“....we might not have had an intact-country to win back....”
We may never have an intact country to return to. If we could not win back the country in 2012, with all the negatives that Bronco Bama had going for him, then there is no hope of converting that fevered margin back to our way of thinking. The perpetual Santa Claus mindset has succeeded.
But the people with the perpetual Santa Claus mindset are not uniformly distributed. They tend to collect in great concentration on the Left Coast and in the northeast corridor, and in isolated enclaves elsewhere.
Simple solution: divide the country according to the “red” or “blue” localities, and run them as two different countries. Or six. Or thirty, if that is what it takes. There is one huge, nearly contiguous “red” country, plus all these much smaller “blue” pockets.
Let the Santa Claus mentality run all the “blue” regions, by whatever set of cockamamie rules they deem acceptable, and adopt updated versions of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution as the founding documents of the new “red” America.
This may involve some really crafty strategy and some open hostility before it could be adopted.
First, I want to reject, and encourage to all others to reject, the notion that conservatives are red and liberals are blue. This is double-speak that the sneaky, conniving liberals somehow forced on us. We are true blue to the Constitution. They are red commies even if they don’t know it.
Second, I will not concede 1 inch of territory to those Bolsheviks. I want to reclaim it all — from sea to shining sea.
Third, the best way for us to peacefully co-exist with less conservative elements until there is a paradigm shift in thinking by said liberal elements, is to push more of the decision-making down to the states as our forefathers intended. If California wants pot-smoking and homo marriage, let them. In Texas, we think differently. Viva la difference. However, this also means resisting federal encroachment in powers not delegated by the Constitution. This resistance should be done initially through the political process and courts. Failing that, we can employ nullification and other delaying tactics.
If the conservative-leaning states unify behind these principles and the more liberal states accept increased local autonomy, then we will have more harmony as a people.
We have the means to right this ship and restore the proper balance of power, we just have to be committed to the task.