At the Democratic National Convention, Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards said, “We must build one America.”  Nevertheless, there are still portions of the Democratic party so desperate to regain political power that they would rather keep America as divided as possible and capitalize on that divide to return to power.

One such faction advertised their book, The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, through FoxNews.Com last week.  The book statistically explains the divide in America while offering nothing to repair it.  In fact, the authors prefer to use the data to offer suggestions to Democrats on using the divide to regain their majority status in all branches of government.

The book’s rational for selecting Retro and Metro as their labels for America’s two halves is nothing short of offensive.  The name Retro was chosen “because the economies of the Red states tend to be dominated by the extraction industries and low-wage manufacturing and federal facilities; and because they are the home of old-fashioned values and the ‘Bible Belt,’ with its pro-life, anti-gay convictions and tendency to be more wedded to creationism than to science.”  On the other hand, the authors “named the Blue states Metro America because they represent the Metropolitan areas that include both the historic industrial base and the ‘New Economy,’ new economic classes, a commitment to scientific innovation, and new ways of constructing the world.”  No doubt you picked up on the elitist authors’ condescending, mocking tone and their inferior perspective of the tens of millions of Retro state inhabitants.

In fact, not much farther in the book, the authors make the point clear: “Whereas Retro America represents ‘Old America,’ with a traditional economy, and political power firmly entrenched in the white community, Metro America represents ‘New America,’ with the New Economy and political power more equitably distributed among ethnic groups.”  This offensive breakdown of American culture ignores the overly simplistic labeling a state’s entire population “Retro” or “Metro” based upon statistics.  Georgia, for instance, has a thriving metropolis in Atlanta, but it is labeled as a Retro state while Colorado’s emphasis on mining and farming as industries does not change its apparent status as a Metro state.

This logistical breakdown, coupled with the grouping of tremendous regions of the country as Retro or Metro, disguises the most sinister recommendation of the authors: that Democrats “lose elections because they… waste money seeking Southern votes that will never add up to one electoral vote.”  Ignore the South, the authors say, their votes don’t matter anyway.  But, the authors continue.  “If the Democrats are successful in transforming themselves into a Metro American party, it would give them overwhelming majorities in both presidential and congressional elections and more than offset the advantage the Republicans have in the Senate.”  So, if the Democrats can focus on the Metro areas they already control, they could offset the balancing effect the Senate has on American culture.  That way, once “the Democrats establish themselves as the majority party, they can set about binding the nation back together….”  Or rather, once in the majority, they can change the rules, as they’ve done in the past, to benefit their party.  But, the authors insist the only way to do this is to write off the rest of the country.

The Founder’s creation of the Electoral College, and especially the Senate goes, prevents the rule of the country by the representatives of just one or two states in addition to preventing straight democracy from governing this country.  This book, however, suggests a strategy to end-run these critical, time-honored establishments of America’s political landscape by keeping Americas as divided as possible. The book basically tells Democrats to divide and conquer and to use their majority status to do what they view as the best interests of the minority.

There is a serious problem with this suggestion, though.  The relative success of Metro America is directly connected to the manufacturing and extraction industries that dominate Retro America.  Without the people and resources generated for use in the cities, the so-called advanced culture and economy would be incapable of sustaining itself.  Our country’s greatness is a direct result of this partnership between Red and Blue states and their ability to work together.  Dividing America, as this book suggests, would be disastrous.

Greatness cannot be achieved, nor sustained, by dividing America.  To do so is dangerous and deceitful, but demonstrates the desperate lengths to which some Democrats are willing to go to regain their power.

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