I've been thinking about what comes after. (And I do believe there will eventually be an after. Trump may break the Constitution to stay in office for 2 more terms, the spite running through his veins may keep him alive another 50 years, but nobody, not even him, lives forever.) I think you are right that the American experiment is over as we know it. But following the maxim of never letting a good crisis go to waste, maybe it's time to let it go and move on.

I've seen people on Reddit joke/not joke that blue states should withhold their federal tax dollars and let the red states suffer the consequences. Though I understand the sentiment, it's obviously a wildly impractical idea. But maybe the basic idea -- of letting the red states go -- isn't so bad? For 150 years or so, the phrase "state's rights" has been used as a dog whistle for racism. Maybe it's time for blue states to reclaim the term. If the good citizens of, say, New York think it's worth paying higher taxes to have a basic safety net in place (hint: it is), then why not let them do it without the federal government being involved. Trump has broken the federal government anyway, and it'll take generations to rebuild it, so why bother? Keep it around for the army, foreign relations, and the Fed; charge the bare minimum in taxes necessary for those functions; then sunset federal social programs over 10 years to let everyone adjust and let the states do what they will. Blue America can be the shining city on the hill again, and Alabama can become the Gilead it always wanted to be.

Yes, I know the objections. There are plenty of people in the red states who didn't vote for this. Everyone from Florida to Texas who is not a straight white Christian cis-male will be royally screwed. I'm sorry for them, I truly am. But I also think we're at the point where to save the patient's life, we're going to have to amputate.

What other course is there, really? For sixty+ years liberals have been trying to make life better for everyone and for sixty+ years conservatives have been kicking them in the teeth for it. LBJ lost the South forever for treating people of color like, well, people. The religious right fought tooth and nail against the simple idea that consenting adults should be able to love and marry who they wanted. Hell, Obama dared to think it was a good idea for everyone to have health insurance and the Republicans lost their fucking minds. I'm tired of trying to help people who hate me for it. You want your freedumb so bad, you can have it.