Griffiths Piece on Why Secession Won’t Work for the US Published in the Hill
April 20, 2023
The Hill
In February, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's tweet calling for a "national divorce" to "separate by red states and blue states" was widely criticized. Still, the sentiment resonates with a substantial percentage of the American electorate.
Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science and author of "Secession and the Sovereignty Game: Strategy and Tactics for Aspiring Nations" (Cornell University Press, 2021), says that while "it's largely the result of pronounced political polarization, it is a bad idea," adding, "It is the wrong solution to a real problem."
"To propose secession as a solution to American polarization is to misdiagnose the problem," Griffiths writes. "In every contemporary secessionist movement, from the Catalans to the Kurds, there is a distinct nation or ethnic group that is regionally concentrated. These nations can differentiate themselves from the majority nation of the state by pointing to linguistic or religious or historical cultural differences. This is not the case in America," he says.
"Simply put, secession is a political solution for an ethnonational problem among regionally concentrated populations. The problem in America is one of political polarization," says Griffiths.
Read more in The Hill article, "Sometimes secession works: Why it won’t work for the US."
Related News
Commentary
Oct 15, 2024
Commentary
Oct 10, 2024
Commentary
Oct 9, 2024