Now that Donald Trump has passed the 6 month mark and the continuing campaign to make his governing impossible continues, we are witness the celebrated nullification of federal laws on a scale unprecedented since the Civil War from “Blue State America”. In fact, one could make the case the California is drifting towards secession; that state’s permanent Democrat governing class not wanting to be forced to enforce laws or conduct policies with which they disagree.

Which means that it may be time for the Red States to bolt for the exits and secede on their own from “Blue America”. One might question why Red (aka Republican) states would want to dissolve the country when they have more power nationally top to bottom than at any time within the last 100 years. They have the Presidency, both Houses of Congress, a sort of majority on the Supreme Court, complete governing control of 25 states and partial control in another 24. How could this, of all moments, be the right opportunity to exit?

This assertion rests specifically on three realities. The first is that the bureaucracy, far from consisting of disinterested, non-partisan, technocrats who are only executing the policies voted on by Congress, is full of liberal, liberal-left, and left-wing ideologues who necessarily move law in a left-wing direction, no matter who is in power (sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but generally always in the same direction). This means that regardless of elections, there is a permanent governing class in Washington, and that governing class is center-left. The result is that “taking our country back” isn’t going to be accomplished by elections alone, and our democratic choices, to the extent that they are center-right democratic choices, are bound to be hobbled, hindered, or stopped, whereas center-left democratic choices & policies will be implemented happily. The result has been, and will continue to be, a government that reflects the priorities of the political left, regardless of election results. To the extent that the Republican parts of the country want to live in country that either A.) reflects Republican priorities or B.) reflects the priorities of the voters, whether right or left, this won’t be accomplished by remaining part of the United States.

The second reality is that the left part of the political spectrum really does view the right side as deserving of second class status. They really don’t think that the Republican Party has the right to govern when it wins elections, except perhaps occasionally to the extent that a significant part of the Democrat Party signs off on a piece of legislation. A lot of the anger and fury regarding Trump’s win and the continued attempts to render him ineffective or to remove him from office by any means necessary has to do with the left side not really accepting the right side as an equal partner with equal political rights in the American experiment.

The third reality is that the left is in a rebellious mood and is using all means, fair & foul, to undo the election. From launching a campaign to intimidate the Electoral College into making Hillary President, to rioting to prevent conservative speakers from speaking on campus, to actual discrimination against conservative viewpoints on public university campuses, to judges overruling Trump policies just because it is Trump (as opposed to it being unconstitutional), the tactics of the left are seen as legitimate by them, and will be seen as illegitimate when (and there will be a ‘when’) they are employed by the right. You can be sure that the police won’t told to stand down when right-wing rioters are bashing the heads of left-wingers in.

The fourth reality is that once the left has control of the government again, they show every indication of being willing to use the power of the state to crush, persecute, and abuse those they don’t like (in some cases even those on their own side), in ways probably unprecedented in American history, with the exception of slavery. To that end, any attempt at secession with a left-wing government in charge is likely to be met with state-sanctioned force that could easily morph into a Civil War, ending the American experiment in a wave of bitter violence.

Given all of this, now when Republican power is at its zenith in roughly a century, would be the ideal time to secede. With so much political power concentrated in Republican hands at this moment in time, the Red states have something to bargain with to achieve a peaceful secession. In other words, lacking the political power at this moment to make the Red states comply with its wishes, Blue America has an incentive to allow the Red states to go their own way. At another point in time, the Red states may find themselves being governed by people who firmly believe that they deserve to be second-class citizens, and breaking away will be much messier. With that in mind, Red America might want to give serious consideration to formally declaring their independence.