Days after an election in which many considered the future of the republic to be at stake, a prominent political voice entertained an idea:

I actually think that we’re trending toward secession. I see more and more people asking, “What in the world do we have in common with the people who live in, say, New York?” . . . There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. We can’t be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way.

These aren’t the words of some Dixie fire-eater circa 1860, but rather Rush Limbaugh’s take on Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020.