This is an opinion column.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) wants a national divorce. Everyone she talks to apparently agrees with her. The Georgia representative recently created a firestorm by suggesting we “separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.” Previously, Americans called this exotic concept “federalism.” Greene is easy to dismiss entirely because of her penchant for political performance art, but she demands attention because the grievances she’s articulating resonate across America.

In the era of do-nothing politicians, I appreciate representatives who put out plans even if they’re half-baked Twitter threads. Reading Greene’s a national divorce agreement is a little difficult in a twitter thread, so I’ve taken the liberty of transcribing it and adding annotations (her tweets in bold):

Why the left and right should consider a national divorce, not a civil war but a legal agreement to separate our ideological and political disagreements by states while maintaining our legal union.

This is literally the system of government America has on paper. Democrats and Republicans have both deviated from the model because Congress deficit spends like it’s drunk, and both sides want uniform control across America. Greene rejecting civil war is positive.

Definition of irreconcilable differences:

inability to agree on most things or on important things.

Good use of Merriam-Webster.

Tragically, I think we, the left and right, have reached irreconcilable differences.

On social media and cable news, this is probably accurate. At the ballpark, in our neighborhoods, and around our communities, it is not.

I’ll speak for the right and say, we are absolutely disgusted and fed up with the left cramming and forcing their ways on us and our children with no respect for our religion/faith, traditional values, and economic & government policy beliefs.

Where is this cramming and forcing happening outside of the media? For example, California’s governing policies don’t align with my values as a conservative. I also don’t live there. If political discomfort in one state rises to intolerable levels, we can move to another more aligned. We’re doing that. The mass exodus from the West Coast is a great example. Again, this is how federalism works.

With our federal government in over $34 TRILLION in debt and on the verge of default, clearly both left and right have proven that together they both aren’t responsible with hard working Americans tax dollars.

#Amen

A national divorce would require a much smaller federal government with more power given to the states.

This is still federalism, a great idea our founding fathers envisioned. Greene believing that she’s stumbled upon a novel solution to disagreements between the states is concerning.

Hence, we would solve our debt and spending problems immediately.

We would not. States love to benefit from federal deficit spending. In fact, devolving more issues to the states means less for federal politicians to do. The power of the purse would be their most powerful tool.

Reducing the federal government would be easy because states would completely control things like education, trade and commerce, and communications to a much larger degree and the federal government to a much smaller degree.

States were meant to control education. Accepting federal dollars gives the federal government a real say on education. If states want total control of education, they don’t have to take the money. That could happen today. We should be generally suspicious of any government controlling “communications.”

Red state schools would bring back prayer in school and require every student to stand for the national anthem and pledge of allegiance while blue states would likely eliminate the anthem and pledge all together and replace them with anthems and pledges to identity ideologies like the Trans flag and BLM.

Either we have one country, one Constitution, and one Supreme Court, or we have different nations. Greene needs to figure out what she’s proposing. I’m also not sure there’s a trangendered anthem.

Perhaps some blue states would even likely have government funded Antifa communists training schools. I mean elected Democrats already support Antifa, so why not.

Red states would ban biological males from all girls/women’s sports and all girls/women’s places of privacy.

Again, we don’t need a divorce because more conservative states are different from more liberal ones. Legislatures in a number of states have already enacted laws related to biological sex in sports.

Red states would maintain the truth that there are only two genders and would require the biological identity of each person’s gender on their identification, not how the person identifies.

If you choose to identify differently you can, but if you want it on legal record you’ll need to move to a blue state in order to be legally free to lie to yourself and others about your identity.

Again, states have widely different laws on this front. Greene’s own state of Georgia requires proof of surgery, court order, or an amended birth certificate to change gender on identification. Others states aren’t as strict. The United States is still standing.

Red states would not have to abide by climate cult lies.

Red states would be completely free to build and use fossil fuel energy for their citizens.

Oil, natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear power would very likely be growing strong energy sources for red states.

Red states would be free from complying to green new deal regulations, but obviously all states would still have to comply with certain environmental protective requirements.

We love freedom to consume the energy we choose but not pollution, and just to be clear carbon is not pollution.

As a “red state” resident, I’d love more nuclear power, but I don’t want to keep using higher polluting sources of energy. Greene is correct about the need for choices in energy consumption.

Red states would throw out all Environmental Social Governance regulations and requirements on corporations and businesses.

Companies would no longer have to meet ESG scoring measures on anything from hiring to work culture to products.

In red states companies could hire based on work related qualifications not identity and return their focus on their customers, once again going back to real customer service and treating the customer like the king.

Blue states would likely enforce ESG and require identity to mandate everything perhaps even what customers are allowed to consume based on their identity. We already saw Democrats give life saving monoclonal antibodies to people of color before white people during covid.

If companies want to engage ESG, that’s a business decision. Forcing businesses into social engineering is another matter entirely. Greene implies that hiring based on professional qualifications isn’t allowed in “red” states. That’s simply not true. We have a Constitution and democratically enacted laws that have proven effective in addressing a wide range of illegal discrimination. That should continue.

Of course interstate trade, travel, and state relations would continue.

However in red states, they could have different rules about store product placement on national store’s shelves. In red states, I highly doubt Walmart could place sex toys next to children’s toothbrushes.

We don’t need laws dealing with it, but I was surprised to find sex toys in relatively close proximity to children’s toothbrushes in my local Walmart. The products aren’t obscenely marketed, nor are they directed to children. I have so many questions about folks who shop for adult toys at Walmart.

