In the wake of Democrats’ surprisingly impressive performance in the 2022 midterms, it might be easy for some of us to forget just how starkly divided this nation actually remains, even as we continue to be supplied with reminders on a near daily basis. Just this week, for example, after we watched as President Biden masterfully took Republicans to task for threatening Social Security and Medicare, many of us reflexively ignored the Fox News-laden gibberish spouted by former Trump press secretary (and now Arkansas Gov.) Sarah Huckabee Sanders in response. After all, her diatribe was aimed at an entirely separate audience, obviously not directed toward Democrats, and not even (as New York Timescolumnist Paul Krugman points out) toward Americans as a whole. But while Sanders’ litany of grievances may have seemed incomprehensible to us, to millions of Republican viewers it made perfect sense.
Likewise, while for Democrats the performative antics of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republicans during the State of the Union were simply crass and embarrassing, many GOP voters doubtlessly found her catcalling to be brave and even inspiring. Because such crude, performative behavior is now common practice from Republicans wed to “owning the libs” as a means of fundraising, we’ve now almost grown inured to it.
On a more “macro” level, though, red states and blue states continue to diverge relentlessly in their entire outlooks. Missouri’s state legislature overwhelmingly approves legislation permitting children to carry guns in public places, while Texas and Florida continue to devolve into semi-fascism, touting an “anti-woke” agenda that singles out and targets vulnerable groups such as pregnant and transgender persons. Meanwhile, “blue” states enact provisions protecting these same groups from hate and discrimination. Nearly all of these profound disparities between states can be traced to the conflict between longstanding, pervasive racism and white Christian nationalism (prevalent in “red” states) versus more secular and tolerant views (dominant in “blue” ones). In that respect, they are simply the most recent manifestations of forces that have riven this country for decades, if not centuries. But the fact that they now signify deep divisions in everything from tax policy, to the provision of health care, to enforcement of labor and environmental regulations, suggests that they are more or less permanent fixtures, even as our politics continue to idealize a fantasy of national unity.
So the nation continues to be deeply and possibly irrevocably divided, while the current Supreme Court—now dominated by radical, conservative reactionaries—stokes that division even further through its ideological rulings, much as it did with its infamous Dred Scott decision that helped to facilitate the Civil War. Except the court has now confirmed its intent to go even further, targeting personal autonomy and our very structure of government in an unprecedented effort to turn back the clock and reverse the social advances of the 20th century. Given the seemingly implacable divisions that already exist in this country, it’s not particularly apocalyptic anymore to imagine a point where the majority populations in “blue” states simply refuse to bow to this court’s edicts and opt to go it alone.