New polling indicates that more than a quarter of Americans have soured on the Union itself, and support dividing the nation into sovereign regional unions.
29% of Americans support the notion of their own region seceding from the Union and becoming a sovereign country. Polling on the matter conducted by Bright Line Watch, a neoliberal organization, suggests that support for secessionist ideas has increased considerably in the last decade, with polling in 2014 indicating that just under 24% of Americans supported regional secession.
The demographic most in support of secession was southern Republicans, with 50% of that demographic supporting the notion of southern secession. Party support for regional secession by region was generally dependent on which political party is predominant in the area.
Only 10% of Americans “strongly” support the notion of regional secession, a development to be expected for such a drastic proposal. Nearly twice as many respondents- 19%- somewhat support the idea of regional secession. Republicans were far more likely to support the idea of national division- although remarkably, independents were the most supportive of the concept overall.
Democrats in the Pacific Northwest and California were the demographic most supportive of secession outside of the southern United States, with 41% supporting a regional secession. The political homogeneity of the three most western continental states could make such a prospect the most realistic in coming decades.
Bright Line Watch obtained the data through querying 2,700 Americans nationwide from February into January.
It’s hard to imagine any region of the United States attempting to secede in the near future, a proposition which would create unprecedented questions regarding governance and a national economy for citizens of the new sovereign country. However, with Americans more bitterly divided than ever before, it’s unlikely that secessionist sentiment is going to grow any weaker in the coming years.