Preface
I remember reciting the Pledge of Allegiance first thing every morning in elementary school.
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Even as a kid I remember thinking the pledge seemed a bit strange. Old-fashioned. One day my public school class discussed the principle of separation of church and state. I was confused - didn’t I just pledge allegiance under God?1
Of course, the dollar bill in my pocket had an eyeball floating in a pyramid on it. Clearly there was a lot I didn’t understand about the adult world.2
As I went along through high school and college, I found myself drawn to political science - and not just because it explained the weird eyeball-and-pyramid stuff. Political science is in many ways applied philosophy, and it clarified so much about the world around me. What was going on with the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation? Why was the economy set up this way? What happened with Vietnam? Why a forty-hour work week, and not thirty or fifty? Everything from the legalistic details to the ways politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose was (and still is) fascinating.
Most of all, even after everything I have learned about my country, I still find the rhetoric of the founders inspiring.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
– Preamble to the United States Constitution
Try reading the opening of the Declaration of Independence with fresh eyes. After all this time, it’s still astonishing. Thousands of years of monarchs and emperors and kings, to instead declare that we are equal. And that we deserve better.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
– Opening of the Declaration of Independence
I majored in political science in college. Unlike many of my peers, I didn’t go on to work in the State department. Instead, I moved to Silicon Valley and spent the next two decades in technology. Everything I learned in college - the pragmatic philosophy, the legal concepts, public speaking, the ability to write decent prose quickly - all of it is still useful today.
I consider myself a centrist. I like the idea that liberals suggest new social plans and programs, and that conservatives challenge the economic models underlying the proposals. As long as everyone is engaging in good faith efforts, things will generally work out. While the United States gets a lot wrong, it also gets a lot right as well. For a human endeavor, the country and is an astonishing achievement.
But something changed over the years. A sense that there is something darker developing in the country. In particular, Republicans talked less and less about small government and more and more about apocalypse. The term bad faith came up more and more often3. Democrats went from being fellow citizens to the enemy.
Then along came Trump.
I don’t view Trump specifically as the problem. I view Trump as the public avatar for something deeper. It’s the transformation of the Republican party into an overtly anti-democratic, authoritarian entity. And it’s not just Trump specifically - it’s the people that voted for him. I believe that they know exactly who and what Trump represents, and that they chose him over the other Republicans in the 2016 primary because that is exactly what they wanted - despite the deep opposition from the traditional Republican leadership.
The idea of a future authoritarian leader taking control of the federal government - one who is smart, motivated, energized and organized - is utterly terrifying.
The twentieth century was marked by authoritarians who murdered by the millions. The takeover of the world’s largest military by a fascist leader is a nightmare for the entire world.
I love my family, my friends, my community. I love the rhetoric of being an American - freedom, justice, democracy. I want to live in a society that lives up to those ideals.
I would love for Americans to come together again in an honest celebration of those ideals. But I don’t think it’s going to happen in my lifetime. The gaps in values and goals are too big. I take those who voted for Trump at their word - they want a different society from the one I want. They have a different view of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I do not want a civil war for myself, my community, or my son.
Perhaps my fears are overwrought. Perhaps things will calm down over the next few years. Perhaps the doom loop of escalating authoritarianism has an exit I cannot see.
But. Just in case. Perhaps another option would be prudent.
The idea for an off-ramp - for this book - first came to me in the early days of COVID. The Trump administration was denying COVID was even an issue, and so states were forming compacts to manage the response.4
What if the states… just gave up on the federal government and passed an amendment to make the state level compacts permanent? I’ll confess that the idea of a pandemic managed by the governments of California, Oregon, and Washington felt (and still feels) a lot better to me than one managed by the federal government. A watershed moment.
Once I had the basic idea - a simple amendment to break up the country into clumps of states - it just wouldn’t go away.
When you are a political science major, you have to get good at writing an essay fast. A thousand words is easy, three thousand in a day is no big deal. Every time I read the news, I would pour my stress and thoughts into another essay on the topic.
Just a way to try to get over the stress.
Then, two things happened in 2021. First, a poll came out from YouGov covering the idea of secession along virtually the same state groups I was using in my notes. A mainstream polling firm was now actively tracking sentiment for the idea. YouGov ran it twice, once in January 2021 and again in June 2021… and it showed support was growing. For many regions it was over 40%, and in some over 60%.5
To repeat: 47% of Democrats in California, Oregon and Washington already support breaking away, and 66% of Republicans in the South. That’s… incredible.
Second, I started sharing my ideas with friends. It was (and still is) a bit nerve-wracking. “Hey, I’m thinking about how to break up the United States into six nations” seemed like a pretty fringe thing to talk about.
To my surprise, I found that people were interested in the idea, but they had a lot of questions. How would it work? What about the South? Could it really happen? What about the military and the nuclear weapons?
A surprising number said they had already been thinking about it. I suppose given the polling data I shouldn’t have been surprised, but still.
Those two things - the polling and the conversations - made me decide to pull all my notes and essays into this book.
For the sake of everyone - not just in the United States, but the entire world - I hope we can figure this out.
My hope is that by having the conversation, it will change how we all look at our country. Perhaps the discussion will inspire us to come together, to fix the existing system, and reinvigorate the federal government for future generations.
But, just in case we can’t come together, it’s probably a good idea to have an escape hatch.
P.S. To my elementary school teacher: I’m sorry about considering the “indivisible” part to be potentially negotiable. I still love my fellow Americans, and I hope we can all work things out.
