Have you ever wondered why San Francisco has more in common with Portland and Seattle than it does with Los Angeles, even though it's in the same state as LA while Portland and Seattle are in two different states? Joel Garreau would say that it's because Seattle, Portland, and SF all fall in the North American nation of Ecotopia, while LA is part of MexAmerica.

Written in 1981, a lot of his ideas seem to be holding up. The book's webpage looks at the recent elections in terms of this model, and says that the regionalism he describes continues on, 27 years after the book was written.

I read it several years ago, and was reminded of it now by wiccantexan's clip Russian Professor Predicts Not-So-United States.

Interesting. It will be interesting to match this up with political and other maps.