Splitting the US? Many Americans say yes

[Trausti]

The Constitution is six thousands words. Despite the authoritarian desires of many, it was not meant to displace state sovereignty. The main role of the new national government was regulation between the states not to supplant the state and local government.

So the executive calling the states and asking them to find more votes in their state’s elections would be unconstitutional? The justice department initiating investigations into state elections would also be unconstitutional, right?

There it is. Both sides of the political spectrum fear their opponent taking control of the national government and using that national power to interfere in local issues.

 

[Shadowy Man]

The Constitution is six thousands words. Despite the authoritarian desires of many, it was not meant to displace state sovereignty. The main role of the new national government was regulation between the states not to supplant the state and local government.

So the executive calling the states and asking them to find more votes in their state’s elections would be unconstitutional? The justice department initiating investigations into state elections would also be unconstitutional, right?

There it is. Both sides of the political spectrum fear their opponent taking control of the national government and using that national power to interfere in local issues.

And is the fear not unwarranted? Trump actually did try taking control of the National government and use its power to interfere in local issues.

If the conservatives were more consistent In their states’ rights viewpoint instead of being raging hypocrites I would have more respect for that viewpoint.

 

[Jarhyn]

There it is. Both sides of the political spectrum fear their opponent taking control of the national government and using that national power to interfere in local issues.

And is the fear not unwarranted? Trump actually did try taking control of the National government and use its power to interfere in local issues.

If the conservatives were more consistent In their states’ rights viewpoint instead of being raging hypocrites I would have more respect for that viewpoint.

It's strange, none of the things that made me a conservative when I was younger really changed. I just grew up and figured out, at great pain, that if I wanted those things the conservative ideology would never actually deliver them: I saw the viewing angle that I saw, through the lens of such an ideology, was presented as a projection out of that selfsame lens; viewed from any other angle it would have been apparent but it was not until I stepped out.

 

[Shadowy Man]

There it is. Both sides of the political spectrum fear their opponent taking control of the national government and using that national power to interfere in local issues.

And is the fear not unwarranted? Trump actually did try taking control of the National government and use its power to interfere in local issues.

If the conservatives were more consistent In their states’ rights viewpoint instead of being raging hypocrites I would have more respect for that viewpoint.

It's strange, none of the things that made me a conservative when I was younger really changed. I just grew up and figured out, at great pain, that if I wanted those things the conservative ideology would never actually deliver them: I saw the viewing angle that I saw, through the lens of such an ideology, was presented as a projection out of that selfsame lens; viewed from any other angle it would have been apparent but it was not until I stepped out.

I could actually be sympathetic to some conservative values but I can’t support them politically because most conservatives hold those values so hypocritically, and as a pro-intellectualism person I am deeply offended by the kind of hypocrisy they exhibit.

 

[Worldtraveller]

From a scholarly paper titled "The Worst Partisan Gerrymanders in U.S. State Legislatures"

Every single one of the states just mentioned are states where it was the Republicans who rigged the districting to favor them. Read it slowly: "Every single one." Do the Democrats do it too? Let's keep reading:

...
• There were no state houses where the Republican party received a majority of the vote in 2018, but where the Democratic party won a majority of the legislative seats.

Let's repeat that: There were no state houses where the Republican party received a majority of the vote in 2018, but where the Democratic party won a majority of the legislative seats.



Beware:The Democratic Party traces its roots back to Thomas Jefferson in the 18th century. The Republican Party is "only" about 170 years old but is, more or less, heir to the Whig and Federalist Parties which trace back to their opposition to the ideals of Jefferson.

QOPAnon liars will be eager to say "Nanner nanner nanner your side does it too." But the examples they cite will be from decades ago, or even earlier. You can even hear the meme that QOPAnon is the pro-Black Party because Abe Lincoln freed the slaves. But I assume the question is about the present day, not about 19th or even 20th century.

Did the Ds cheat as much or more than the Rs, once upon a time? You betcha! Some think that JFK beat Nixon in 1960 only because of cheating; and that Dick Nixon conceded defeat for the good of the country rather than pursuing fraud allegations! But that was 62 years ago. The U.S.A. is not the same place now as it was then.

In recent decades, the Ds have increasingly become the Party of humanitarian values, democracy and fair play. The Rs no longer have any principles other than hatred, lying and greed. The Ds have an agenda which, whether smart or stupid, is intended to improve the lives of Americans. The Rs have no agenda but getting elected so they can keep stuffing their donors' pockets with loot.

Does this help?

I'm going to add one small nugget to this:
from here.

HIGHLIGHTS
Congressional redistricting: Eight states use commissions for congressional redistricting: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, New Jersey, and Washington. Seven of these are non-politician commissions. One (New Jersey's) is a politician commission.
State legislative redistricting: Fourteen states use commissions for state legislative redistricting: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Nine of these are non-politician commissions. The rest are politician commissions.

There is one fairly red state in that first list (AZ). The interesting thing about AZ though is that, like FL, a significant portion of the voting bloc aren't local, because of the large retiree population, which tends to over represent in voting.

 

[Elixir]

There it is. Both sides of the political spectrum fear their opponent taking control of the national government and using that national power to interfere in local issues.

There was a mechanism to prevent that from happening in THE CONSTITUTION- even your 6000 word mini-version - called SEPARATION OF POWERS, which had held well against your paranoid vision until ORANGE MAN BAD effectively destroyed it. Prior to that, anything anywhere nearly so blatantly unconstitutional as Trump's call to the GA SoS would have landed the caller in jail within the hour of its discovery by Federal law enforcement.

 

[Bomb#20]

There was a mechanism to prevent that from happening in THE CONSTITUTION- even your 6000 word mini-version - called SEPARATION OF POWERS, which had held well against your paranoid vision until ORANGE MAN BAD effectively destroyed it. Prior to that, anything anywhere nearly so blatantly unconstitutional as Trump's call to the GA SoS would have landed the caller in jail within the hour of its discovery by Federal law enforcement.

Why on earth do you believe that? Presidents have been pulling off blatantly unconstitutional shenanigans for the entire duration of the republic, and except for Nixon, there has never been any accountability -- never any personal consequence to them whatsoever apart from the other branches of government eventually belatedly getting around to making them stop doing what they should never have been able to do in the first place. Trump is just one more in that appalling tradition; and Trump's a piker. Roosevelt put 80,000 Americans in concentration camps for having picked the wrong ethnicity.