A new Confederacy

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The whole "Red State/Blue State" thing is meant to confuse non-USians about our actual political character, which is quite paisley.

Are you saying where you live all people don't have a red or blue hue?  Maybe I should get my eyes checked.

But to just play devil's advocate, why couldn't the obstacles be overcome?  Yes, most big cities lean Democrat and rural areas are heavily Republican.  If the overall number of voters lean one way or another, they can outvote the opposition.  So if some state held a referendum or ballot initiative to seek to part ways with the nation, it could pass.  We know that some people are already moving between states for political reasons, so this could be just another reason to do that.  If there were enough people pushing to do this and if enough were elected to congress, it could force a debate on the subject, potentially stalling other legislation.  What would it take for elected officials to seriously consider this if the alternative was violence?  Think about the European Union for a second.  I never expected Britain to leave the EU and even though the EU isn't the same thing as the US, the similarities are clear enough.

Understand I'm not advocating for this; just exploring what might happen given that our politics continue to split into a wider gap.

Short answer: Our political character is often on a knife edge at election time and things can change quickly and suddenly. The fact that the President is the first thing people vote for shows that this tipping can happen easily. For example: