There are three major factions in Moonlitter politics: Pro-AW, who seek anything from closer ties to outright formal union with the Allied Worlds, Pro-Partisan, who are the same but for the Partisans, and Nationalists, who want both the AW and the Partisans off Moonlitter's tail.
The AW has mostly won the soft power game through its ubiquitous media presence. It's so pervasive that Commonthroat is starting to threaten Outlander as the most relevant language. The Partisans prefer the stick rather than the carrot, and border skirmishes are common. When Welkinstead tried graduating from soft power to hard power by signing a deal to establish a military outpost on one of Moonlitter's moons, the Partisans were less than pleased and started threatening to “retake” territory they claimed was rightfully theirs. This eventually lead to the glassing of Pilgrim's Rest.
Pilgrims' Rest was a stronghold of Nationalism. After the Partisan attack on their home, they decided that if they couldn't have an independent Moonlitter, they'd have an independent Pilgrims' Rest, which is why they founded Wayfarers' Haven as a city-state within the Spacer Confederacy.