Secession
Critical Analysis
According to the data in the map above, which region of the United States has the highest overall support for seceding from the union to form a new regional union?
According to the data in the map above, in which region are Democrats most supportive of seceding from the union to form a new regional union?
Republicans in the South are supportive of secession, and Democrats in the West are also supportive of secession. What are some issues or topics that lead members of both parties to consider secession?
Does the U.S. Constitution even have a mechanism for secession?
Describe two consequences of the most significant secession crisis in our nation’s history.
State legislators in Mississippi and Texas and state GOP leaders in Texas and Wyoming have openly advocated secession in recent months. Are you supportive of your state seceding from the United States to form a new regional union?
In the past, there was a clear dividing line of slave states and free states, which led to the Civil War which was fought between states. This time around our divisions are often within states - with rural and urban divisions in purple states, for example. Does the type of division we have in America today make you think a civil war is likely and if so, who would fight whom?
Our nation has been governed in the 18th century by the Articles of Confederation (loosely, with more power to states), ruptured by civil war in the 19th century, and in the 20th century by an ever expanding federal government (more tightly, with less power to states). Describe the balance of power between state and national government in our current federal system and explain if we are tilting towards another disunion?
Many people talk about and even support secession, but they probably haven’t thought through specifics like: who controls the military, what happens to international treaties, what are immigration restrictions like between the new unions? For instance, There are many bases around the country across the 8.8 million acres that the military administers, but a large number of installations are concentrated in the South, the Plains states, and Rocky Mountain areas. Imagine the nation did divide into Pacific, Mountain, Heartland, Northeast, and the South. What do you imagine the new nation or union you would live in would be like?
A 2021 national survey by pollster John Zogby found a plurality of Americans (46%) believed a future civil war was likely, 43% felt it was unlikely, and 11% were not sure. War seemed more likely for younger people (53%) than older ones (31%), and for those residing in the South (49%) and Central/Great Lakes region (48%) relative to those in the East (39%). But not all experts and scholars think there will be another American civil war. The Harvard political scientist Josh Kertzer wrote on Twitter that he knows many civil war scholars, and “very few of them think the United States is on the precipice of a civil war.” What do you predict will happen to the union?
Learning Extension
Read this Brookings report outlining the forces leading towards secession and the forces leading towards union and this NYTimes article about the nation’s slide towards another Civil War.
Action Extension
Talk to friends and relatives and ask them if they support secession. Share their responses with class.
