By: Michael D. Jacobsen
Staff writer at Fighting the Tyranny
There have been many attempts to split the beast known as California into either a separate nation or into separate states. Many attempts have come and gone over the years, such as the Pico Act of 1859 or attempts from people in rural southern Oregon and Northern California to create the State of Jefferson. Yet support for some type of action regarding the future of California and the United States appears to be spreading and growing.
The two main plans that are currently going on are Calexit and a plan to split California into three states (CAL3). This is the second attempt for the Calexit plan, the first year it was tried the plan received a lot of bad publicity because it was revealed that the group’s leader, Louis J. Marinelli, was living in Russia. This led to the plan not getting enough signatures to advance the ballot that year. However, the main reason for the plan was because of peoples opposition to Donald Trump being elected as President. And again interest is showing. The plan needs to collect 366,000 signatures by mid-October to qualify for a special election in 2021. That is not the only hurdle to state independence.
First, California would need to change their own constitution which currently states that California is an inseparable part of the United States. Next, the actual matter of succession would also require an amendment to the United States Constitution, as there is currently no mechanism for a state to leave the union. Congress would need to not only change the constitution but then vote to allow California to leave. The other way for California to achieve independence would be by force. But that would be a very, very remote possibility.
The other plan that seems to be gaining a lot of traction is the idea to split California into three states, commonly referred to as CAL3. The proposal was submitted by Billionaire Timothy Draper, which is to divide California into three states, split evenly by population. These states would be known as North California, which would have such cities as San Francisco and Sacramento. South California, which would have cities such as San Diego and Fresno. And the last one just being called California, which would have Los Angeles. The argument for this move is because people feel that three smaller states would be better able to govern themselves and serve the people better. The debts and assets of the current state would be split equally among the three states.
The people supporting this measure claim that they have 600,000 signatures, though they only need 365,880 which would equal 5 percent of the votes that were cast for the Gubernatorial race in 2014. This would make it available to be voted on the November ballot. If approved by the people of California then it would also need Congressional approval to become a reality. This might be a problem as most lawmakers easily see would be that this has a good chance of creating four liberal Senators instead of two. While the odds are high that there would be two conservative Senators also created, I think many of them would not want to take the risk.
While there is momentum for California to change, I do not think that either proposal is very likely to go far. The push for succession will never really get off the ground. The people of California are just too complacent and realize that if they left the United States they would be forced to do all the work themselves. Something I cannot imagine them doing. As for CAL3, there does seem to be quite a bit of support behind this. I do not think the movement will be big enough to pass in its first time on the ballot. But if conditions stay as they are I can see this perhaps passing on the second try, whenever that may be.
In all, I do think these proposals might be a good sign for the future, not just for California, but for all of us. If the proposal to secede does go through, while I really doubt it will have a chance of getting through Congress. It would doubtless inspire more states to consider the same, Texas is the first one to come to mind.While it might not seem like much, the threat of states even considering leaving the union might well shake up Congress to consider serving the people it is supposed to represent a little better. The fear of losing the revenue of a large state could do that. Consequently the same could be said for a plan to split a state into smaller states. It shows that people are waking up to the idea that large government cannot meet the needs of the people. While its effect may not be as shocking to Congress as a call for succession, it may well remind them that people are once again turning away from the idea of bigger government being able to provide what they want.
While I am not fond of the current political policies of California, I do find it as a wonderful irony that their movement might actually benefit us all.
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