Around 20 percent of Americans, equivalent to 66 million people, support the idea of a “national divorce” that was recently floated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), according to a new Ipsos poll.
The idea is far more popular among Republicans than Democrats, with 25 percent of GOP voters wanting to break away and form a conservative nation, compared to just 16 percent of Democrats.
The poll explains:
While the opposition is high, confidence in American democracy is low; only 37% of Americans are optimistic about the state of American democracy. Decisive majorities of Democrats and Republicans are against breaking up the U.S., even as some partisan differences exist at the margins.
However, the pollsters explain that when asked about their state potentially seceding from the union, support for the idea softens even more:
“Only 16% of Americans would support their state seceding and leaving the United States to form or join a new country, while opposition rises to 81%,” Ipsos notes.
The debate over a national divorce was initiated by Greene, who argued it would be an effective way to prevent blue states from imposing their leftist policies on red states.
“We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene wrote on Twitter. “Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s [sic] traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
This was not the first time that Greene proposed the idea of breaking up the union. In late 2021, Greene said voters who brought “ruin” to California shouldn’t be allowed to do the same to the increasingly Republican stronghold, Florida.
“All possible in a National Divorce scenario,” Greene wrote in December 2021. “After Democrat voters and big donors ruin a state like California, you would think it wise to stop them from doing it to another great state like Florida. Brainwashed people that move from CA and NY really need a cooling off period.”
However, the idea was shot down by War Room host Steve Bannon, a close ally of Greene’s, who pointed out that Republicans still control the majority of state governments.
“It’s something that I’m adamantly obviously opposed to, vehemently,” Bannon said on the podcast, according to Insider. “And I don’t even like some of these commentators starting to talk about it, for the simple reason we control two-thirds of the country.”
Although there are currently no substantial proposals in Washington to divide the country, there has been a surge in secessionist movements in certain states in recent years.
One such movement is aimed at separating rural eastern Oregon from the predominantly liberal state and incorporating it into deep red Idaho. This campaign has gained momentum, with politicians from both states voicing their support for the border shift.
Additionally, a Texas state lawmaker introduced a bill earlier in March that would allow voters to decide whether the state should investigate the feasibility of seceding from the US, popularly known as Texit.
The most recent case of intense political division leading to the separation of states occurred during the American Civil War. The conflict began on April 1861, and resulted in more than four years of devastating warfare, claiming an average of 500 lives per day.
