…the Schlichter prophecies, I mean, wherein the good Colonel Kurt S. postulated a political/geographic split of the United States along red-blue lines. In his bleak and blackly humorous vision, (carried out over a five-volume series) the middle portion of the States carried on with fidelity to the Constitution, free-range capitalism, and universal military service as an obligation for full citizenship. Meanwhile the east and west coasts as a so-called “People’s Republic” carried on under an increasingly deranged and erratic progressive principles, turning into a dysfunctional combination of Portland’s CHAZ/CHOP, any PC-addled university you could name, Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe and Venezuela at this very moment. The series is meant to be grimly entertaining, but I’m beginning to believe that the split has already happened – not in the neat geographic manner (with some violent hiccups) outlined – but in a slower and murkier manner.

We’re already split between red and blue, progressive and conservative, urban/rural (with suburbs likewise split) between those who got expensive college loans and now can barely pay them back with minimum wage jobs and those who skipped college for a tech/trade school and now have a house, a boat and money in the bank. We’re split between those who can work remotely from home and those who actually have to go someplace and get sweaty and grubby for a paycheck; between those who have built something with their hands, and whose who have built something in their minds. There are also those whose income has been stable this last year even though they didn’t work at all, and those who didn’t work at all and didn’t get paid. Split between big business and small business, between veteran and non-veteran, between those who own guns and have concealed carry licenses, and in decreasing numbers of late, those who wouldn’t touch a gun with a ten-foot pole. Split between those who consume the New York Times and it’s establishment big media clones, and those who would rather stab ourselves in the eyes with a spork than watch another minute of MSNBCBS etc. There are those who wholly believe that Black Lives Matter, and those who stubbornly insist that all lives matter. And lastly – there is the split between those who believe in their hearts that Biden/Harris won the last election fair and square and those who know for certain that it was stolen and our votes for Trump were basically overwritten and discarded. We don’t even see each other, save as caricatures – and that may be the most damaging split of all.

We’re already at the split. We read different books, watch different movies and television shows – those of us who still watch movies and television – follow different celebrities, earn a living in different ways, educate our children differently. We honor different things, different heroes and heroines, have wildly different aspirations and hopes for the future. We are already split. Now we must figure out what our future options are. Discuss as you wish.