Sacramento, I Want a Divorce

The ‘Secession Move’ Californians Really Need

By Hinton Bowers


Summer is fast approaching and now that our tummies are sculpted and legs toned, it’s time for break-up season! As a resident of California, I’ve heard a lot of talk about #Calexit for months now following the November election:

I However, do not favor Federal Secession at this time.

California’s Secession Battle flag (Unofficial)

I’m really not interested in humoring temper tantrums. If there were some deep, principled argument being put forward by the liberty minded people of this state, I would feel more sympathetic;

but, let’s not pretend or hope that Calexit is about anything other than…

“I didn’t get my way, so I need a safe space!”

Breaking from The Union, and it’s constitutional protections for the individual (shaky as those rights may be these days), would be the wrong move for California residents. Were secession to pass: between Governor ‘Moonbeam’ and Commissar Feinstein, every non-conformist living in the state would probably be rounded up by SJW storm troopers and interned in ‘pelican bay’ by the end of the year. Would you trust them to draw-up your constitutional charter? To be your new Washington or Jefferson?

F*ck no, you wouldn’t.

The Constitution doesn’t directly mention unilateral secession, but it’s worth noting that the Supreme Court has ruled it to be illegal in the Texas v. White case; then a few years later, seems to contradict itself in Williams v. Bruffy. So who knows!

However, legal secession is clear, though highly improbable; it’s possible by amending the constitution.

In order for Californian secession to ‘prevail’, here’s what we would need:

  • The Calexit referendum needs to pass and be signed into law. (But we’re not done yet…)
  • A two-thirds vote would also be needed by each US Congressional branch.
  • Or, a special constitutional convention could be formed by all 50 states for this specific purpose, where it would require a two-thirds vote in order to ratify California’s intent to secede.

So ‘dream on’, because a state vote for secession only begins the process of removal, it’s basically DOA…

But the Calexit movement is right about one thing:

Californians do need to secede; but from Sacramento instead.

Of course: I’m a HUGE fan of decentralization; with localization, people can correctly identify problems, and have a stronger impact on their communities; but more importantly, they would have control over their own lives and choices.

What are you to do though, when your state government is too centralized as well?

A past plan for six California states.

For those who may live outside of our ‘great commonwealth’, or for the locals who may not be aware: every few years a proposition is put forward to divide the state of California into several individual states. Though still linked to the federal government; this division would give every state it’s own charter, governor, congress, tax base, and electoral votes.

Now we’re talking! With this measure, every local community could go their own way, and decide their own fate (and have MUCH more impact on federal elections as well… their votes wouldn’t be taken for granted anymore.)

It’s really a ‘win win’ all around. (Of course heavy population centers object to this every time, because they want to have ‘your share’ of the electorate as well as their own…)

Personally, I’ve voted for this ‘break-up’ with Sacramento every single time the ‘prop’ (as we call them) has been on the ballet; and every single time I’ve watched the measure ‘crash and burn’ in spectacular fashion.

But now that secession is ‘hot’ again. It’s time for the majority of Californians to vote for this proposal instead: it’s time to break-up California.

California is not a community, its population is larger and more diverse than many countries in the world; with needs and opinions that vary greatly, it’s communities battle each other over ‘social issues’ and ‘resource allocation’ all the time. From the rural farmers in the central valley who need water for agriculture, to the urban denizens of Los Angeles who want to ‘protect the environment’; there are many blue, but also several red counties here. For many Californians, our elected officials rule from 400 miles away, so they might as well be in Washington, or on the surface of the moon…

I get it, a federal exit sounds sexy. Debating #Calexit is hot! But it’s local government that directly impacts your life as a citizen, and the state of California is not local enough for the people who live here

The current California government is not democratic at all. It’s terrible at representing it’s own people, literally. When you look at the ratio of representative to resident in the California state house, it’s undeniably the worst in the union:

CA 488,000 to 1 vs. NH 2,006 to 1

The Russian Duma has a better rate of representation per citizen than California does…

Of course, there’s also the matter of personal citizenship. Does California have ‘the right’ to force me to renounce my US citizenship, and adopt their new ‘social contract’ because of my zip code? Even if I won’t vote for it? Or agree with anything they’re doing? I don’t believe they have that right.

