The Old Confederacy had this little quirk about slavery which had to go, but a New Conferacy would be rooted in the 20th Century, not the 18th. Might turn out a pretty nice place.

I'm sure that if the US broke into smaller, more manageable parts, there'd be a general land rush across the entire continent as people rearranged themselves into more congenial groups. Development of a standard national culture has leveled out the traditional regional and local cultural differences and made one place not so different from another. But if regions can reassert their traditional cultures, there'll be something distinctive to entice people to move there. Or move away. Total diversity goes up, freedom of choice goes up, what's not to like?

Striking a balance doesn't mean uniformity. You can get a nice average out of lots of different cultures. It's what I meant our being politically in each other's pockets: In a uniform national society it's often the case that what's good for you is bad for me; neither one of us is really wrong, but we're shackled into compromises we shouldn't have to make.

Ya know, I'd probably care little about most of the national social issues that have us screaming at each other, if I wasn't forced to have a horse in the race by national agendas. It wouldn't bother me if kids in Southern schools prayed, as long as it wasn't forced on the whole country uniformly. It'll work if half the states allow abortion and half don't; half can allow gay marriage and half can prohibit it; whatever, as long as there's a choice somewhere that works for somebody.

Art observes that it's been a nice converation, and it has. I think my recent thinking about authoritarian conservatives helped, because it reminded me that not all Conservatives think alike, and that perhaps I've fallen into the partisan trap of lumping all my political opponents together. To hear Dean talk about Classic Conservatism reminds me of a time when I had more common ground with Conservatives and didn't view their entire agenda with blanket disapproval.

The world'll change in the next election, and I'm determined to not fall into the trap of just switching roles and becoming the gloating victor. The election could be an opportunity to fix some relationships that are broken, and I want to take it.