After Newsom recall fails, Ben Shapiro says secession may be “the best hope” for conservatives
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From the September 15, 2021, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): So that is the takeaway from the California election is that the continued sorting effect is going to continue. And that we are going to be a country where the red states become redder and the blue states become bluer and the purple states will either shift over into red or blue and then follow that path inevitably. As Virginia has, right? Virginia went from purple to blue and now it seems like it's going to continue moving blue. Seems to be the trend over in Virginia. On the other hand, Ohio went from purple to red and seems like it's going to get more red over time. Florida moved from purple to red and seems like it's getting more red over time. California's going to move from blue to deep blue to, like, dark night blue. That's what's going to happen in the country.
And the predictable result of that is going to be further polarization at the federal level. So on a national level, why should we care about California? Because what it actually presages is not just politics in California. What it presages is a question, whether we actually do want to remain part of the same body politic. If we do want to remain part of the same body politic, we're going to have to construct a system of a federal governance in which Texas can be Texas and California can be California. However, California has to let Texas be Texas. And herein lies the rub. Because the federal government has no interest, when run by Democrats, in allowing Texas to be Texas. They would like Texas to be California. And if that's the case, what you're going to end up with is a fairly ugly split between states that wish to be left alone and states that wish to run their business from the top level of the federal government.
I think this is why you're hearing so much talk these days about a quote-unquote “civil war” or talk about secession or talk about the country breaking apart. It's a serious question. Whenever you form a body politic, which is what happened at the founding and what happened again in the aftermath of the Civil War. If you form a body politic, you have to decide whether you wish to remain a part of the same country. And if so, what common rules can you hold at the top level that everybody can agree to. Well, if the basic notion of American government is that the federal government is going to make all the rules and it's just going to be a struggle for the power of the one ring, then this country is not going to last this way. It is just not. And maybe then the best hope for a lot of conservatives, and maybe for a lot of liberals depending on who's in control of that federal government, is a friendly separation. That is what that forsages. Not that California is the wave of the future but that California and its polarization is the wave of the future.