The Seattle alternative weekly the Stranger gets radical in a recent manifesto titled "The Urban Archipelago: It's the Cities, Stupid." "It's time to state something that we've felt for a long time," writes the paper's editors, "but have been too polite to say out loud: Liberals, progressives, and Democrats do not live in a country that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico. We live on a chain of islands. We are citizens of the Urban Archipelago, the United Cities of America."

"In cities all over America, distressed liberals are talking about fleeing to Canada or, better yet, seceding from the Union," the piece continues. "We can't literally secede and, let's admit it, we don't really want to live in Canada. It's too cold up there and in our heart-of-hearts we hate hockey. We can secede emotionally, however, by turning our backs on the heartland. We can focus on our issues, our urban issues, and promote our shared urban values."