Talk of Staten Island secession is back in the news. Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican congresswoman representing the borough and parts of southern Brooklyn, said that the migrant crisis should prompt Staten Islanders to break away from New York City entirely.
“If you’re not gonna do your job, mayor, then let Staten Island secede,” she said at a rally last week opposing a small shelter for asylum-seekers that city officials opened on the island. “We didn’t vote for your policies. We should not be subjected to your policies, and we’re gonna keep on turning out. Let Staten Island secede.”
It’s obviously a difference of scale, but the point I was trying to make is that both groups talk about secession because they don’t like specific policies that are affecting them in ways they don’t like, while seemingly ignoring the broader macro-scale problems that they would cause for themselves if they actually went through with it. (The article is specifically about these problems as they relate to Staten Island seceding from NYC.)