Our Future?

Over the last forty years, Americans have sped up the process of cultural self-segregation, settling in uniformly liberal enclaves such as Oakland or conservative exurbs such as Colorado Springs. Now that gay and lesbian couples have lost their chance for civil unions in states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, they have more incentive than ever to leave for friendlier climates. If a Bush-packed Supreme Court removes the federal right to abortion, women for whom the act isn’t murder will move to states that allow it. The long process of mutual disengagement will accelerate, and the points of contact between the nation’s two tribes will dwindle away. Liberals won’t move to Canada. But they will move to Seattle, and in increasing numbers, until one day we really will need a translator to speak to one another, and UN peacekeepers patrol the demilitarized zones between Washington and Idaho, Virginia and Maryland, Nevada and California. But at least for one brief moment in 2004, we formally noticed that gay couples have dignity. (source)