On the bright-side, however, it’s very possible, even inevitable, that a federal ‘secession move’ by California would lead to the immediate break-up of the state, due to the differences listed above.

West Virginia came about that way…

Then Hinton, if you support decentralization, why don’t you support #calexit!

Why would Californians want to trade one ‘centrally planned’ state for what could easily become a more controlling ‘centrally planned’ nation run by people who live hundreds of miles away?

I also have many concerns about post-succession. It would be a logistical nightmare severing from the Federal Government, both in practicality and Ideology. Who’s to say that Gov. Jerry Brown or whoever the new ‘premiere’ of the California Republic is: doesn’t impose martial law to keep order? Or suspend representation all together? (Social democracies, of which Calexit would almost certainly draw inspiration from, have an awful track record when it comes to actual democracy. Because, their end goal is socialism; and a silly thing like voting just gets in the way of that…)

I’d rather Californians vote for our local communities from the beginning, and divide the state into manageable clusters where the citizens can have an actual say in the way they are governed, not vote for some ‘Californian nation-state’.

Consider the critical impact that your community has on you; with the adequate amount of representation you would have a real say in how these important local services are implemented:

  • How many local taxes are to be collected? How will they be used?
  • What kind of policing do you want in your community?
  • How will you bring power to the community? Coal? Wind? Nuclear?
  • Welfare: Who gets help? Under what conditions?
  • What’s being taught to your kids in Public school? Private? Charter?
  • Waste disposal?
  • Red-light cameras?
  • The list goes on, and on…

Whether these services should be privatized or not, the point is that they’re all tasked and completed LOCALLY; and ALL of them have a MASSIVE impact on your quality of life. A #Calbreakup would be the best way to begin a positive change statewide towards enfranchisement of the electorate; by having them take back their power through local control. (perhaps this could eventually spread nationwide also, as people begin to see the effects of better representation in the ‘new states’.)

It saddens me that there aren’t more Libertarians and Ancaps pushing for #Calbreakup instead of Calexit; as I believe the move would be closer to our values long term. This really feels like a case where it’s better to take ‘two leaps of faith’ at once, rather then one leap ‘off-track’. It’s Calbreakup or nothing for me, as I’d rather live a federal-ish structure, than a quasi-fascist state.

But, considering that two-thirds of California doesn’t support federal secession; and that one of the current leaders of the Calexit movement was exposed this week for being a potential Russian agent (Seriously, that’s what they’re reporting); a federal ‘secession move’ will probably remain a ‘California Dream’ for many years if not decades to come.

So hit the beach Mr. and Mrs. California, secure in the knowledge that you have a 488,000 to 1 say in your future…

Can I get a “Hip, hip, Hurray!” for California?

 

2 Replies to “Sacramento, I Want a Divorce”

  1. Secession doesn’t appear in the federal Constitution because the document isn’t a retraining document to the states. It is the States delegated authority for a few areas. The 10th amendment clarifies: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

  2. I agree with Steve, speaking from a Constitutional standpoint the states RESERVED all powers for themselves that they did not delegate to the central government. Secession (as stated in the Declaration of Independence) is a power that the states have and may exercise.

    Jefferson addresses this in his correspondence with Madison regarding the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions:

    “Fully confident that the good sense of the American people and their attachment to those very rights which we are now vindicating will, before it shall be too late, rally with us round the true principles of our federal compact; but determined, were we to be disappointed in this, to sever ourselves from that union we so much value, rather than give up the rights of self government which we have reserved, & in which alone we see liberty, safety & happiness.”

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