CAMERON COLUMN: 'Four nations, under God ...'

Maybe we should blame Abe Lincoln.

If Lincoln had simply freed the slaves and let the Confederacy walk off into the sunset, life today might be far simpler.

Electorally speaking, that is.

No matter what you were doing on Election Night, unless you fell into a coma during all the mega-analysis, surely you saw somewhere between a dozen and several hundred looks at the famous red-and-blue map that shows how America votes.

Despite what so-called “expects” are insisting was a surprise victory for Donald Trump — flipping a few blue states to red and thus securing four years in the White House — it actually was pretty much business as usual.

The deep blue states remained that way. The huge swath across the South and Midwest stayed reliably red.

The only difference was a couple of swing states (Florida and North Carolina) and two struggling industrial areas (Pennsylvania and Ohio), all of which the president-elect won by very small margins.

DON’T BE fooled by the result, however.

Oh, it could have a huge impact on the country if Trump manages to pull off even a few of the things he campaigned on, but as for the nation’s view of itself...

Long-term, feelings seem to be hardening in 40-45 states and, ironically, Democrats’ plans for the future may eventually include Texas and Arizona on the basis of a quickly growing Latino vote.

This is where I want you to join me in a political science exercise.

See, I have maintained for at least two decades that the United States is no longer, well... united.

Look at that map again.

What you have, basically, are four distinct “countries” — West, Midwest, South and East.

Almost all of the East and West are on or near our two oceans (I’m counting all of New England and half of Pennsylvania in the East, plus Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado in the West).

And with just a couple of exceptions, the East and West are Democratic strongholds. More than that, they represent a progressive, multi-cultural America.

California alone could secede (I hear some cheering) and become the sixth-largest economy in the world. Tack on Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska, and you would have a pretty formidable coastal nation.

The same goes for the Atlantic coast, although things there are a bit murkier.

Virginia would have to choose between the East and South, but its increasingly upscale, higher-education demographics suggest that the former capital of the Confederacy would abandon its southern brothers.

SERIOUSLY, wouldn’t we be better off as four countries — perhaps forming a commonwealth, or something like the European Union with trade and employment treaties — but holding separate elections for very different needs?

I truly think it makes sense.

The country is already screwed up enough with 51 sets of laws.

If we actually split into four aligned but sovereign nations, only a few states would have a bit of a struggle while voting where to land.

And remember, this has happened before: Virginia’s counties west of the Allegheny Mountains chose to remain with the Union during the Civil War — and became West Virginia in 1863.

In my four-nation model, I suspect Pennsylvania would split as Virginia once did.

The only states left with a puzzle would be Texas (South or Midwest, probably going to the latter after a contentious election), Utah (a nation-state?), Wyoming (likely Midwest), Colorado (surely voting West), Montana (leaning Midwest) and...

Yes...

Idaho.

Like Montana, Wyoming and Utah, we would be faced with the economic impossibility of a Rocky Mountain Nation — there would be more rocks, hills and livestock than businesses to support an actual country.

So what would it be for us?

Shocker: My guess is that you would see most of Idaho leaning toward the Midwest, while Kootenai County and our immediate neighbors say goodbye to join Washington as part of the West Nation.

Seriously, do you visit Spokane or Boise more often? Could you even FIND Pocatello?

Imagine: North Idaho, a small but gorgeous state of its own.

However it shook out, though, if you take a serious look at the United States — what we have in common and what we don’t — there really ARE four countries already.

So make it official.

Sorry, Abe.

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Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press. Reach Steve at scameron@cdapress.com.