[BroJoeK]

Pelham: "Low. The Civil War was a war for independence, a war between the states.
There’s no geographic separation today."

Everything depends on your definitions of "civil war", starting with Von Clausewitz: "War is the continuation of politics by other means.”
That means, likewise, we can say politics is a continuation of war by less violent means.

So there are many different types of civil war, each as different from another as, say, the Second World War and the Cold War.
Sure both were wars and both global, but very different situations.

Like a repeat of WWII, 1860s-type US Civil War is unlikely now in the extreme.
But just a little hyperbole & metaphor are needed to say we have long been in a Cold Civil War, or Civil Cold War if you prefer.
Remember, the Cold War saw years of regional hot flare-ups -- Korea, Vietnam & others -- along with guerilla wars, insurgencies, shifting alliances & strategic competition with nuclear weapons.
And where WWII lasted maybe 5-1/2 years, the Cold War lasted, was it 45 years?

Likewise Civil Cold War has sputtered on now for decades, sometimes hotter, others calmer, with shifting alliances and strategic competition for that elusive "permanent majority".

Anyway, the fundamental situation is revealed when you consider this fact: in 2018 the "progressive" Democrat Governor of New York was reelected by carrying just seven of 67 New York counties -- even New York's territory is 90% red, but ruled over by its top 10% of blue counties.

The 2016 electoral map, by counties, red=Trump, blue=Hillary

[Pelham]

“Everything depends on your definitions of “civil war”

I was thinking specifically of a shooting war.

If we want to broaden it to something less than that, then we are certainly in a cold civil war. Or a simmering civil war.

I dunno your age, but the decade from say 1965 to 1974 was more violent. We aren’t having hundreds of riots in the cities, we haven’t had assassinations and murders (yet). Antifa hasn’t resorted to gunfire and bombings and bank robberies like the Weather Underground and the SLA.

You could argue that the current situation is more ominous in that the Democratic Party has been captured by the same political wing that once produced the Weather Underground and the SLA. Like Obama mentor Bill Ayres. These aren’t Kennedy-Johnson-Humphrey cold war liberals. Some are arguably criminals and communists.

[Pining_4_TX]

This is why we need to cut the large metro areas loose. Let them have their socialist utopias in their very own city-states. BTW, it’s not PC to say, but minorities are a large part of the destruction of this country by voting consistently for the worst candidates.

[Pecos]

Thank you for your very cogent reply. I agree that the county-by-county map is the best way to view the country simply because it does highlight the Balkanization of our country. As a public service, it would be even better if the map identified the particular cities infested with the Red Death. Granted, there have always been city v. country differences and differences within given states. The problem is that we have changed from a "melting pot" to a mixed salad with every sub-group demanding that the group accommodate its particular differences, whether those differences be racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or food prohibition. "I'm special. Revolve your world around me."

I've been reading Jordan Peterson's book "12 Rules for Life" and have just gotten to the point where he warns about letting unsocialized children set the rules, which in my mind is a microcosm of the country's basic "whining and demanding" problem, but exacerbated by unrighteous lawyers. When a group of foreigners in a third country file a lawsuit against the president of the United States claiming that he is violating their rights under the U.S. Constitution, we have a very basic conceptual problem regarding the purpose and powers of government.