Divided States of America/Playing With

Basic Trope: The United States splits into two or more nations

• Straight: The US has divided into the Western American Union, the New Confederacy, and the American Dominion.
• Exaggerated:
  • The US has split into tens, if not hundreds of different nations.
  • The US divides into thousands of city-states.
• Downplayed:
  • The US has divided into two nations.
  • Even though the US has divided into several nations, the US still exists as an European Union-like organization between the new nations.
• Justified: The US fell on hard times, and since the states knew that they would have an easier time if they just secede, they left the nation.
• Inverted: The Federal government becomes even more powerful, assuming complete control over the US, and destroying the state system.
• Subverted: The US now has regions with more autonomous rule than before, but they are still one nation, at least on paper.
• Doubly Subverted: The autonomous regions become more and more powerful, to the point that they literally become their own nations, and the US no longer exists as one nation.
• Parodied: The two-party system divide reaches its logical conclusion. When this trope is parodied, it is usually a satire against divisions in the US.
• Deconstructed:
  • After the separation, each individual country has to struggle with loss of political and economic power, thus the states consider rejoining.
  • The different states start to make wars with each other for the prize of the whole North American continent.
  • Since USA is no longer an united nation, its enemies have very little problems invading the divided states.
• Reconstructed:
  • However, their newfound differences are too big for them to be an unified nation.
  • The other states, though they are no longer formally part of the same country, realize the danger of the outside threat and come to the assistance of the state under attack.
• Zig Zagged: Part of the US is autonomous, but still part of the US on paper, one part of the US is still functioning like it is today, and another part is its own independent nation.
• Averted: The US is still one nation with 50 (or more) states.
• Enforced: This trope was invoked as a scare tactic for real life partisan or sectionalism problems in the real US.
• Lampshaded: ???
• Invoked: People try to break away from the US due to political reasons, or outside influences try to break up the US to better control it.
• Defied: The Union faction of the US will stop at nothing to prevent other factions from breaking off.
• Discussed: "It is a new Civil War...a shattered Union...."
• Conversed: A debate over the merits of the secessionist movement vs. remaining loyal.
• Played for Laughs: The US split up due to differences because of sports rivalries, PC vs. Mac fanboyism, people disagreeing what flavor Dr. Pepper is, Coke vs. Pepsi fanboyism, or any other minor or trivial reason.
• Played for Drama: Two brothers of differencing factions during the division fight in the new Civil War and are forced to kill one another, showing the horror and tragedy of American fighting American.

---

Back to Divided States of America