American Secession
The Looming Threat of a National Breakup
Americans have never been more divided, and we're ripe for a breakup. The bitterness, the gridlock, the growing tolerance of violence, invite us to think that we'd be happier were we two different countries. In all the ways that matter, save for the naked force of law, we are already two nations. There's a second reason why secession beckons. We're over-big, one of the biggest countries in the world. Smaller countries are happier and less corrupt. They're less inclined to throw their weight around militarily, and they're freer. If there are advantages to bigness, the costs exceed the benefits. Bigness is badness. Across the world, just about every country is staring down a secession movement. Many have already split apart. And are we to think that, almost alone in the world, we're immune from this? Or that the Civil War made secession impossible? If so, this book explodes those comforting beliefs, and shows just how easy it would be for a state to exit the union if that's what its voters wanted.
F.H. Buckley is a Foundation Professor at George Mason University’s Scalia School of Law. He is a frequent media guest and has appeared on Morning Joe, CNN, The Rush Limbaugh Show, C‑SPAN, NPR and numerous other outlets. He is a senior editor at the American Spectator, a columnist for the New York Post, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and many other newspapers.
His most recent books are The Republican Workers Party (2018); The Republic of Virtue (2017); The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America (2016); and The Once and Future King (2015). His current project is a book on curiosity.