The federal government would have to maintain the Department of Defense but it would need to return to it’s original purpose.

The United States border and our national security would be the border the DoD would defend.

The federal government would have to defend the states from invasion, not enable daily invasions.

Dangerous international criminal organizations like Mexican Cartels that are responsible for murdering Americans, trafficking humans & drugs, and operating deadly gangs inside our country would be dealt with by the United States military.

Greene is correct that we have a flood of immigrants coming across the southwest border. She’s also advocating for a repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act which limits Department of Defense enforcement of domestic policies. It’s also bizarre for Greene to advocate for strident federalism while simultaneously advocating for nationalized law enforcement.

And large grants and public funding to NGO’s that fuel the world wide migration to America would have to end immediately.

Sorry, not sorry George Soros.

George Soros lives rent free in too many Republican minds.

Law enforcement would likely look different in red and blue states.

Red states would likely have highly supported law enforcement officers and well funded agencies. Police officers would be well trained, paid, equipped, and seen as heroes once again, not portrayed as racists thugs.

This begs the question why red states are not materially increasing pay for law enforcement and providing more training and support. How about mental health resources as well?

Red states would also support citizen’s right to bear arms and self defense.

In red states, law abiding gun owners wouldn’t go to jail for shooting an attacker, their right to self defense and defense of property would be protected.

This is already true in most “red” states.

Crime rates would be very low. Red state citizens would be safe. Criminals would be locked away swiftly when they broke the law. Justice would be served.

This is aspirational, but it’s currently not connected with reality. For example, homicide rates in states with SEC football teams are materially higher than much of the rest of the country.

In blue states, who knows. Police could be anything from unarmed social workers to doing what Democrat lawmakers have been calling for all along, abolishing the police.

And in blue states, they would immediately disarm their citizens of course because those bad guns get up and kill people by themselves all the time.

Federalism works because states are “laboratories of democracy” where we try different policies. This is a praiseworthy feature of our government rather than a defect.

In a National Divorce, the left could achieve their dreams of total and complete lawlessness.

Democrats don’t actually want lawlessness.

We must not ignore how different elections would be between red states and blue states. In red states, they would likely pursue one day elections with paper ballots and require voter ID with only the red state citizens or even red state tax payers voting. Red states would not allow illegal aliens to vote, ballot harvesting, or mass mail in ballots ripe for fraud, and could ban election machines all together if they wanted to. And blue states would be free to allow illegal aliens from all over the world to vote freely and frequently in their elections like the DC city council wants. Dead people could still vote. Criminals in jail could vote that is if blue states even have jails or prisons anymore. Maybe blue states would let kids vote too. I mean why not, if the left says children can chop off their genitals or breasts, surely the left would let them make permanent important adult decisions like voting. Things like this sheriff is talking about could be legal like apparently it must be in California. Shhh.. don’t say it’s voter fraud. That never happens in our free, safe, and fair elections, right?!

Again, states run their own elections. This is already the case. We don’t need a divorce to make this happen. Greene is essentially saying she doesn’t like voting laws in Democrat-controlled states.

Imagine if America decided to just go ahead and have a national divorce.

Hollywood elites and celebrities and all the brainwashed leftists women who watch the nasty women on the View, men who identify as women, and Democrat voters who suffer from the lifelong debilitating disease Trump Derangement Syndrome they caught from CNN wouldn’t have to see much less tolerate deplorables anymore.

Now Greene is just rambling talking points. It’s really easy not to watch The View. I’m a professional at doing so.

They could live in their safe space blue states, own nothing, let their government decide and control everything, and most importantly protect their fragile minds from being shocked and insulted by those of us on the right who believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Then Americans could choose which way, left or right, provides them with the best quality of life, and we don’t have to argue with one another anymore.

I am starting to feel like it’s the right thing to do for everyone.

I’m starting to feel like Greene needs to get out more and put down her phone. The Twitter warrior political class is loud and ineffective. Yes, I understand this is mostly Greene trolling “blue states” She’s describing what is already the case in America with the exception of wanting to tear up the Constitution to get the outcomes she wants on a few issues. We should keep the Constitution we have, and it’s a clear violation of her congressional oath of office to call for doing away with it.

Greene is correct that our states and political views are quite different in America. Our federal government must be limited by the Constitution and focused on enumerated powers for policy areas where we must work together. The common defense of our nation is a good example.

Greene and her ilk dedicate too much of their representational bandwidth being upset at Democrats being liberal. Her job is to defend against one-size-fits-all policies coming out of Washington. The goal in Congress isn’t to “own the libs” or be “anti-MAGA.” States are the best entities to govern effectively and allow Americans to be meaningfully different from coast to coast. When policies work, other states should replicate them. When they don’t, we should abandon their pursuit.

We also ignore Greene at our peril. She’s responding to a perception of America that isn’t real outside of social media, the political class, and cable news. People believe it because they’re tired of “leaders” who talk past or down to them. As much as I’d like to avoid Greene’s political shenanigans, she resonates with many Republicans who matter to me.

America can avoid a great divorce, but only if we honestly address reality instead of politically manufactured irreconcilable differences.

Smith is a recovering political attorney with four boys, two dogs, a bearded dragon, and an extremely patient wife. He engages media, business, and policy through the Triptych Foundation and Triptych Media. Please direct outrage or agreement to [email protected] or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.