Boing-boing's humorous take on secession. There's a strong element of truth in this. I was watching a debate last night contrasting the voter turnout in the US with that in the UK at the last eleection. UK politicians generally believe that elections shouldn't be decided based entirely on religious or moral issues. The differences between the 2 major political parties are a lot less tangible than in the US and can be reduced towards attitudes to tax and public spending (and even then the differences are arguably minimal as they must react to changes in the world economy)
However, in the US it's always seemed like republicans and democrats sit on two opposing political fences with democrats sneering at republicans for being unsophisticated and republicans lambasting democrats for being amoral and ungodly. The reality lies somewhere between this polarised map of the US. (i.e. My political colours would be more democrat than republican but I must admit that Colin Powell and John McCain are sophisticated, smart and quite moderate in many ways and I have much respect for them, while some democrats are quite infantile in their attacks on "republican hicks") It's an interesting debate but I can't help but feel that it leads to gross simplification of the issues and flawed foreign policy. Still, as a TV pundit pointed out "It's democracy in action. The country may be divided but after the results people will go home and get on with their lives. There will be no rioting in the streets"