[nostrademons]

It survived Hurricane Katrina, which created devastation similar to a nuclear weapon, albeit with a somewhat lower (though still very significant) death toll.

I think it would matter a lot which city. A nuke in Manhattan? Forget it - there goes the stock exchange, most financial firms, Madison Avenue, 11 million Americans, and the most recognizable city on earth. DC? There goes the government. Cleveland? We'd probably be okay.

Something like Boston or SF would be borderline - it'd be a tragedy, but the country would survive. I wonder what a nuke in Silicon Valley would be like though: a large one well-placed near Sunnyvale would take out Google, Apple, Facebook, EBay, Adobe, and Yahoo.

[noonespecial]

I was thinking the destruction would be more philosophical, an acute and immediate version of the slow burn that seems to be pulling it apart at the middle now.

If a city got nuked I think its possible that the US might split into two groups. Those that would literally accept a police state to prevent it from happening again and those (mostly who didn't live in cities like the one destroyed) who would not. I believe that this would end in two or more independent countries.