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Nearly two-thirds of Republicans in more than a dozen Southern U.S. states have said they support breaking away from the United States and establishing their own country with neighboring states. Almost half of Democrats on the West Coast said they would do the same.
Some 66 percent of Republicans in 13 Southern states including Texas and Florida would separate from the union, according to a recent poll conducted by Bright Line Watch, Newsweek reported.
Half of all independents in the South also want to secede from the union while only 20 percent of Southern Democrats said they would support secession.
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About 47 percent Democrats in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii would support joining a distinct country, and nearly one-third of West Coast independents were in favor of secession while just 27 percent of West Coast Republicans were too.
In 13 Midwest states, support for breaking away from the union was highest among independents, where 43 percent of whom wanted to secede, whereas in Northeastern states, 39 percent of Democrats were in favor of leaving the US and forming their own country and 43 percent of Republicans in states near the Rocky Mountains said the same.
Support for a separate country has increased significantly since the same question was asked in a poll from February, when 50 percent of Southern Republicans wanted to form their own country. A 6 percent increase in support for secession also happened among West Coast Democrats.
Data analyst Christopher Ingraham called the poll results the "most disturbing datapoint" he had recently seen.
A new YouGov survey conducted on behalf of a democracy watchdog group finds that 66 percent of Republicans living in the South say they’d support seceding from the United States to join a union with other Southern states.
— Richard Thornton (@thornret) July 15, 2021
Secession is actually gaining support among Republicans.
He pointed out that many of those who want secession may be expressing support to indicate partisan loyalties rather than support for a potential new Civil War.
"It probably makes sense to read these results more as statements of political identity (e.g., 'I'm a proud Southerner and I don't like Joe Biden!') than as signs of actual intent," Ingraham wrote.
"Nevertheless, the sheer number of Americans — particularly Republicans and Independents in the South — willing to turn 'blow the whole thing up' into a signal of partisan loyalty is troubling," he added.
Polling firm YouGov surveyed 2,750 U.S. adults, while a sample of 327 political science experts also participated in the poll which was conducted between June 26 and July 2.
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