In the early 1900s, philosopher G.K. Chesterton said he longed for one aspect of a time few pine after. In the Middle Ages, he wrote, people agreed on the things that “really mattered” (in Europe, anyway). Just two or three decades ago, psychologist John Rosemond contrasted his time with Chesterton’s and said that during the latter, “people’s values were explicitly the same” (in the U.S., anyway). Both were essentially correct, too. Just as medieval Europeans were more philosophically united than early-1900s Europeans, so were early-1900s Americans more united than today’s Americans.
And, in fact, some would say the division is reaching critical mass. Just recently, while advocating an immigration moratorium, commentator Tucker Carlson warned that we must “figure out what it is that holds us all together as a nation” so that “50 states [do] not become 50 countries.” Carlson isn’t alone in this sentiment, either, according to a new survey conducted by John Zogby Strategies. It found that not only are many Americans concerned about secession, but also something perhaps unexpected. To wit:
Large numbers of young people, blacks, and Hispanics also now share this concern.
The Divided States of America?
Reporting on the poll, the Washington Examiner wrote Wednesday:
Pollster Jeremy Zogby’s latest survey found that 41% of younger voters, 18-29, believe secession is likely, as do 39% of black voters and 51% of Hispanics.
… Zogby said that expectations of a national divorce by young voters are troubling. “This is key because this is the future of the electorate,” he said in a podcast with his father, pollster John Zogby.
The results come as other polls show growing expectations among voters of a politically-driven civil war as the Republican Party is winning fast-growing support from younger, black and Hispanic voters.
Now, what segment of the electorate most supports secession is influenced by who is in power. When leftist Democrats control the White House, conservative-leaning groups may be more amenable to a great divorce. And when Republicans (and Trump, especially) control the executive branch, Democrat-leaning groups starting channeling Jefferson Davis. Yet the overall trend may be that support for secession is increasing with time. And for certain, the perception that we’re heading toward it is now widespread.
As to this, Jeremy Zogby found that 59 percent of Americans believe our country is drifting apart. Only 25 percent believe we’re coming together.
“There was the usual partisan divide,” reports the Examiner, “but also 65% of independents believe the nation is coming apart.”
Of course, many consider the notion that America could dissolve fanciful. As one MSN reader commenting on the Examiner piece put it, “The US is not splitting up. For all the differences we have, we have much more in common.” Yet as ex-intelligence man Ralph Peters wrote years ago, you can convince yourself that others are, mostly, “just like us.”
“It’s the differences that kill you, though.”
Vive la Différence? Maybe Not
And our differences sure are, well, different. The Examiner mentions our political divide having bred violence, citing in particular the recent attacks on Tesla vehicles and property. (This isn’t surprising. The “Left” was born of political violence and is responsible for most of it to this day.)
This division is fundamental, too. While approximately 25 states have now, post Dobbs decision, sought to defend life legislatively, about 25 others have defended abortion. Why, New York has even enshrined prenatal-infanticide “rights” in its constitution. Many states wish to cooperate with the feds in deporting illegal aliens, but many others aim to harbor them. Conservative states adamantly oppose racist schemes such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); liberal states embrace them. Most significantly, traditionalist states are generally affirming that there are just two sexes and that men mustn’t invade women’s sports. And leftist states? They’re doubling down on the notion that a boy can become a girl just by willing it.
So as Jeremy Zogby astutely put it, “People are basically living in alternate realities.” Yet he, and his father, also blamed “both sides” for the division. But is this accurate?
Is Both Sides-ism Reality?
Let’s analogize the matter. Imagine a math “rebellion” is born, becomes prominent, and that its partisans insist 2+2=5. (By the way, our Left actually has claimed this could be so.) Now imagine this creates conflict, with, for example, the rebels stating this fantasy math must be taught in schools and “normals” opposing this. Furthermore, let’s say that each side represents 50 percent of the population. Each one also uses the same methods to advance its cause and is equally zealous. Would it then be reasonable to assert they’re equally to blame for the division?
“Wait a second,” you may say, “there’s a big difference. One side is merely defending objective (mathematical) reality, aka Truth; the other is attacking it. You’re not seriously equating activists advocating lunacy with people defending reality, are you?!”
Precisely. The problem with “both sides-ism” — which afflicts those mistaking relativism for even-handedness — is that it ignores Truth. It’s a bit like a news report stating, “God says the Devil is evil; the Devil says God is evil. We report, you decide.”
It may take “two to tango,” but two may tangle if just one is unreasonable. The onus always belongs, too, on the one denying Truth. In our situation, would that be the ones recognizing the sexual dichotomy’s reality, or those putting tampons in boys’ bathrooms because “men can menstruate”?
And what, the both sides-ists should ask themselves, is the “rightist” analogue to this leftist lunacy?
(Good luck finding it.)
All this said, could the U.S. really dissolve? Virtually no one in the 1980s thought the USSR would, do note, but it did less than a decade later. This was partially due to economic collapse, too. And this brings us to a theory ex-congressman Ron Paul once put forth. As long as the feds can meet their financial obligations (e.g., Social Security payments), he stated, we’ll remain “united.” But once they no longer can, that unitive carrot will be gone and all bets are off.
What seems for sure is that if a married couple were as ideologically divided as our country now is, a divorce would be in the offing — that is, if one spouse didn’t kill the other first.
