Why can't our country just be divided by political parties?

I'm sick of Republicans.

Can't they just go off on their own little island where taxes are low, people don't have health care, they all work for slave wages, etc?

A lot of people thought that was a bad idea.

when the entire USA is layed out before you?

the ancient missions and the Sonoran Desert.

That's why we couldn't get universal health care, and got universal expensive insurance instead. (22% of your income going directly to insurance companies as a new income tax, +high co-pays and deductibles if you ever actually try to use that insurance, and costs of health care are still continually going up instead of going down)

That's why we have a "jobless recovery" and it's so easy to find money to bail out banks, but we can't find money for jobs programs. And why there are caps on public assistance, and even if you get public assistance you're likely to end up homeless anyway.

That's why economic policies, the distribution of government aid, the constant shifting of costs to regressive patterns, and active efforts to shift costs and blame to poor people have all contributed to a widening of the income gap, with the rich getting far richer, and the poor getting even poorer.

Conservative democrats AGREE with republicans. Conservative Democrats listen to the corporate lobbyists and do what the lobbyists say, and what the lobbyists pay them to do. Conservative Democrats have turned this into a nation of rich people, by rich people, for rich people. Conservative Democrats have become, effectively little more than paid consultants for rich people, despite being in office to serve all of us.

So, as long as those ConservaDems are in office, and such a large and influential part of the party, and so long as our party depends so much on corporate money, our party will never be easy to separate from Republicans. :(