Kyle Kulinski Floats a "National Divorce" Between Red and Blue States

Progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski is floating the idea of splitting America in two and checking back in a century to see who comes out ahead, and he is confident he knows the answer.

"We should probably have a national divorce. There should be the Red States of America and the Blue States of America. We'll come check back in a hundred years and see what's going on," Kulinski said.

Kulinski is the New York-based host of The Kyle Kulinski Show and a co-founder of the group Justice Democrats, which helped launch several progressive candidates into Congress. He laid out his prediction in detail. He said blue states would end up with universal healthcare, free college, better wages, a higher GDP and stable politics. Red states, he said, would be a "catastrophe."

He also leaned on an argument about federal money, saying blue states pay more into the federal budget while red states take more out. In his view, red-state voters criticize federal spending while depending on it, and a split would force that into the open.

The clip spread quickly on Reddit and other platforms. Critics called it "the most un-American take" they had seen. Many pointed out that red states such as Texas and Florida have been gaining residents and businesses for years, as people leave high-cost blue states like California and New York. Others noted that red and blue don't split neatly by state at all. Every state has millions of voters on both sides, and many rural counties in blue states vote red while many cities in red states vote blue.

There are practical questions too. A split would mean dividing the military, the national debt, Social Security and interstate highways, and deciding which country millions of people in the "wrong" state belong to. No serious plan has ever answered those questions, and the Supreme Court ruled in 1869 that states cannot leave the Union on their own.

The idea isn't new. In February 2023, then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a "national divorce" between red and blue states. She was criticized by members of both parties, including fellow Republicans, who said the country should not be divided. Greene later left Congress, and now a voice from the left is pitching something similar, just with a different winner in mind.

That symmetry is what stands out. Voices on both ends of politics have now suggested the country might be better off apart, each certain its own side would thrive.

Polls have shown a minority of Americans open to some kind of split, especially among the most partisan voters, but most Americans still reject the idea.

The debate says a lot about how divided the country feels heading into the midterm elections, and about how easy it has become to talk about the other half of the country as if it were a foreign nation.

Should America ever split into red and blue nations? YES OR NO?