Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Call For ‘National Divorce’

by Perry Diaz

Last Dec. 28, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene renewed calls for a “national divorce” between Republican and Democratic states.

She suggested that Americans who move from states where voters have elected Democrats should be “denied the right to vote if they move to Republican-leaning states as part of a ‘national divorce’ that would provide for the breakup of the United States.”She argued that Americans who move to conservative states from liberal states like California and New York should have a “cooling off” period before they are allowed to vote.

She tweeted her comment in response to a thread from a man who said “he was moving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Miami, and was wary of Florida politics.”

In October 2021, Greene conducted a Twitter survey to measure people’s interest in a “national divorce” between Republican- and Democratic-leaning states. The unscientific poll found 48% of people wanted the US to stay together, while 43 % called for a political division and 9% were undecided. Greene celebrated those who voted to divide the country.

National Divorce scenario
“All possible in a National Divorce scenario,” Greene wrote. “After Democrat voters and big donors ruin a state like California, you would think it wise to stop them from doing it to another great state like Florida. Brainwashed people that move from CA and NY really need a cooling-off period.”

She wrote further, “So many people tell me daily how devastated they are over the state of our union on every level, and I completely share their utter disgust and heartbreak for the condition of our country. National Divorce is talked about often privately, but not publicly, so I took a poll.”

Immediately, many Twitter users were furious and blasted her comments as promoting another “civil war.” A National Divorce scenario is a term Greene used, which was employed by some on the political right who advocated for fighting a second American civil war to prevent Democrats from holding high office in the US ever again.

It’s interesting to note that it was reported in the news that a member of a Central Intelligence Agency advisory panel that monitors political instability abroad has found that the U.S. is “closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe.”

In a book – “How Civil War Starts” –written by University of California San Diego professor Barbara Walter, said that the US has “entered very dangerous territory” since Jan. 6, 2021.

Former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in hopes of preventing Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.

Greene’s incendiary comment about national divorce brings the issue to Congress where Green and a small but aggressive group of House members could dominate the discussion to further promote “national divorce,” which is a euphemism for “civil war.”

In other words, this group of House Republicans is fomenting the Second American Civil War!

Actually, it already started on Jan. 6, 2021 at the US Capitol by no less than Trump, who incited the insurrection. But the insurrection failed because then Vice President Mike Pence did not overturn the results of the Electoral College vote count, which Trump suggested that he do.

Now, Greene and her co-conspirators are bringing it to the US Congress.  The “National Divorce” scenario was their opening salvo. The coup is now in progress. And it will culminate in November 2024 when the presidential election will be held.

The failed coup last year on Jan. 6 was just a dress rehearsal of the next presidential election when they took over the swing states’ election boards, which would ensure that Trump – who is expected to run again – would be elected, by hook or by crook.

Texas secession
Last February 2021, Republican State Representative Kyle Biedermann of Texas filed the Texas Independence Referendum Act (HB 1359), which would give Texans a chance to explore opting out of the union in a referendum.

But the bill died from the beginning when the State Affairs Committee refused to schedule a hearing, which effectively killed it. While Biedermann tried to hold his own hearing, it never gained traction. Simply put, it didn’t get popular support.

But the legislators should have known that while the U.S. Constitution does not specifically address the secession of the states, the Supreme Court ruled after the Civil War that states cannot unilaterally secede except through revolution or the expressed consent of the other states.

More recently, in 2006, Supreme Court Antonin Scalia stated, “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.”

Greene and her gang should have known better that they cannot achieve secession by any means other than through revolution or expressed consent of all the 50 states of the union.

Pledge of Allegiance
Besides, they’ve sworn their Pledge of Allegiance, which says: “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.”

They have to be reminded that their pledge says: “one Nation under God, indivisible.”

And each day they enter the halls of Congress, they are expected to uphold their pledge of allegiance. If they don’t remain true to their pledge, then they should resign from serving as a representative of their congressional district.

But at the end of the day, all Americans should – nay, must – be reminded of what Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Now is the time for all Americans to be reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln to honor the soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the Civil War so that “the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

PERRY DIAZ is a writer, columnist and journalist who has been published in more than a dozen Filipino newspapers in five countries.