In the book The Great Divide, John Sperling performs an analysis
of the two Americas: what he called Metro and Retro. He places
the Northeast Coast, Great Lakes and Western Coast states - states
that mostly vote Democratic - in the Metro category, and South,
Midwest and Rockies - states that mostly vote Republican - in the
Retro category. According to his computation, the Metro states
over years 1991 to 2001 paid $1.4 trillion in taxes more than they
got back; the Retro states, during the same period, received $800
billion more from the government than they paid in. The Metro
states possessed 65% of the population, paid 71% of all taxes, had
10 times more Nobel laureates than the Retro section of the United
States, and specialized in manufacturing, financial services and
information industries - all of them non-subsidized - while the
conservative states of the country specialized in government-
subsidized farming and extraction.

Does anyone else see the sheer absurdity of what we've been
hearing over the last 25 years? Of what we've been living - of
what was told to the United States? The conservatives shout that
the government takes away American taxpayers' money - then live
off of American taxpayer. The conservatives shout that they are

It is time for the liberal states - the true source of America's
innovation and power - to flex their muscle and leave in the dust
the lying, abusive, bullying, leeching, wife-beating, child-
molesting Bible-belt American conservatives who have for 25 years
deceived America into believing themselves its soul. It is time