If you’re so fed up with Washington you think your state would do better on its own, you’re not alone.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found some 23.9 percent of Americans polled from Aug. 23 through Sept. 16 said they strongly supported or tended to support the idea of their state breaking away from the United States.
According to Reuters, the sentiment cut across party lines and regions as people cited healthcare reform, the rise of Islamic State militants, and Washington gridlock as reasons for their discontent.
Denny, a Republican, said he has “totally, completely lost faith in the federal government, the people running it, whether Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever.”
Reuters reports,
Some respondents said talk about breaking away was more of a sign of their anger with Washington than evidence of a real desire to go it alone. Democrat Lila Guzman, of Round Rock, said the threat could persuade Washington lawmakers and the White House to listen more closely to average people’s concerns.
“When I say secede, I’m not like (former National Rifle Association president) Charlton Heston with my gun up in the air, ‘my cold dead hands.’ It’s more like – we could do it if we had to,” said Guzman, 62. “But the first option is, golly, get it back on the right track. Not all is lost. But there might come a point that we say, ‘Hey, y’all, we’re dusting our hands and we’re moving on.’”
Citizens for Self-Governance and the Convention of States Project do not endorse state secession as a method of addressing the problems we see in Washington, D.C. But we’ve seen so many people who, like Denny, have completely lost faith in their federal government, and now we know nearly 25% of Americans feel the same way.
Clearly, we have a problem — but not all hope is lost. The Framers of the Constitution gave us a peaceful, lawful way to check the abuses of power in Washington. An Article V Convention of States allows the people — acting through their state legislatures — to bypass Washington, proposing and ratifying constitutional amendments that would limit D.C.’s power to control our lives.
Secession is not the way to solve the problems we face — any student of our country’s history can tell you that. But we do have a means of addressing our dissatisfaction with the federal government, and you can help make it happen.
