Could a #NationalDivorce Empower Everyone?
"Here’s the unthinkable proposition: maybe breaking up would actually make things better." - What's So Unthinkable About It?
"Here’s the unthinkable proposition: maybe breaking up would actually make things better." - What's So Unthinkable About It?
History has shown that no conflict truly buries an idea. After Appomattox, whispers of state independence and talk of regional autonomy never entirely disappeared. In fact, they’ve re-emerged in various costumes, sometimes as libertarian fantasies, sometimes as localist resistance to Washington’s overreach, and lately, as open threats wrapped in populist bravado. But amidst these echoes, there's a glimmer of hope-the potential for a peaceful breakup, a renewal rather than a disaster.
California has its “Calexit” dreamers, Texas politicians occasionally puff out their chests and mutter about going it alone, and the Pacific Northwest has flirted with the Cascadia movement for decades. Even Vermont once tried to remind everyone it was a republic before it became a state. In short, the “secession movement” is not new. It is a recurring fever, spiking whenever people feel Washington no longer speaks for them. Right now, the fever is running hot.
Enter Donald Trump, the Chaos Conductor
Trump has always thrived on division. His politics are less about building anything and more about breaking things, norms, alliances, and truth itself. He talks of a “national divorce” not because he wants genuine independence for regions, but because chaos gives him power. He floated tariffs designed to punish Canada, then half-joked about annexing Alberta like a mob boss eyeing a neighbor’s backyard grill. The MAGA movement feeds off grievance, and what’s a juicier grievance than whispering that maybe the United States should no longer be united?
But here’s the paradox: by stoking these flames, Trump may be accelerating conversations far bigger than his ego. People are asking questions they wouldn’t have dared to raise a decade ago: What if America really did split? Would it be the end of everything, or the beginning of something new?
Canada’s Parallel Fractures
Look north, and you’ll see familiar cracks. Quebec has carried the torch of separatism for generations, sometimes nearly breaking free. Alberta, frustrated with Ottawa, toys with…