Toward an American two-state solution

This election exposed the extreme fault lines in America. Trump supporters don’t know- or want to know – any Hillary backers and Hillary fans feel the same way about the Trumpies.

We are like inhabitants from different planets, with radically different world views. My friends and family can’t tolerate the country being run by right-wing extremists who spout racist rhetoric, hate immigrants, Obamacare, feminism, or the mainstream media and who claim global warming is a hoax and could care less about federal funding of the arts or public television. 

Neither of us wants to live in a country run by the other.  

{mosads}Which is why I offer this Modest Proposal: We need a Two State Solution. it’s like a marriage where the couple has grown apart—vastly apart—and there’s no way to reconcile them. This couple can’t even agree on a core set of values, like fairness, honesty, integrity, or statesmanship. Let’s face it, it’s not going to get better.  We may as well call it a day and separate.  We can have our country and they can have theirs.

In their country — call it Redland — there will be no regulations. Cars won’t have seat belts or airbags and no motorcyclist has to wear a helmet. The water in Redland will be full of industrial run-off and the cities will sit under a smoggy haze. No Clean Air or Clean Water Act. White people will live in all-white communities — no immigrants or black people need apply — and everyone, child, teen, college student, adult, can own and carry guns openly.

There will be no “political correctness” in Redland.  Citizens can use the N word as much as they like, can call Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians whatever name they like, and can do whatever they want with or to women—insult, demean, grope.
There will be only one TV station in Redland: Fox. And only one newspaper: Breitbart News.  Right wing talk radio jocks and like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will be broadcast 24/7. 

Blueland – where my friends and I will live – is diverse. Our neighborhoods and workplaces  include people from countries all over the world; their kids will go to school with our kids; our communities will be multiethnic and multi-colored. We will welcome the already well-vetted immigrants and embrace LGBT folks. In Blueland, we like our press doing its job and holding leaders accountable.

In Blueland, there will be a Planned Parenthood office in every town, giving women access to many services, including universal, free contraception, and safe abortion when necessary (though abortion will vastly decrease as it always does when women get free contraceptives). There will be common sense gun regulation—including universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and no guns for anyone with a history of mental illness or domestic violence. Everyone in Blueland will have access to high quality health care under a fully funded and effectively run ACA.

On taxes, well, as the IRS building says  “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society,” so corporations, the rich and middle class — including all of us, will pay our fair share. Regulations will be recognized for what they are –—common sense protections for our air, water, cars, products, wetlands, other species and protection from financial abuses. We like Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and never want to repeat the mortgage implosion that collapsed the economy in 2008. In Blueland, science, not religion, will guide our policy decisions — yes climate change is real and so is evolution. We also embrace separation of church and state and workers’ right to unionize.

Sure, it’ll be hard to separate  because we all live together in one country and breathe the same air and drink the same water. But there’s one way to start the Two State Solution process. Blueland exists already in cities like Washington D.C.,  Minneapolis, Austin, and San Francisco. Citizens in these cities should be free to make their own rules without federal intervention. If we want immigrants to feel safe in our communities, then immigration officials should back the hell off. If we want universal access to contraception and abortion, how dare you tell us we can’t provide it. And why shouldn’t we have strict gun laws? If Trump supporters don’t want us coming to rural Iowa or to tell them what to do with their guns, don’t come into my town and tell me what to do. So let’s do it. Let’s build the wall, actual or figurative.

There’s one final kicker. Today Red states take more federal funds than they give and Blue states subsidize them. That has to stop. So when we build the wall, THEY — Redlands, will pay for it. It’s about time we evened that score. At last, they get the country they want we get the country we want. A modest proposal indeed. 

Sally Greenberg’s work has appeared in the Huffington Post and The Hill. She has also contributed to the Smithsonian publication American Enterprise. She runs a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.