A new political poll offers an alarming look at the state of American unity and our population’s respect for some of the nation’s core values.
The poll, conducted by the University of Virginia’s nonprofit Center for Politics, shows that 52% of respondents who voted for former President Donald Trump were in favor of splitting the country into red and blue states, while 41% of voters for President Joe Biden agree with the idea. More than 2,000 voters participated in the poll, nearly equally divided between those supporting Trump and Biden.
If extrapolated, the poll results would suggest that more than 71 million Americans are ready to divide the United States of America into two separate nations. (The math: 52% of Trump’s voters from 2020 equals 38 million people, and 41% of Biden’s voters equals 33 million.)
The results paint a dispiriting picture about how Americans of different political opinions devalue each other, how little room they see for compromise and how faintly the population grasps American interdependence and our foundational idea that our strength lies in our unity.
The philosophical implications of this are staggering: A large portion of Americans are ready to abandon the greatest democracy the world has ever known and cleave a nation that has endured periods of political turmoil and other strife for two centuries and counting. Those crises included a Civil War that occurred the last time such a large chunk of the country supported dividing the nation, which yielded four years of horror and ended with 750,000 deaths.
Now, millions of Americans, particularly those on the right, believe we should split up and risk more conflict.
For this, the blame largely lies with social media and extremist right-wing media for inflaming political differences between Americans, eroding trust in institutions and coarsening the level of public discourse. It’s little wonder some Americans see others as strangers or even enemies when so many exist in information silos that feed their own worldview and characterize those who disagree as undesirable “others.”
The most extreme Americans in this group don’t just support a division of the union, they would do away with democracy in favor of a minority rule. We saw that mentality most visibly on Jan. 6, but it echoed loudly afterward in the passage of laws in numerous states to curtail voter accessibility and engineer ways for Republican officials to overturn election results.
Another example: The Claremont Institute, a leading far-right think tank that promoted the rise of Trump and the extreme right, is promoting the idea that America has divided itself into two fundamentally different countries, and is crafting an intellectual framework for creating a new right-leaning country based on a constitution that would apply only to Christians. Not coincidentally, John Eastman, who drafted the six-point plan to steal the election for Trump, is a member of the Claremont Institute.
The poll results also reflect decades of underfunding of public education, which has weakened Americans’ grasp of democratic principles, the workings of our government and basic civics. This has led to a weakening of our ability to communicate across political divides, to engage in the art of compromise and to resolve political differences.
Meanwhile, the survey results unmask a misunderstanding about the complexities of our politics and the ramifications of dividing the nation.
For instance, in this dystopian world Trump supporters imagine, the Red States of America would immediately collapse economically and socially. Why? Because most red states are dependent on existing federal subsidies, derived from the tax dollars of blue states, primarily. The net inflow of federal dollars significantly outstrips the tax revenues contributed by most red states. The top states most dependent on federal handouts: New Mexico, Alaska, Mississippi, North Dakota, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona, Alabama, Montana and South Carolina.
Next time you hear Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., or Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., blabbering about self-determination and responsibility, remember it’s the blue states paying the bills for their citizens.
The respondents favor splitting up red and blue states, but the reality is that no state is entirely Republican or Democrat. They’re all shades of purple, inasmuch as most urban areas are blue (for example in Texas, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso are all primarily blue and their tax dollars support the rest of the rural red areas).
This makes it difficult to imagine from a practical standpoint how the states could be divided along political lines. Would there be forced relocations of residents who weren’t aligned with the state’s majority? For Democrats who stayed in red states or Republicans who stayed in blue ones, would there be indoctrination and oaths of allegiance to the majority party?
Imagine the problems with civil rights as well.
That’s a tiny slice of the implications of dividing the nation, which would also create earth-shaking disruptions in commerce, national and global security, energy and much, much more.
The idea that Americans can simply go to their separate corners and live happily ever after in their separate camps not only runs counter to our founding ideals, it’s hopelessly naive.
As is, every state is populated by residents who are striving to make their state a better place to live regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum. They simply may have different ideas about what a “better” state looks like.
When our democracy is at its finest, we bring all of those individuals to the table for an open discussion about how best to move forward. Then we create policies supported by the majority of those involved. We don’t cast certain individuals out of the conversation.
America’s current disunity is deep-seated and multifaceted, no doubt. But the nation has faced other times of stark division and managed to get carry on through adherence to the checks and balances of our governance system, faith in our democratic principles, our ability to conduct a constructive public dialogue, and more. The struggle for civil rights, the Nixon presidency, McCarthyism, the Great Depression and other crises stretched our unity to the breaking point, yet we overcame them without disbanding.
The good news from the poll is that it did find common ground among voters, including on the bipartisan infrastructure and reconciliation bills going through Congress.
Now, what’s needed is for Americans to realize that the structure is still in place to make improvements like this happen. The key is to keep engaging with each other and vote out those urging Americans to see their fellow citizens as enemies.