Conor Friedersdorf in the LATimes writes a piece opposing “Calexit” – the proposed secession of California from the union.
Say what you will about the merits or problems with this idea – it’d remove the biggest single glob of “progressives” from the voter roles, and one of the most toxic gobs of unreformed pension debt from the future’s federal budget, both of which are huge wins.
But let’s not focus on the pros and cons of Calexit. Let’s focus instead, for the moment, on this paragraph from Friedersdorf:
Secession would not improve our values. But it would practically ensure that the rest of the U.S. would drift farther away from our laid-back tolerance and easygoing diversity
Laid-back tolerance:
“Laid-back tolerance” – Berkeley welcomes gay immigrant Milo Yiannopolous.
Easygoing diversity:
Easygoing diversity in action.
Do whatever you want, California – the US will in fact be better off without you all.
But try looking at yourself through the eyes of sane non-narcissists for a while. You might learn something.
If California secedes, the lack of Federal funds won’t sink them. We’d merely have to quit diverting water from the Colorado river to the state and it will, literally, dry up and blow away.
I spent the summers of 1994 and 1995 in Gullyforneea, and the thing that struck me was how awareness of the rest of the country pretty much skipped everything between Lost Wages and New Yawk. So the disconnect with reality runs really, really deep.
I am sorry, I must have missed something. What are the cons?
Night Writer, you are on the same wavelength as me, but I would continue to divert the water. It would just flow through meters and we’d tie the price of water to the price of gasoline in California.
Being as Mrs Clinton won the popular vote so big in Calipornia she’d be a logical queen of the new country. There would be very stiff competition,however, for court jester.
I’ve lived in SoCal. Pricing water at realistic, modern rates will lead to a massive adjustment in lifestyles. They waste so much water in residential areas it’s insane. But the whole idea of market pricing of water sold to a socialist state is appealing on sooooooo many levels!
The Calexit negotiations will be very interesting. How much of the national debt do they have to take? How will Social Security and Medicare work in New California and who will pay? How will the value of US government property in CA (public lands, public works like highways and damns, military bases, etc) be reimbursed?
As much as I would love to say goodbye to CA, I don’t see it happening when the residents of that asylum see the price tag. Even VT gave up its liberal blinders when the price of single payer heath care was actually presented. SP been a source of pride and prized goal right up until the actual price tag was calculated. See that’s the difference between being a state with a balanced budget requirement and a State without one.
If they leave…do we force them to take their share of the national debt? $2,500,000,000,000?
Or do we make a deal….we keep the current debt, but California citizens don’t get social security, military pensions, etc. That is a big unfunded liability we can get rid of.
I assume the US keeps control of military basis and national parks. US property.
I wonder if you’d see a big exodus of US companies (think retailers). California is a very had state to do business in now, but there are so many people that it is usually worth the hassle and added expense. But with an independent (and money short) California….well, think about what its like doing business in Venezuela.
There are other things, like diverting goods currently coming in and out of Long Beach, or California trucks on US interstate system. How much do we charge them? And hopefully this will end corporate welfare to Big Hollywood. Why are states paying Hollywood millionaires to film in their states?
Nerdbert….as I was typing….you said the same things. Damn, wish there was a delete button here.
How much of the national debt do they have to take?
I’d apportion it according to the number of electoral votes each state gets at the time it decides to cut the ties.
So from a electoral stand point if you take away Californias electoral votes is it possible for a Democrat to ever win the white house again?
also wouldn’t red states stand to inherit 35-40 of those congressional seats? and with the magic number down to… 269 I think (we’d be down 2 senators, or maybe throw DC a bone and give them one) we can get a lot of shit done.
If Cali leaves before the next Census, that might be the only way MN keeps its 8 Congressional Seats.
As to reimbursement for Federal Property, I wouldn’t worry too much. Just build a wall around Cali, let in implode (probably a combined Cat 7 Smug Storm resulting from a convergence of SAG Award Speeches and San Fran City Council Bloviating) and in about 20 years re-annex it. Then sell the new land cheaply to settlers willing to move in and build something from the ruins.
POD, taking Cali out of the mix makes it a new game. I wouldn’t say a Democrat wouldn’t ever be elected again, but the reprobate wing would be toast.
Cali is full of BS, I know the experience first hand, I witness this very first hand (I was in the power business and watched it all), started with referendum, and then they broke their power companies. That was where mom and dad invested retirement money for safe and secure return, gone in a heart bear. Government caps retail and forces wholesale to float expecting a panacea!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis
Scott Hughes on February 8, 2017 at 11:21 pm said:
Cali is full of BS
Oh yeah. I don’t live in Cali, but a lot of my paycheck comes from the UC system.
Why should it stop at California? If California can quit the Union (and California was one of the most zealous defenders of the Union at the time of the Civil War), why can’t Northern California divorce Southern California? Why can’t the central valley split off and join up with Utah, Nevada, and Colorado? The hillbillies who live in the mountains around Sacramento don’t have much in common with the movie people of Hollywood.
I’m channeling Lincoln’s thought on secession. Once you agree that secession is okay on principle, how do you stop regions from seceding whenever it is convenient for its political leaders to secede? How can you make a nation when it is constantly fracturing and reassembling?
You ARE channeling Lincoln. He viewed America as one vast nation stretching from sea to shining sea. That was NOT how the Founders saw it. They saw America as the EU – a collection of independent states having their own regional interests and solutions, with a wispy thin federal mosquito netting tossed over the top to provide a common currency, deliver the mail, defend the borders, etc. There’s nothing in the Constitution making statehood a one-way street as the USSR insisted communism was. We already have gaps in the nation (foreign consulates and Indian reservations) so we could learn to accommodate states leaving the union if we were committed to the original goal.
The United States version 1.0 ended in 1861 when one group of states attacked another group of former states. The United States version 2.0 shares the same name but a radically different vision of the relationship between the states and the federal government.
I would argue The United States version 2.0 was mortally wounded by FDR’s New Deal and killed by LBJ’s Great Society. We’re living in version 3.0 right now, in which the states are merely historical artifacts, dominated by the federal government, a complete reversal of the original idea.
Disturbingly, version 1.0 lasted about 75 years; version 2.0 was mortally wounded after 70 years but lingered a few decades longer; version 3.0 is already more than 50 years old and showing significant signs of stress. Calexit may be the canary in the coal mine.
why can’t Northern California divorce Southern California?
Tim Draper tried to do exactly that last year. And how about divorcing NYC/Long Island from NY? NYC has nothing in common with upstate NY, much like valley with Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
as a technical native Californian (born there, moved to MN in 1990 at 4) that state never ceases to amaze me. Interesting fact outside of LA and SF most of the state is pretty red. San Diego has a gay Republican mayor I believe. There are pockets of insanity though and would never, ever, move back. Good vacation spot though
also, for anyone who is a football fan, fuck Dean Spanos with a rusty crowbar