Irreconcilable Differences: Limits to United States National Unity

Irreconcilable Differences is an attempt to peer into the future in the light of recent and ongoing events. Author David Cole proposes that Americans may be living through the beginning of the devolution of the United States of America – a development that may unfold after our lifetimes, although it could happen sooner. Cole surveys examples of devolutionary political developments around the world in recent decades. He offers a running commentary on recent polemics, as commentators in the press consider the evidence of American political decline and decay. He speculates as to exactly what form a devolved United States might take. The conjecture is that a point could be reached at which Americans conclude that an amicable breakup is to be preferred on the whole to an attempt to continue to live under the same tent. Is contemporary America an example of the Aristotelian phenomenon of “coming into being and passing away”?