Untied States: If at First You Don't Secede ..‪.‬

WHOEVER WINS ON NOV. 4, few Americans will harbor any illusions about their national unity. No matter which pairing one chooses--red and blue, Right and Left, coastal elites and flyover salt-of-the-earthers--there is no getting around our status as a country divided, a people set apart from one another as much by regional culture as by religion or political ideology. A perfect time, in other words, to talk about secession--which is what will happen when the Middlebury Institute's Third North American Secessionist Conference convenes in Manchester, New Hampshire a week and a half after the election. Thomas Naylor, whose Second Vermont Republic is one of the country's most active secessionist organizations, is candid about the motive for the scheduling: "The date was set," he tells me, "on the assumption that Hillary Clinton would be elected--and of course that's not going to happen." Nevertheless, the post-election timeframe is "looking more and more important every day" as popular outrage against the Wall Street bailout and anxiety over impending recession continue to build.