NPR: The South? North? East? West? Shall Rise Again

The South? North? East? West? Shall Rise Again

In the category of questions someone, somewhere thought to ask, we have a new telephone poll finding that 22 percent of Americans say a state or region of the country should be able to leave the union.

Wasn't this question settled, and fairly decisively, a few years back?

Evidently not to the satisfaction of the Middlebury Institute, a New York group that explores such questions and hired Zogby International to do the poll.

Zogby says those most likely to support the right to secede are Hispanics, African Americans and liberals. But old habits die hard, and respondents in Dixie were more likely to back secession locally.

In fairness, this isn't just a glance back at the Stars and Bars. Middlebury ties the secession question to modern concerns as to whether our current two-party system still works. The secession questions didn't exactly resonate with respondents. But a serious 44 percent of them said yes, the two-party system can't fix what's wrong with "the United States' system."

(The Middlebury Institute website is down right now. You can read Zogby's press release, with links, here.)

-- Peter Overby

12:40 PM ET | 07-23-2008 | permalink

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22% isn't even a majority (of anything).
As IF secession would EVER work.

And 44% saying "the two-party system can't fix what's wrong" sounds like, 44% didn't like the way the votes were totalled in 2000.

Sent by Harold | 3:21 PM ET | 07-23-2008

"Settled decisively"? Only if you believe that might makes right. As Jefferson Davis said, a question settled by violence would inevitably arise again, though at a different time and in a different form.

Maybe that time has come.

As to the comment, "As IF secession would EVER work," it's worked quite well quite often. 1776 comes to mind. Plus, there were 57 independent countries in 1900; today there are 192, with new secessionist movements forming every year.

I'd say we have a trend from the gargantuan to the human-sized.

Sent by Mike Tuggle | 5:22 PM ET | 07-23-2008

my destiny cannot be changed by anyone

Sent by amon | 2:51 AM ET | 07-24-2008

"As IF secession would EVER work."

If memory serves, it worked in 1776.

Sent by Christopher Little | 9:58 AM ET | 07-24-2008

LOL...Mike Tuggle...Jefferson Davis trampled on state's rights before the ink was dry on the CSA's constitution.
Ever hear of the Santa Fe Campaign, or the Free State of Nickajack.
The CSA became it was intended from the get go...the Confederate Empire.

Sent by Patrick | 10:36 PM ET | 09-25-2008

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