Beldin - your comment in the original post was spot on target - and why I state that only TOTAL WARFARE (which will NOT happen) is the only feasible option.
As you said: To lay back now ... there will be nothing left to 'recover'. We will have to start afresh with a brand new set of countries - three of them, the 'left coasts' comprising two of them, and the moral majority for the remaining (Central and Southern Americas + Alaska).
This Republic is finished. It will take another 25-50 years for the great divide to occur - but it will happen.