Re: AW: RE: Background Material: A call for Help from US Easterners

--- KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wrote:
> Here is a discussion of US political regions that
> may be of interest.
> Don't know how much it matches your thoughts, but it
> might give you
> ideas.
>
http://www.massinc.org/Commonwealth/new_map_exclusive/beyond_red_blue.ht
ml
> I though it especially interesting that it doesn't
> split the country up
> by state, but looks more closely at details

I looked at it's details more closely too, and have a
few critiques of it.

Mind you, my main critique is of it's analysis of the
Western US, specifically the Pacific Northwest.

If you look at the detailed map of the west coast half
fo the Upper Coasts region, you'll see it's split into
two green areas divided by one little sliver of white
(Sagebrush) that splits them.  That sliver of white is
the county where I was born, spent my teen years, and
graduated from High School (Douglas County).  The
southernmost end of the top green area, just above
Douglas County, is where I live now (Lane County).

In terms of current US national politics, it's a
pretty accurate assesment of the Northwest, so I'm
assuming it is also true in other regions.  However,
for the purposes of my game background, it addresses
too specifically NATIONAL issues, and not enough
regional/local issues that are not on the natiuonal
scope, particularly the cultural attitudes of
westerners towards other westerners from a given
state/region.  Specifically, the Southern Oregon,
Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington, and Northern
California (North of sonoma/Napa counties especially)
perception that the more poulous regions of the states
leave them out of the loop in Salem, Sacramento, and
Olympia.

So let us assume for the sake of the storyline that
prior to the balkanization of the entire nation, we
have a period of intrastate balkanization, where
larger western states split into smaller states (based
on political referendum, not the old population
criterion).  It is highly likely that Southern Oregon
and Northern California would split from their
respective states and form Jefferson, a movement with
cultural historic significance here.  Furthermore, as
a WA poster has mentioned, Eastern WA would probably
split too, and Palous seems a likely name for the new
state, or it might join Idaho.	Eastern Oregon would
probably like to do the same thing.

However, once these new states are formed, if the
country itself broke up, and they were forced to form
new countries to survive, it's highly unlikely most of
them could make it on their own, and they would be
forced to form new unions.  In that case, while
Jeffersonians would have historically felt alienated
from both Oregon AND California, they'd probably be
more likely to join a Northwestern nation than to join
Southern California.

=====
"In life, you must try and be the type of person that your dog thinks
you are."

- Anonymous

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