On Thursday, we reported on the shocking YouGov poll showing that two-thirds of southerners in the GOP, the MAGA heartland, want to secede. We jokingly pointed out that all one needs to do is point out the collegiate football landscape to get the MAGA south to reconsider. It wouldn’t be irrelevant. But there are also much stronger considerations that we suspect went unanalyzed or at least unnoticed in the answers. Additionally, whenever one sees such a poll, it’s important to remember that the poll may be more of a “statement” than an actual idea or plan.

It is also important to remember than when one sees “Two-Thirds of Southern GOP” we are talking about an exclusively white portion. It is about race. The United States has always been about race.

The MAGA south wants the world to know that they’re angry. But it’s a paper threat, more than a strongly considered idea, and the threat is likely based primarily upon white southerners being forced – again – to evolve as a modern pluralistic society. It is also critical to note that the partisanship was shocking all over the country, including liberal areas that had portions open to secession, half of the liberals in the Northwest are fine with it.

The idea of dividing up North America along more cultural and resource-based issues has long been tossed around academically. Many considerations just include Canada in the seven to nine “nations of North America.” But with respect to this poll, it shows the extreme partisanship that exists in the United States and truly does make one question the impact of the bitter partisanship going forward in the next two centuries. Will the South still be part of the United States in 2121? Will California? Texas? We cannot assume so and there is no “rule” that they will be, it takes renewed commitment, every generation.

The fallout is still everywhere on the net and on Twitter. Matching exactly what we opined yesterday and above, Mediaite reports:

As in our previous report, we caution that this survey item reflects initial reactions by respondents about an issue that they are very unlikely to have considered carefully. Secession is a genuinely radical proposition and expressions of support in a survey may map only loosely onto willingness to act toward that end. We include the question because it taps into respondents’ commitments to the American political system at the highest level and with reference to a concrete alternative (regional unions).

Yes, as soon as a southerner realizes that every military base would be (in effect) closed, public education would have to be carried solely at the state level, and that as a basic economic issue, southern states take far more money out of the federal system than they take in, the entire idea would be rethought. But there are also considerations as to why the north and west would not want to lose the south, some cultural, some economic, and some international strategic and defense purposes.

But the fallout is everywhere as the poll rocked the country and social media:

https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1416077508387217412

Consistently high support for breaking up the USA. In 2014, a Reuters poll found over 20% across all American regions favoring state secession. A poll of Californians in 2017 found 32% in favor of independence. Now two YouGov surveys see rising support for regional separatism pic.twitter.com/EVOsWw3Iii

— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) July 15, 2021

Fine. Let them secede, after we close all military installations, move the CDC to a northern state, remove NASA facilities and anything else that is operated by our government. They have their guns. No more US support at all. They'll be turning on each other in a couple of weeks

— Trump's a traitor. Arrest him NOW!!! (@teter45013) July 16, 2021

Back to this are we?

For people saying "Bye Rednecks" remember, now as before, the problem isn't that white people want to leave, it's that they want to set up a white ethnostate OVER THE OBJECTION of the Black people who ALSO live there. https://t.co/bi4gpYoC5o

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) July 14, 2021

2 In 3 Southern Republicans Want To Secede From Union; Nearly Half Of Pacific NW Democrats: Poll https://t.co/m6k1JTmGyZ pic.twitter.com/K432YWq2Ha

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 15, 2021

https://twitter.com/MommaMaryBeeGr8/status/1416038648160694279

Um, if they're the ones who want to secede, isn't it THEY who hate this country??

— Denise Wurl (@DeniseWurl) July 16, 2021

https://twitter.com/_TheCrazyBear_/status/1416079069721018368

There are a lot of considerations that went entirely unanalyzed by all parties in this poll. The fact is that no one would win if secession occurred now, not in today’s context. But that doesn’t mean that things won’t get more extreme, nor does it mean that people will analyze the situation closely.

There could come a time when one might hope that the parties could work out an agreement if it were ever to happen. And, remember, this poll is almost exclusively of white conservative southerners. Again.

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