When Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that a "national divorce" is needed to "separate red states and blue states and shrink the federal government," the usual leftist cabal of politicians and pundits wrote her off as a loon.
But the Georgia firebrand may have been on to something.
"Pollsters who have studied the controversy agree that there is widespread support" for Greene's "proposition of a red-state-blue-state breakup," Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted on Feb. 28.
Jeremy Zogby, pollster and managing partner at Zogby Strategies, which has studied the issue for years, told Bedard that support for Greene's proposition is “across the board. It's staggering to the extent it cuts across all demographics.”
The Battleground Poll has found Americans leaning toward civil war for years.
“When asked to rate the level of political division in the country on a scale from 0 to 100 where 0 is no division and 100 is division on the edge of a civil war, respondents led to a mean score of 71,” said the last version of the survey.
“We need a national divorce,” Greene said in the Feb. 20 tweet. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
The next day, Greene followed up by elaborating that she would like to see “a legal agreement” that would separate states to resolve ideological and political disagreements “while maintaining our legal union.” Rearranged this way, Americans can decide where and how to live, Greene concluded, and “we don’t have to argue with one another anymore.”
Zogby and his father, pollster John Zogby, said that the idea has been around for years and is gaining steam not just in the United States but overseas.
On their weekly podcast, John Zogby said that Greene’s plan, which would encourage red and blue states to break up while keeping a smaller national government, has helped to kick up the debate.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, three words that I really never thought that I'd be discussing about anything, let alone on this podcast, sent out a tweet that's had an enormous response and ripple effect in which she calls for a national divorce,” he said, adding that he and Jeremy Zogby have polled on the issue for years and that there is “nothing in our polling that would contradict” her view of the division in the country.
Jeremy Zogby cited the rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, and the political fallout that has dogged the Biden administration and anger at him for seeming to ignore the crisis in favor of giving attention and billions of dollars to Ukraine.
The chemical spill and poor response may be the “tipping point,” said Jeremy Zogby. “I don't think it's going to go away, that sentiment. I mean, our polling data has continuously shown that there's a sizable portion of the public that would be in favor of” a Greene-style divorce.
🧵Thread:
Why the left and right should consider a national divorce, not a civil war but a legal agreement to separate our ideological and political disagreements by states while maintaining our legal union. Definition of irreconcilable differences: inability to agree on most… https://t.co/6hko0vnHbd — Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) February 21, 2023
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