DailyMail.com | by Morgan Phillips | October 1, 2021
Many breathed a sigh of relief when President Biden was elected, not for policy but for a reunification of the country after four years of tumult and fiery division under President Trump. But eight months into the new presidency, America’s deep disunity might not be letting up.
A new poll has revealed that political divisions run so deep in the US that over half of Trump voters want red states to secede from the union, and 41% of Biden voters want blue states to split off.
According to the analysis from the University of Virginia‘s Center for Politics, 52% of Trump voters at least somewhat agree with the statement: ‘The situation is such that I would favor [Blue/Red] states seceding from the union to form their own separate country.’ Twenty-five percent of Trump voters strongly agree.
Meanwhile, 41% of Biden voters at least somewhat agree with the sentiment, while 18% strongly agree.
Over 40% of voters in both parties favor abolishing the checks and balances built into federal government and handing essentially full control to the president.
Forty-six percent of Biden voters at least somewhat agreed, 22% strongly, with the statement: ‘It would be better for America if whoever is president could take needed actions without being constrained by Congress or the courts.’ Forty-four percent of Trump voters at least somewhat agreed, 19% strongly.
Still, Trump and Biden voters agreed that democracy was preferable to any other governing system, at least 80% of them did. Trump and Biden voters, 6 in 10 of them, also agreed with the idea that America is not a representative democracy but more a system that is run and rigged for the benefit of the wealthy.
Gone are the days of friendships between the parties, according to the poll.
Over 75% of voters on both sides agreed with the statement: ‘I believe that Americans who strongly support the [OPP_PARTY] have become a clear and present danger to the American way of life.’ Seventy-five percent of Biden voters at least somewhat agreed with the statement, as did 78% of Trump voters.
Meanwhile, 56% of Biden voters at least somewhat agreed with the statement ‘There’s no real difference between Republicans and Fascists’ and 76% of Trump voters agreed with the statement ‘There’s no real difference between Democrats and Socialists.’
The poll, published Sept. 30, was conducted from July 22-Aug. 4 and captured online responses from 1,001 Trump voters and 1,011 Biden voters.
In June, a survey found that a whopping two-thirds of Republicans in the South favored secession, while nearly half of Democrats in the Pacific region and 40% in the Northeast felt the same.
Support for secession is also considerable among independents in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, where 43 percent say they would favor breaking away and forming their own country.
Half of independents in the South also favor secession while 43 percent of Republicans in the Rocky Mountain states share the same view.
That survey, which was conducted by Bright Line Watch, polled 2,750 respondents.
In January, just after President Joe Biden was sworn in, Bright Line Watch conducted a similar survey asking the same question and found that fewer Americans in each of the five designated regions supported secession.
Late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh warned in December of last year that the US was ‘trending toward secession.’
‘I actually think – and I’ve referenced this, I’ve alluded to this a couple of times because I’ve seen others allude to this – I actually think that we’re trending toward secession,’ the rabble-rousing personality said on his show.
‘I see more and more people asking what in the world do we have in common with the people who live in, say, New York? What is there that makes us believe that there is enough of us there to even have a chance at winning New York? Especially if you’re talking about votes.’
The last time a group of states tried to secede from the Union was more than 150 years ago – an event that triggered the American Civil War.
Seven slave states located in the Deep South – South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas- seceded on Feb. 8, 1861. They were later joined by Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
The South’s defeat was largely seen as establishing precedent against the right of a state to secede, though the Constitution does not directly mention secession.
Late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia put the matter to rest more than a century later when responding in 2006 to a question from a screenwriter asking if there was legal basis for secession.
‘The answer is clear,’ Scalia wrote. ‘If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, ‘one Nation, indivisible.’)’
In Texas v. White (1869), the Supreme Court held that the US was an ‘indestructible union’ from which no state can secede.
The decision did leave open the possibility of secession through ‘revolution, or through consent of the States.’
Some point to the Declaration of Independence for the right to ‘revolution’:
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’
Earlier this year, Texas Republican State Rep. Kyle Biedermann introduced a bill to create a to ‘develop a plan for achieving Texas independence,’ though the bill has not come up for a vote.
States that voted for TRUMP would have a combined GDP of $8.359 trillion
States that voted for BIDEN would have a combined GDP of $14.381 trillion
Breakdown of the GDP in red states (in millions)
Texas $1,950,359
Florida $1,198,913
Ohio $732,117
North Carolina $646,207
Indiana $415,344
Tennessee $411,689
Missouri $359,034
Louisiana $253,315
South Carolina $266,079
Alabama $243,555
Kentucky $234,311
Utah $212,855
Iowa $220,929
Oklahoma $205,559
Kansas $193,139
Arkansas $143,438
Nebraska $150,507
Mississippi $123,781
Idaho $92,300
West Virginia $85,799
South Dakota $60,810
North Dakota $64,978
Montana $57,919
Wyoming $36,089
Breakdown of the GDP in blue states (in millions)
California $3,290,170
New York $1,868,224
Illinois $938,216
Pennsylvania $832,704
Georgia $673,072
New Jersey $671,483
Washington £661,520
Massachusetts $625,113
Virginia $586,350
Michigan $559,479
Maryland $443,729
Colorado $416,937
Minnesota $407,395
Arizona $400,156
Wisconsin $363,586
Connecticut $294,649
Oregon $264,113
Nevada $187,394
District of Columbia $151,390
New Mexico $108,241
Hawaii $89,661
New Hampshire $93,891
Delaware $79,282
Maine $74,604
Rhode Island $64,170
Vermont $36,089
Source: More than HALF of Trump voters want red states to secede from the union | Daily Mail Online
