There’s really no empathy toward each other, and you need that to build bridges.ĬM: I’m sensing that maybe something about the place where you live or your experience has led you in this direction.Ĭhris: Yeah. America’s always contained multitudes, like Walt Whitman said, that contradict each other, but it’s almost gotten to the point where there’s no way to build bridges. Louisiana might latch on to Texas simply because if something bad happened with New Orleans they would need the help.ĬM: You’re basically making the argument that we should have geographically smaller countries because we’ve gotten too big to make things work?Ĭhris: Yeah. Texas and California could probably form their own countries, maybe even Florida. Then the Carolinas through Georgia and Florida would form another one.
Then maybe there would be a country of New York, Pennsylvania, all the way down to Virginia. New England’s states would be obvious to form a new country together. But if you can alleviate the pressure earlier by saying, “This isn’t working, let’s break it up,” states could join together and form their own countries, and I think it would actually help in the sense that they would have to work together to keep economic prosperity going.ĬM: So what kind of new countries do you see forming from the states?Ĭhris: Obviously, there would be blue and red states and the swing states would have to decide how they wanted to merge together. If it’s not working, then you might as well break it up before the point where the break is so bad that you end up with, say, a second Civil War, which I don’t think would happen.
We’re so polarized that the federal government doesn’t really work. And when something’s too big to fail, people stop working hard to make it work because they think it can’t fail.ĬM: But you’ve also gone one step further, saying, “we need entirely separate countries.” I’m curious what took you over the hump there.Ĭhris: I’ve sort of felt this way since George W. I feel like it’s gotten to the point where the U.S. And I feel like 9/11 exacerbated those qualities. But it hasn’t been overly oppressive or debilitating, it was just one of those qualities that could describe the U.S. has always been, I would say, on the right side of the bell curve when it comes to jingoism - a little bit more patriotic than most countries. peaked in the ’90s, and I would definitely say that 9/11 is what spurred it on, because I feel like you don’t get to Trump without 9/11. They usually get too big and they drink their own Kool-Aid a little bit too much. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Ĭlare Malone: Maybe you can start out by telling me how you came to think this?Ĭhris: I’ve always been a history buff, and it always seems that these large powers rise and fall. And certain areas (the South, the Midwest) would be horrible for minorities and destroy the environment. Chris went on: “I live in heavy Trump country but know he’s an idiot, but even Trump haters wouldn’t agree to break up the U.S. should have a velvet divorce,” a reference to the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia - now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic - in 1993. Chris wrote in that he thought, “the U.S. This week we talked to Chris, a 35-year-old white man from rural Pennsylvania. We hope that this exercise gives readers a glimpse into the minds of those with whom they might disagree - or agree! If you have a political belief that you’re willing to share with us, fill out this form - we might get in touch. In this column, we want to dig into Americans’ messy opinions on politics, morality and social mores. But Americans’ political views are often idiosyncratic and sometimes offensive, and they rarely adhere neatly to any particular party line. Social media serves only to amplify that perception at times. In an increasingly polarized political climate, adherence to party or ideological orthodoxy on the issues of the day seems de rigueur. Welcome to Political Confessional, a column about the views that Americans are scared to share with their friends and neighbors.