Opinion

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News / Opinion / Columns

Jayne: Remember, divided we fall

By Greg Jayne, Columbian Opinion Page Editor

Published: August 4, 2019, 6:02am

It is an interesting thought experiment. A radical one, but interesting.

FiveThirtyEight.com last week ran an interview with a reader who believes the United States should be divided into several different countries. “I feel like it’s gotten to the point where the U.S. is too big to fail,” said Chris, a 35-year-old white male from rural Pennsylvania. “And when something’s too big to fail, people stop working hard to make it work because they think it can’t fail.”

The interview was part of the website’s “Political Confessional” series — “about the views that Americans are scared to share with their friends and neighbors.” Like we said, those views can be a bit radical. But some of Chris’ thoughts reflect a painful truth: “It’s almost gotten to the point where there’s no way to build bridges; people like to light them on fire. There’s really no empathy toward each other, and you need that to build bridges.”

Well said. And, sadly, difficult to dispute.

In truth, there is nothing new about this idea of splitting the United States into five or seven or nine or 11 countries. The guess is that the Founding Fathers never envisioned a nation stretching from sea to shining sea, and a quick search reveals articles about the concept from The Federalist, New York Magazine, Business Insider, The Week and other outlets in just the past year.

And, in truth, there would be benefits from a new country consisting of Washington, Oregon and California. Despite a population of only about 51 million people, we would have the world’s third-largest economy — behind China and Japan. We would have a nation with unapologetically progressive policies without having to economically prop up the likes of West Virginia and Mississippi and Wyoming.

Nothing against the good people of West Virginia or Mississippi or Wyoming or any other state in the union. But, as an aside, the places that most vociferously complain about government assistance typically are the places that receive the most. And for those who want to run the federal government like a businesses, you better be prepared to shut down Kentucky, the most-subsidized state in the country.

But we digress. Instead, let us ponder the problems with taking the “united” out of the United States.

You know, like the military. It is absurd that the United States is spending $686 billion on defense this year (more than the next 10 nations combined, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies), but a collective defense strategy is necessary.

Or like the national highway and rail systems. It probably would not be very efficient to stop at the border every time you drove to Idaho.

But the biggest issue is the fallacy that America and Americans can be defined solely by where we live. We are a diverse nation where people of differing views and differing backgrounds can live side-by-side. And while there are problems at the moment, we have managed to make it work thus far.

Consider Washington. We are a decidedly blue state, largely because the Seattle metro area has more than half the state’s population. But Clark County is somewhat purple, and 27 of the state’s 39 counties voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

And then there is Eastern Washington, which would probably prefer to be in a nation with Idaho and Montana than be stuck with the leftists in Western Washington. Why, there even is a persistent and ridiculous movement to make Eastern Washington its own state, although the reasoning is specious.

And then what do we do about the people of Spokane, who typically do not share the conservative views of their surrounding counties? Spokane has more area and more people than the European nation of San Marino, but we’re guessing the citizens there don’t want to become their own country.

The permutations of a U.S. divorce are endless, and they ignore the reality: We are stuck with each other, forced to find some middle ground. That might require a few sessions with a therapist, but we’re in this together. For better or worse.

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