So, 36% of Alaskans want to secede from the Union. Alaska was the last or next to last state to be admitted, and now, they want out. Alaska Secession Calls Grow as More Than a Third Want State to Leave US (msn.com) And a proportion of Alaskans is only the largest proportion from any state. The national average of state residents who want their states to secede is 23%. Call it a quarter. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans have given up, and 21% of Democrats are done.
Thirty-one percent of Texans, 29% of Californians, and 28% of New Yorkers and Oklahomans have had enough. "Just" 13% of Minnesotans, and 14% of Ohioans, Massachusettsites, and Rhode Islanders don't want to do this any more.
New Hampshire is interesting here. The linked article says New Hampshire citizens are put off by the size of the deficit, but Carla Gericke, "acting president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence, 'described secession from the United States as 'an idea whose time has come and a reflection of the frustration everyone on the political spectrum [emphasis mine] is feeling.'"
Earlier this morning, I was reading an article that I can't find again, and it listed someone's view of the 10 worst presidents. On the list was Calvin Coolidge, who was dramatically hands off of many things, and who shifted fiscal burdens away from the rich, badly aggravating the wealth disparity. And a couple of them were reportedly personally opposed to slavery, but they did nothing to inhibit it. Just those two things sound like indicators of the kinds of things that might lead to frustration among today's Americans. Warren Harding, who made the list I saw, was too busy playing golf and carrying on with his mistresses.
But in my opinion, none of those things are most likely to lead to the level of pessimism and defeat felt by so many Americans, even in the original Commonwealth of Massachusetts and States of New York and Rhode Island. The biggest problem we have now is that the public are irrelevant. People are in office because they run for office, and running for office costs more money than the vast majority of people have, and candidates get the money it takes from donors. It is those donors, not the public/voters, who are the electeds' constituents. And if government is not in the public's/voters' interest, but rather at their expense, because they have to follow rules and pay taxes, and the rich/donors don't, then why would the public want to be part of the USA any more? Because we develop and make things here? They develop things everywhere, and they make them cheaper in other places.
And we've been sold another bill of goods, too. The First Amendment to the Constitution promises/guarantees us that the Union will not impose a state religion, but many of the states do just that. There are Americans who insist this is a Christian country, even though the First Amendment says it isn't, and they demand that everyone follow their interpretation of what they think Christian rules are.
Likewise, the "Second Amendment" (I put it in quotes because there is no "Second Amendment." It has been indirectly repealed.) is about militias. Many Americans insist it's about guns. It's not at all.
The 13th Amendment freed the slaves. This included that they -- African Americans -- had rights equal to everyone else's. Tell that to African Americans. Be prepared for an earful in return.
Donnie Trump rejects the popular vote and the Electoral College vote, declaring himself the winner, no matter how badly he lost. He doesn't believe in democracy or a representative Republic. And as of the last presidential election, he had a lot of support. Tens of millions of voters favored him, and after he -- I'm sorry to say this, Donnie -- lost, he still had a significant contingent of Americans who agreed that he didn't. He just couldn't have. They attacked the seat of government, and sent all the legislators scurrying. If many of them were unclear why they were scurrying, Mike Pence was clear: his life was directly threatened, by members of his own party, because he followed the law.
Donnie also rejects Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which says that anyone guilty of insurrection cannot hold "any" federal or state office, civil or military. And again, he appears to have some support for his position, although frankly, that support seems to be waning. Colorado has found him guilty and will not put him on the ballot. Maine seems to be following suit. Constitutional expert Lawrence Tribe interprets that Donnie knows he is disqualified, and is relying on the SCOTUS to say that Colorado and Maine are wrong (based on who knows what, apart from the far right leanings of the majority of SCOTUS Justices), and this is why Donnie wants a wider ranging decision, and the trials he hasn't lost yet postponed until after the election. He thinks he can still win it, in spite of all his disabilities. By the way, if you watch Donnie ramble more or less incoherently, you see Donnie, and you see the sign-holders behind him. What you do not see is the audience, which, by all other inferences, is most likely minimal. Yes, I know about the polls, but poll results are a matter of how many people are polled, who those people are, and how many people who are asked for their opinions choose to give one. I'm setting aside whether or not the opinions expressed are true representations of what respondents think. If you're a fan of Jordan Klepper, and you watch enough of his videos, you'll catch one in NYC on a day Donnie was called into court, and he let it be known this was a time for support. Almost no one was there. We're talking about Manhattan, and Donnie couldn't stimulate tens of thousands of people, or a thousand people, or a hundred people, or more than maybe 5-10 people.
No, the word is not "secession. It's dissolution. It was Benjamin Franklin who said the Founding Fathers were giving us a democracy/Republic, "if [we could] keep it." It appears we couldn't. Or we didn't want to. We exchanged it for a plutocracy. And we rely for our choice of representatives on a collection of breathtaking dimwits, most of whom are voters who are mostly influenced by how much exposure candidates buy with money they got from their donors/constituents, and some of whom are the electeds themselves, who have no idea what they're doing, and seem delighted to spout nonsense.
Of course, maybe it doesn't matter if we dissolve or destroy this "experiment in democracy." If our money-hungry and single-minded focus on continuing to burn fossil fuels finishes destroying the planet, then it's not a further loss if we destroy each country on it, either.
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