{"id":239148,"date":"2025-07-05T04:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T04:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/239148\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T04:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T04:08:12","slug":"one-special-state-will-lead-the-us-to-civil-war-2-by-2035-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/239148\/","title":{"rendered":"One special state will lead the US to Civil War 2 by 2035 | US | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

America<\/a> could be hurtling towards a second Civil War<\/a> within the next decade as California<\/a> edges closer to secession, a top political expert has warned.<\/p>\n

Professor Benjamin Cohen, of the University of California-Santa Barbara, said the chances of a violent national rupture are \u201csubstantially greater than zero,\u201d as political polarisation deepens across the United States, reports MailOnline.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a chilling hypothetical scenario, the political economist envisages California declaring independence from the US in 2035\u2014sparking an explosive response from the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident [JD] Vance has threatened a military takeover of state government in Sacramento, backed by National Guard troops from nearby red states,\u201d he writes. \u201cArmed conflict looks increasingly possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secession chances<\/p>\n

While many may dismiss the idea of secession as far-fetched, Cohen says powerful identity politics are driving movements within so-called \u201cdream states\u201d to break away from the union.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdentity can be a very powerful motivator,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I worry about the risk of civil war. When it comes to something as strong as a sense of community identity, rationalism falls by the wayside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil War in ten years<\/p>\n

His concerns appear to be widely shared. A YouGov poll found that 40 percent of Americans believe a second civil war within ten years is either \u201csomewhat or very likely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same number think the conflict would split along party lines between Democrats and Republicans\u2014rather than traditional state boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult for me to imagine how things would divide up if there were a civil war,\u201d Cohen admitted. \u201cBut the probability of such a war is substantially greater than zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen believes the idea of secession is not being taken seriously enough, branding it an \u201cunderappreciated phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a move would see states reject the authority of the Constitution, create new governments, and take control over taxes, defence and trade\u2014something the Supreme Court has ruled is illegal without nationwide consent.<\/p>\n

Federal intervention<\/p>\n

Should a state like California try to break away, the federal government would likely brand it unconstitutional and move swiftly to block it\u2014much like in Cohen\u2019s fictional scenario.<\/p>\n

But rising public distrust in Washington continues to fuel fears. The same YouGov poll of 1,111 US adults revealed that 31 percent think the US could become a fascist dictatorship by 2035. A further 20 percent fear a shift to communism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me we cannot ignore the risks of the current fissures and fragmentation\u2014the breakdown of a sense of community,\u201d Cohen added.<\/p>\n

Dream States<\/p>\n

In his new book Dream States: A Lurking Nightmare for the World Order, Cohen explores how Americans increasingly want to redraw the nation\u2019s map to better reflect their political views.<\/p>\n

He notes that while New York City leans heavily Democrat, large parts of upstate New York favour Republicans. \u201cThe reality is there are many people within those states that are very unhappy with the arrangement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d prefer to draw the lines in a different way. In some cases, they\u2019re prepared to fight to redraw those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

California fault line<\/p>\n

In California, tensions have already erupted. Riots broke out in Los Angeles over the federal government\u2019s mass deportations of illegal immigrants\u2014prompting President Trump to lash out at state governor Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n

The president accused Newsom of pushing the country closer to civil war and said he would support the governor\u2019s arrest. \u201cI would do it,\u201d Trump said on June 9, after Newsom dared the White House to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a nice guy but he\u2019s grossly incompetent, everybody knows it,\u201d the president added. \u201cI don\u2019t want a Civil War. Civil War would happen if you left it to people like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

A federal appeals court has since upheld the president\u2019s right to maintain control over National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles to deal with anti-ICE protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America could be hurtling towards a second Civil War within the next decade as California edges closer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[93019,93022,12,93021,93020,659,26,20727],"class_list":{"0":"post-239148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-california-secession","9":"tag-identity-politics","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-political-polarization","12":"tag-us-civil-war-2","13":"tag-usa","14":"tag-world","15":"tag-world-war-3"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}