We suspect it is best to point out that the poll cited in the title above sets out only two-thirds of southern Republicans, not two-thirds of southerners generally. Of course, last time two-thirds of southern conservatives wanted to secede, at least one-third of the southern population were not considered citizens at all. Thankfully, now we count all of us. And, given that there actually are an increasing number of white Democrats that vote right alongside most of the south’s vibrant rainbow of colors, we are not talking about a majority of people wanting to secede.

But that’s a lot of people. A new YouGov poll does state that two-thirds of southern Republicans want to secede.

Now, we ought to get a few things straight. First of all, the moment someone tells them that secession means that the SEC and ACC don’t get to compete for a “national championship” in football, 75% of southern Republicans will drop the idea right there. The other 25% would likely drop the idea the moment someone opened the books and showed them what their budgets would look like were it not for the Pacific Coast and Northeast.

Lest anyone thinks this is written with any condescension, just know, the person working on this story can stand up and drive five minutes southwest and splash into the Gulf of Mexico. No, it’s not written in condescension. Some of us live in the belly of the beast, though keeping Canadian citizenship updated is nice.

Because this is rather scary. There has always been a cultural divide in America and since we’re supposed to be the people who want to really speak honestly, let’s start speaking honestly and state that the conversation in the United States has always been about race, first. It just “is,” and that’s not confined to the south, by any means.

Second, this isn’t just a southern thing. People around the country think that it could actually work better if things were divided up. As cited by our friends at The Hill Reporter:

“Yet rather than support for secession diminishing over the past six months, as we expected, it rose in every region and among nearly every partisan group. The jump is most dramatic where support was already highest (and has the greatest historical precedent) — among Republicans in the South, where secession support leaped from 50% in January/February to 66% in June.

Support among Republicans in the Mountain region increased as well, by 7 points, from 36% to 43%. Among Democrats in the West, a near-majority of 47% (up 6 points) supports a schism, as do 39% (up 5 points) in the Northeast. Support jumped 9 points among independents in the Heartland as well, reaching 43%.

Even subordinate partisan groups appear to find secession more appealing now than they did last winter, though only increases for Democrats in the South, Heartland, and Mountain regions are statistically discernible at the 0.05 significance level. The broad and increasing willingness of respondents to embrace these alternatives is a cause for concern,” BrightlineWatch noted in its analysis.

And you could imagine how it would be done. Pacifica, Rocky Mountain Region, Heartland, Northeast, and South. Such divisions wouldn’t even necessarily be confined to the U.S. If one slipped British Columbia into Pacifica, it would be a long time before anyone could really tell the difference between Seattle and Vancouver. Similarly, it’s not all that obvious whether one is in Chicago, Toronto, or New York. The only real outlier is Quebec and they kinda always wanted to be on their own anyway.

Regardless, as the article says, Southern Republicans are the most enthusiastic about the idea, what with owning the libs and all. Just – again, tell ’em that they won’t “own” the national championship again and everything will be rethought. Assuming y’all want us. Just saying.

****
Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak