In a piece for The Federalist entitled, “It’s Time For The United States To Divorce Before Things Get Dangerous,” writer and former Marine Corps combat veteran Jesse Kelly ruffled more than a few feathers with his contention that the time for the United States as a united nation may be nearing an inevitable end.
Comparing the Left and Right in America to “the couple screaming at each other all night, every night as the kids hide in their room,” Kelly cites a congenial divorce as the best option for a country that’s “hopelessly divided” on seemingly every important issue. He even tweeted a helpful accompanying map with a hand-drawn red line ceding the Left coast and the northern states to the liberal governance they deserve.
In his piece, Kelly cites issues from gun control to border security, issues that, while both sides hopelessly disagree, will soon prompt increasingly intolerant Leftists to “start coming for the careers (and lives) of any normal American who sees things differently.”
“We both now agree that living under the other side’s value system is wholly unacceptable,” writes Kelly. “The most peaceful solution we Americans can hope for now is to go our separate ways. So let us come together one last time and agree on one thing: Irreconcilable differences.”
Naturally, Kelly’s idea drew quite a lot of criticism. HotAir’s Jazz Shaw pondered the legality, logistics and workability of such a proposal, but didn’t seem to take a lot of issue with the underlying inevitability.
CNN commentator Sally Kohn took him on when Kelly’s controversial piece earned him an appearance on HLN’s S.E. Cupp Unfiltered. “I’m sure we could find plenty to disagree about, but I actually think there’s quite a lot we could agree on,” said Kohn, citing values like “unity, but also free speech, free assembly, freedom of religion” as well as “the idea that we should all be able to live up to our God-given full potential.”
Except, liberals don’t believe in free speech, much less free assembly. And they don’t really believe in freedom of religion either, at least if you’re a Christian. And that “God” in “God-given?” Are you serious, Kohn?
California State Controller candidate Konstantinos Roditis penned a rebuttal of Kelly’s argument from the right, arguing for a return to real federalism instead of creating more countries. “Jesse, it’s not time for a divorce,” writes Roditis. “It’s time we rise up and take our country back and finally break the shackles of overbearing centralized government and go back to our roots of self-government and self-determination.”
Sounds great, in theory. Let’s ‘take our country back’ and establish REAL small government! Problem is, on what planet will liberals with an already burgeoning near-supermajority possibly allow something like this? After all, Big Government is how these people get stuff done.
While the non-legal arguments against Kelly’s hypothesis seem pretty weak, they say little about what would be best for all parties involved. To a kid who grew up in the 80’s, before unadulterated political correctness infested America’s schools, “Manifest Destiny,” the idea that our settlers were destined to spread all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, seemed more common sense and a source of pride to me than controversial and worthy of shame. And even now, the idea of America splitting up pulls at the heartstrings just a little.
But let’s face it, America will never again be the America we grew up in. Progressivism has ruined it, and likely beyond repair. Beyond the idea of a nation spreading its wings and conquering the wilderness is that of self-governance, of people being free to live in the kind of place, and under the kind of government, of their choosing, whether what they choose is limited, Constitutional government or utter liberal lunacy.
To Roditis’ point, the states were supposed to be the vehicle for that, under a limited federal government, but we all know how THAT turned out. If we aren’t going to do federalism right, perhaps divorce is the only way forward.
Interestingly, Bill Hammond tweeted a link to both Kelly’s Federalist piece and a Medium article entitled “The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War” from the Left under the caption “These two articles should be hate-read in tandem.” In the Medium piece, Peter Leyden cites California’s example as the way forward for a divisive America. Except, rather than let conservatives pave their own way as Kelly would, Leyden wants to establish “Democratic, progressive supermajorities” in the rest of America.
In other words - tyranny. And make no mistake, if liberals seize control via supermajorities, and they aren’t all that far off, tyranny is how they enact their insane, unworkable policies on the rest of us. Because from Soviet Russia to Communist China and socialist Venezuela, that’s what always happens when Leftists have unadulterated power.
Granted, the idea of bringing up an issue that was seemingly settled over 150 years ago might be quick to dismiss, but in an era when people can’t even agree on whether Donald Trump is a real person or the actual, physical spawn of Satan, how can we possibly reach a consensus on anything? Which means that whatever we do, half the country isn’t just going to be unhappy, they’ll be apoplectic.
And these days, the idea isn’t just coming from the Right. The Calexit movement would secede California from the United States entirely, and it’s more financed and organized than you might think. Perhaps it’s time to give them what they want.
“[Conservatives’ reasons for splitting] would be a major cultural shift toward the left and half the country refusing to go along with tyranny,” writes Kelly. Liberals’ reasons might be a desire to run things their own way without the adults in the room interfering. But either way, the way I see it there are three possibilities for America’s future - unrest, tyranny, or divorce.
We’re already seeing the unrest, and it’s happening on a massive scale as liberals #Resist literally every move President Trump makes.
Should these jackals eventually get their “permanent Democratic majority,” we’ll certainly see the tyranny.
Which leaves the one other option, that put forward in Kelly’s controversial piece. Sure, it won’t be this year, or this decade, or probably even in my lifetime, but its eventual inevitability seems as ‘destined’ as America’s historic expansion to the Pacific.