At a time and place not so farfetched from where you are now, this country changed but changed gradually to the point where no one seemed to notice. No one clearly understood what was happening or really cared to know. Well, at least not enough of us cared to know what was changing about where and how we lived. Maybe it started with the new millennium when the urban and the rural parts of the nation, blue states and red states, became so polarized on “culture war” debates and social issues. Who can forget that silly 2000 presidential election decided by the Supreme Court? Then came 9/11 with those crazy al-Qaeda bastards, then came the war on Afghanistan, Iraq…back to Afghanistan...then Pakistan...then Iran…then Syria…pretty much the whole Middle East Muslim world, even Saudi Arabia. The Obama years were merely a footnote in history.
Since we militarily and economically decimated a good chunk of the world, refugees flocked to our nation, and we welcomed them all as we enjoyed unprecedented prosperity during the war years and thereafter. Immigration was at its peak easily eclipsing the sentimental years of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (which by the way was blown to smithereens in another al-Qaeda attack). With the new influx of such multitude, our population began to rival those of China and India as great numbers of Chinese and Indians continued to immigrate to the states in order to escape their oppressive and corrupt governments.
In spite of all that, the country remained divided politically and culturally. The urban centers benefited the most from the economic growth and successes generated by the wars, but the rural parts became more alienated and isolated, caught up in their disdain for the wealthy and decadent urbanites and separating themselves culturally and socially away from their "sin city" counterparts. More notches were added to the Bible Belt which fastened tighter and tighter. The line between religion and legislation increasingly blurred day by day in the Belt. It soon became apparent that a mutual separation was on the horizon--the Great Disunion.
Eventually the urban states and the rural states governed separately, almost as seceded and sovereign nations, but what used to be one country now had two of everything to run the affairs of the states--two capitals, two Congresses and two co-Presidents. The Supreme Court and our country's name remained the same. I can see you shaking your heads about now. It would take too long to explain how these double-the-fun federal governments actually functioned. Suffice it to say that they serve as two different heads for two different bodies that interact freely on every level except politically. The rural minority needed to have political autonomy from the potential mob rule of the urban majority since demographically the "Inlanders" would have always lost to the "Bicoastals" (actually, those in the Great Lakes states prefer the term "Shoreliners").
By promoting safety, security and family values, the Inlanders had hoped to attract more people and businesses to their states, but still a disproportionate number fled to or stayed in the crowded Bicoastal states that were more tolerant, permissive and liberal on matters of lifestyle and privacy. As in the past, the new immigrants preferred to settle in the overpopulated cities, about which they romanticized and mythologized in their own minds as places of greed and riches that led to the American dream. Imagine every large city in the nation turning into a New York, Los Angeles, Beijing or Mexico City.
Soon the fear of overpopulation that hung in the back of our collective closet suddenly became a reality that loomed over our heads like a dark, threatening storm cloud. The cloud then precipitated on us as a social policy crisis that had to be dealt with. The Bicoastals were left with no other option but to impose a limit on childbirth. At first, the limit was no more than two children...then one child...then only those who could afford to raise a child could have one, but still no more than one. Those who couldn’t afford to have any kids were put on contraception by law. If the contraception failed, then they had ways of finding out whether a woman was pregnant or not. Once you’re caught, an abortion was immediate. At least there is a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to how and why a woman became pregnant in the first place...as long as you agree, more or less, to have the abortion.
Mandatory abortion was the one thing that forced some people to move into the rural states. They had no such thing; in fact, as you may have guessed, they banned all abortions. “Family values” and “family friendly communities” were their rallying cry and selling point. Those who held religious fundamentalism and conservatism in high regard lived there by choice. But the abortion ban did very little in bringing more people into the economically-challenged rural states and keeping them there because the abortion ban was instituted long before overpopulation became a real problem for the Bicoastals.
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