a long time ago, in a post far far away

I talked about the divide between Red and Blue State America. I'd be interested to see if anyone has put together any data concerning where the money for the relief effort came from, and whether or not there's a connection between current charity efforts and past data, and whether or not my guess, that Red State America gave either a greater average individual amount per capita or a larger nominal amount altogether. Just a side thought.
As an almost unwilling member of the Republican coalition, I remind myself every day that all choices ultimately are bad choices. Even two great choices may pale in comparison to an opportunity that will present itself at the next moment, one that you will no longer be able act upon because of your previous choice. And right now, as there pretty much always has been in American history, we have two choices. The Republicans or the Democrats. That's the way it's been since the Civil War, and no matter how much the various third-parties (look at the way we turn that into a plural) want to believe they are having an impact, that's pretty much the way that it will always be. Not much that can be done about it, accept it and move on.
However, I saw something interesting on Instapundit from one of his readers:

uhm. I can't quite seem how to figure to paste anything right now. I'll come back to it. But the readers message essentially argued whether or not a Republican minority might have more success reducing Democratic spending than a majority unable to contain itself. I myself had convinced myself that the GOP needed only to get into office and undue the damage done to federalism through inept and excessive government spending...alas, that has not yet come to pass. And of course, what it means is that the parties are merely a symptom of the problem, not the ultimate cause. I could easily pass blame on K-street, which is very very easy, but again, they are merely symptoms of the problem. Malpractice lawsuits, government unions, an unnecessarily complex and convoluted federal code, blah blah blah. We have more problems than anyone can name, and we have more problems than really, honestly, can ever be fixed.
Unless of course....
Think of this: if a law does not have an expiration date, or, if no law has been passed to alter it, than that law is on the books. Part of the whole common law tradition, of recognizing that we stand on the shoulders of giants and maybe we should trust our forebears intuitions more than our own, and partly because nobody really cares that it's illegal to have wear your hat sideways walking down the street backwards playing "oh my darlin clementine" or that you can beat your wife on the steps of the courthouse for one minute at midnight without fear of recrimination. Honestly. Solution? It's time to use the amendment process of the Constitution...oh wait, that's not going to happen either...sigh.
Forcing all legislation to be temporary would lead to the immediate removal of thousands of pages of ridiculous regulations that right now are just about as stupid as the Left is behaving. Again, both symptoms, not the cause.
So why are divided by politics? Why have we literally became to separate, self-contained worlds? I can't think about it now. It's hurting my head.