Secession Is a Good Idea

For Counties

The above map is how US counties voted in the 2024 Presidential election.

The state of Indiana passed a proposition that would allow Illinois border counties to secede from Illinois and join Indiana. This is a good idea. Wirepoints has a blurb about it.

During the Presidencies of Bush, Obama, Trump 1, and Biden, I heard people who were on the short end of the presidential election talk openly about seceding from the union. Today in California, there is a far-left Democratic movement for Cali to secede and there are a lot of people on the right who wish them good luck.

We fought a war to preserve the Union back in 1860. It wasn’t only about slavery, but that was the core issue. Lincoln was fighting secession. In those days, the idea that Indiana has proposed for Illinois residents wouldn’t have worked. What would freedom-loving people in land-locked Confederate states have done?

Of course, this begs the question. What do landlocked counties do?

Say you live in Moultrie County. You are stuck.

You could go to Edgar County, get them to secede, work to get Douglas or Cole County to secede, and then secede yourself. Or, if the US allowed it, it would be like West Berlin was behind the Iron Curtain. But, the real answer for many of the people is to pick up sticks and move. This is significantly harder to do though.

A book called America 3.0, written years ago by Michael Lotus (a friend of the blog), dealt with the concept of how secession might work. 

Instead of creating new states that would question the balance of power and representation, why not keep the fifty states and reorganize counties?

If you look at a map of the US, there are a lot of places where change could be undertaken. Minnesota borders two red states. Why subject those counties to the terrible policies of Tim Walz and the DFL socialists? They could join ND or SD. Why should Washington or Oregon state counties that border Idaho who want to leave be subjected to the socialists of Seattle? Colorado counties that border Wyoming might want to join with Wyoming.

Conversely, suppose you are in a blue county that borders a red state. Secede! You could see some creative stuff. Maybe Nevada Clark County Democrats want to join arms with Coconino Arizona County Democrats to join Arizona?

The ability for counties to secede amps up the competition between the states as well. If I don’t want Colorado’s high taxes and regulation, I can secede to Wyoming where taxes and regulation are a lot lower.

Seeing counties secede would also impact the way state political parties gerrymander their states. It would keep them more honest if the threat of secession was there. Losing a small sliver of red/blue voters would impact the election. Here is a map of the severely gerrymandered state of Illinois. You can see how if border counties left the state, the gerrymander apple cart might be upset. Not only would a state lose representatives, but the balance of power in its Congressional delegation might change too. Of course, that changes the corresponding balance of power in the House of Representatives too. Razor thin margins for Democrats or Republicans might be a thing of the past.

I’d love to see this start in an Indiana-Illinois border county. All you need is one and the flurry of lawsuits that would fly would make your head spin. But, they’d be great because they’d give legal certainty to the process. It is my hope that the free will of the people in a county would win out over a state government.

Who is bold enough to go first?