed belief (including our President-elect) that President Obama was born in Kenya and is a practicing Muslim. Lack of accurate information and critical thinking is not strictly a Democratic or Republican characteristic.
There is no possible way to divide the country. It will be the Big House with no fields or woods. The Castle with no hunting lands or tenants. The blue areas cannot separate and survive, even the blue states are mostly red when you look at it by county. For a long time now the trend has been for the population to move from rural to urban and as far as I can see, that imbalance will continue to grow. That may mean if Republicans continue to win by EC, the popular vote will go the other way more often, until even the EC won't be enough for Republican wins. As people move to the cities, their children are "absorbed" into the urban culture.
Believe that dividing the country would be a big mistake and won’t happen. Very few of us can survive and prosper on our own, we need the help and cooperation of others, that is particularly, but not exclusively, true in urban and suburban areas. The EC is a good idea and I support its use. The EC provides that balance geographically and mutes the effect of concentrated urban areas. Don’t believe it is going away. Over time, political power has swayed back and forth. At the moment the Republicans have the control; it will defiantly change in the future.
So I expect this nation will go Democrat again before long. If we're lucky we'll have eight years of Trump and an economic boom, but it will all be reversed again because Democrats don't grasp economics. They don't see the connection between lower taxes and individual prosperity; they vote on emotion and "causes" not based in fact and reality. We'll eventually decline into socialist Hell and probably break apart into fiefdoms, or be forced to stay together like the Soviet Union.
Time will tell if we have an economic boom, no one really knows. To say that economic boom times are strictly a Republican or Democratic event is not born out from history. Our economy is complicated, inter-related and increasingly global, I’m not a believer that lower taxes automatically equals prosperity, too many other factors involved, think that how taxes are levied is far more important than the actual rate. Certainly many people, on both sides of the aisle vote with emotion. However, I do believe most people vote based on their current well being and the hope things will get better.
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