The Tribune

By RICHARD COULSON

International observers often worry about the centrifugal trend in many countries - the tendency of regions or ethnic groups to demand autonomy or independence, weakening the control of central governments and any “national” identity. Just a few examples: in Spain, wealthy Catalonia is threatening to spin off; Scotland wants separation from England; the Kurds want nothing to do with greater Iraq; Nigeria is split between the Christian south and the Muslim north; tribal allegiances in Pakistan and Afghanistan shatter any hopes for unanimity.

This week’s elections show the same trend in the United States. Thanks to a county-by-county map provided by the New York Times, we can see vast stretches of rural areas coloured solid red, for the losing Republicans, and smaller urban zones coloured blue for the victorious Democrats. Clearly there is a basic difference in political thinking between the country folk - largely white, church-going and socially conservative - and city dwellers - often mixed-race, agnostic and socially liberal. One example is the vivid split between the blue Atlantic and Pacific coastal regions, on the one hand, and the overwhelmingly red Midwest, south and mountain states on the other hand. The effect is even more striking when we look inside the heavily Democratic states of California, Washington and Oregon, which show blue counties clustered in the cities along the shore, with red counties dominating the larger rural interior regions.

Many other states are likewise split internally, where geographic size does not translate into votes. Ninety per cent of Nevada is coloured red, but the counties with Reno and Las Vegas are blue, so the state went Democratic. In the crucial state of Ohio, red counties dominate the map, but again the lonely blue counties hold the three major cities, giving a Democratic victory.

It is also notable that within many counties the party divisions were not minor, like 53 per cent-47 per cent, but heavily weighted, sometimes 70 per cent-30 per cent, indicating intense political slant at a local level. In three red states, such as Oklahoma, one does not find a single blue county, and in two other red states only a single blue county. Massachusetts, by contrast, does not show a single red county. It must be lonely to be a Democrat in Oklahoma City, or a Republican in Boston.

These sectional and ideological differences are unlikely to be as severe as the irreconcilable split over slavery that tore the nation apart via Civil War 150 years ago. But they will certainly make the country hard to govern during the next four years, with a ‘blue state’ President and Senate and a ‘red state’ House of Representatives. We should not expect an early end to the gridlock that has paralysed crucial decision-making, which affects not only the US but also the Bahamas and the rest of the world.