Functional disenfranchisement and secession movements

Fig. 1. A flag for the would-be state of Jefferson is seen along the Klamath River Highway in California. Photograph by MPSharwood, September 9, 2012, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

There are a lot of secession movements around the United States. I’ve focused on those in California, which fall broadly into three categories: 1) secession from the Union; 2) secession from the state; and 3) breaking California into smaller jurisdictions, but as Colby Galliher and Edison Forman observe in a Brookings Institution article, such movements exist all around the country.^[1] A common theme is functional disenfranchisement, which Galliher and Forman fail to properly explain.

Galliher and Forman settle for political polarization to explain these movements; increasingly, they write, people in the U.S. are unwilling to live under the jurisdiction of the opposing political party. This is one thing if, as Galliher and Forman seem to imagine, there’s always the next election and another chance to win power.^[2] It’s quite another in places like California, where one-party rule has become the norm. Republicans have no hope of winning statewide office in California anytime soon, which makes their intolerance for Democratic Party policies somewhat more existential. And it is this functional disenfranchisement, where though they may vote, their votes can have no practical impact on state governance for the foreseeable future, that I believe drives secession movements, much more than mere polarization.^[3]

And while the emphasis now is on right-wing secession movements,^[4] we should be very clear that leftist secession movements have arisen when Republicans are in power.^[5]

Galliher and Forman also downplay the severity of the polarization and falsely treat the opposing sides as equivalent. Their essay suggests that political opponents should be willing to engage with each other, but neglects entirely the extreme nature of what I label the Gilead project and its readiness to establish a competitive authoritarian regime, in which elections might be held, but Republicans would never lose. Nothing nearly so drastic has been proposed on the Left, and it is the right, not the left, which seeks to impose on everyone a particular and white supremacist interpretation of Christianity, that poses an existential threat to the rights of subaltern groups.

In a saner world, we would, citing irreconcilable differences, find a way to peacefully disengage—a national divorce. The differences that divide us are intractable,^[6] and our adamant refusal^[7] to acknowledge and come to terms with this can only at some point end in violence.

1. ^[1]Colby Galliher and Edison Forman, “County secession: Local efforts to redraw political borders,” Brookings, January 10, 2023, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2023/01/10/county-secession-local-efforts-to-redraw-political-borders/↩
2. ^[2]Colby Galliher and Edison Forman, “County secession: Local efforts to redraw political borders,” Brookings, January 10, 2023, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2023/01/10/county-secession-local-efforts-to-redraw-political-borders/↩
3. ^[3]David Benfell, “Authoritarian populism in the age of Donald Trump,” Not Housebroken, January 30, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/01/30/authoritarian-populism-in-the-age-of-donald-trump/↩
4. ^[4]Colby Galliher and Edison Forman, “County secession: Local efforts to redraw political borders,” Brookings, January 10, 2023, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2023/01/10/county-secession-local-efforts-to-redraw-political-borders/↩
5. ^[5]David Benfell, “Authoritarian populism in the age of Donald Trump,” Not Housebroken, January 30, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/01/30/authoritarian-populism-in-the-age-of-donald-trump/↩
6. ^[6]David Benfell, “Pure poison,” Not Housebroken, September 15, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/12/17/pure-poison/↩
7. ^[7]Colby Galliher and Edison Forman, “County secession: Local efforts to redraw political borders,” Brookings, January 10, 2023, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2023/01/10/county-secession-local-efforts-to-redraw-political-borders/↩