Stop With the "National Divorce" Nuttiness
It's a lazy and cowardly way to address our national divisions and conjures up history we need not repeat
A quick online search of a term du jour, “National Divorce,” highlights the latest pronouncements of the lightning rod in Georgia’s congressional delegation, US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
It also takes you on a walk through American history.
Give Rep. Greene credit. No junior Member of Congress attracts more media attention, perhaps other than Democrat Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, although not always for the best reasons. Both have impressive national profiles as measured by the size of their respective campaign coffers and social media followers, at least on Twitter. Greene spent over $10 million on her reelection to northwest Georgia’s 14th district last year, while AOC spent over $11 million in her Brooklyn, New York-based 14th district. Neither had serious opposition in safe seats. Both have ample cash reserves, especially AOC (over $5 million).
On Twitter, @AOC (her official account) has over 13 million followers; Rep. Greene has a paltry 622,000, but still impressive. Neither is going away from the public stage anytime soon. Both serve as effective foils for their opposition and have a knack for launching national debates. Greene, in particular, teed up the long-festering notion of a “national divorce” between red and blue states over irreconcilable differences.
What does “national divorce” even mean, anyway?
There have been several attempts throughout American history, the most infamous occurring during the 1860s. Substacker and former West Virginia news editor Don Surber has outlined others, including in the northeastern United States (“Yankee Confederates”). “Two centuries ago, New Englanders wanted to leave the union because Virginia dominated national politics,” Surber wrote. John Quincy Adams, our fifth President and son of the second, wrote, “far better will it be for the people of disunited states to depart in friendship from each other, than to be held together by constraint.”
Divorce talk has always been with us, it seems.
The War Between the States was a pretty ugly divorce and resulted in 700,000 deaths and a painful 11-year “reconstruction.” The reconciliation hasn’t proven much better - politically blue enclaves, even in Virginia, continue to rip down statues of “insurrectionists,” and US military bases are being renamed to erase names and history.
But I’ll grant this: Rep. Greene knows a thing or two about divorce. Here’s her full Twitter screed.
There is a failure for many to realize Americans are giving up because they are sick of the talking heads that just complain about all the problems and politicians that never fix anything, while the right just keeps taking the beatings and abuse from the left.
Yes, the red California that gave us Reagan is gone and that was another time long ago. CA is now like a weird communists country.
Yes NY gave us Trump, but Trump left NY because of how bad and blue NY is and NY is so political and corrupt now they are actually trying to throw Trump in jail.
Yes VA flipped red with Youngkin but it was bc parents were fed up with their school boards and a trans raped girls in the girls bathroom, but Loundon county is still unchanged, so really how red is VA?
And Matt Gaetz is right when he says our government constantly cheats on it’s own people with foreign countries and America First policies is the marriage counseling we all need.
Reducing the power & size of the federal government and giving more to the states in order to protect ourselves and our kids from the abusive left is actually the bold action that needs to be taken in order for the left to be able to realize how insane and abusive they have become.
Just like the prodigal son, once the left gets to truly live in their own filth they have created without us, then they will be able to realize the error of their ways. Until then, most of us don’t want to be forced to accept and live in their filthy abusive ways with them anymore.
Reducing the size and scope of the federal government and devolving power to the states is a terrific and long-held conservative ideal. Still, it doesn’t work when talking about the US military (are we going to divvy up nuclear weapons to National Guard units under gubernatorial control?), immigration policy, currency, and a whole host of other powers and legislative, executive, and legal responsibilities, including water rights.
The ultimate model for that may have been the Articles of Confederation, under which our nation first relied upon after winning independence. How did that turn out? It was an unworkable, cacophonous, and discordant mess.
In fairness, Rep. Greene seems to be calling for an “amicable” divorce that appears short of actual succession. By that measure, Americans are already “divorcing” with their feet.
Checked the price of renting a one-way UHaul in California versus Texas lately? It may cost as much as four times more to rent a one-way UHaul out of the Golden State than Texas. California lost a congressional seat for the first time after the 2020 Census. Deep blue New York lost two. While not every “red” state gained nor every “blue” state lost population over the past decade, most did. It concerns growing states that their new neighbors are bringing the bad ideas that caused them to leave places like California and New York. No wonder a South Carolina politician wants to impose a “Yankee tax” on transplants to the fast-growing Palmetto State.
Many recent surveys indeed show a large percentage of Americans want to divide the nation in two. John Horvat, writing for the blog site The Imaginative Conservative, summarizes them:
The secession option is apparently popular. A July 2021 poll by The Hill reports increasing support for secession among every partisan group. Some 37% of all polled indicated a “willingness to secede.” Sixty-six percent of Republicans in the South favor the proposition.
The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics conducted a similar survey in 2021. It found sentiments for separation on both the left and the right. Some 52% of Trump voters and 41% of Biden voters in the 2020 election answered that they “somewhat agreed” when asked if it is time to divide the country in two.
But it is simply not a reasonable solution. Walking away from problems and disagreements rarely solves anything, even for any red states seceding from the union. As National Review editor Rich Lowery wrote in 2021,
“…red-state secession would create a barrier against federal intrusion, but would it actually stem the cultural tide? Would the college professors in these places be less woke? Would the newsrooms be more conservative? Would the corporations be less inclined to follow fashionable national trends? Would people in the state stop using social media, no longer do Google searches and cease consuming national media?
Fortunately, as I’ve written before, organizations and forces are working to improve the national conversations that move us to the uniquely American operating model, borrowed from Christian apologist Hank Hanegraaf: “In essentials, unity; nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.” Not unlike our Pledge of Allegiance. “. . . one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
True, essential American values and principles such as those found in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are under attack, from public-private censorship to forcing Americans to violate their deeply held religious beliefs. Those battles must be and have been fought at the ballot box and in courtrooms. Walking away to create your bubble is just another version of surrender. Hardly the “American way.” China and Russia would certainly applaud it.
But that doesn’t seem to deter supporters of “Texit.” The Texas Nationalist Movement sports 450,000 members. One Texas legislator has introduced legislation to study secession. South Carolina and New Hampshire have secession movements as well. If Texit is successful, Republicans can waive goodbye to 40 electoral votes, two US Senators, and 25 US House members (along with 13 Democrats). How would that work out for the rest of us?
Groups such as Braver Angels and the Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communication focus on helping Americans rediscover genuine discourse. We may discover that we have fewer differences than we think and more unity based on mutual respect. Other organizations, such as the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, are finding ways to resolve thorny policy differences on various issues. They represent green shoots of hope and opportunity and where serious people discuss and try to resolve their differences. Not Twitter, MSNBC, or Fox News.
And speaking of surveys, most Americans want bipartisan solutions to our vexing problems. They want leaders to work it out, not walk away.
In the meantime, let’s stop with the “national divorce” talk. We’re better than this; no serious legislator or citizen talks like that.
As our Lord said “How can two walk together lest they agree”. Secession followed to it’s logical conclusion is lunacy, just as recently the call to invade Mexico, (just secure the border). Our Nation needs to agree on persevering as one. To do anything else is lunacy.