Rural America wants to secede from control of out of touch urban elites

Glenn Harlan Reynolds:

The United States has a bad case of “secession fever,” and the only cure is splitting up states.

As a recent article in the Washington Times notes, residents of more rural parts of many states want to secede, because those states are dominated by the residents of large urban centers, who know little and care less about the lives of people out in the country. “You’ve got Oregonians seeking to cascade into Idaho, Virginians who identify as West Virginians, Illinoians fighting to escape Chicago, Californians dreaming of starting a 51st state, and New Yorkers who think three states are better than one.”

And this leaves out eastern Washington, which, like eastern Oregon, has been talking about breaking off from the liberal-dominated coastal regions. For that matter, California has produced multiple secession plans aimed at breaking the Golden State up into two, or as many as six, separate states.

This phenomenon isn’t new — I wrote an article about it for the Notre Dame Law Review over a year ago — but it seems to be gathering steam. The reason it’s gathering steam is the same reason why most secession movements, including the American break with Great Britain in 1776, gain steam: the belief that the people who want to leave are being treated badly and callously by rulers over whom they have little or no influence. It’s not just “taxation without representation,” but also, “regulation without representation.” And a general sense of being held in contempt.

As demographer Joel Kotkin writes, “The worst thing in the world to be is the red part of a blue state.” You wind up regulated to suit the whims of people whose interests are not yours.

In Virginia, it’s primarily gun control laws supported by inhabitants of the population-heavy Washington, D.C. suburbs, laws resented by inhabitants of the many less-populous counties where values remain more traditionally Virginian. There's talk about Virginia counties seceding and joining West Virginia.
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There is more.

It is also the reason why people in red states do not want to be ruled by the votes in LA County.  It is why they are never going to agree with doing away with the Electoral College.  How long is it going to take the urban elites to realize that their model does not work for everyone?  In fact, it is why a great migration is taking place with people leaving blue states for red states.