A bit from a Wall Street Journal article raises a couple of rude questions in my pea brain, and a rude notice. California is beginning a more-or-less serious effort to secede from the union. The bit is this: the US would have to approve a constitutional amendment to allow a secession.
The questions are these: what would Californians think if the required amendment passed unanimously--or perhaps only with New York, Illinois, Washington demurring? What would Californians think if those States approving the amendment did so with enormous majorities?
The rude notice is this: California secession dreamers can begin collecting signatures to place a
nationhood proposal on the November 2018 ballot, after language for
the measure was approved this week by the state’s attorney general. Notice that: in California, the citizens are allowed to have only those referendum ballots whose political speech is approved by the California government; they don't get to vote on the things they think are important without Government oversight. What must California citizens think of that? Oh, wait....
Eric Hines
I stand ready to encourage my state government to ratify such an amendment.
ReplyDeleteStolen verbatim from a commenter in a FB group:
ReplyDelete"I saw something on this the other day. It said 'One out of three Californians support this, and nine of out ten Americans do.' "
I laughed out loud.
Think of the amazing ramifications- would hordes of leftist voters return to the promised land, freeing other state of their parasitical presence? Would California have its own internal civil war, as a new nation struggling to define itself? Who would the rebels seek to ally with? Would it become a Angola, with Cuban advisors VS American infiltrators? The possibilities go on and on.
ReplyDeleteIt simply won't occur. All the businesses would leave. They wouldn't get their Social security. All Federal monies would stop.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine the tariffs? The mind boggles.
Brexit happened, though, and people raised substantially similar arguments about that.
ReplyDelete"It simply won't occur. All the businesses would leave. They wouldn't get their Social security. All Federal monies would stop.
ReplyDelete"
Never assume for a second that this is logic driven....
They're jealous of Texas. Texans have been talking about secession off and on ever since the State joined the Union. People are all for it, right up to the point when it looks like something will actually happen, and then all the support evaporates.
ReplyDeleteI would expect California to be the same, except that they get their political news from the New York Times and the Washington Post, so they think they are personally being hit by the apocalypse. I actually saw a grown woman cry three weeks after the election over the outcome. And a month later, I heard a grown man say that he just might become politically active to get Trump impeached. I did not ask him to identify the high crime or misdemeanor he would cite.
Seriously, the rubes out here believe any old, damn thing the New York Times prints. They are provincial.
Valerie
ever since the State joined the Union.
ReplyDeleteUmm, ever since the Republic joined the Union and became a State. [/quibble]
Eric Hines
If California secession were voted on county-by county, it would not surprise me that, similar to the way votes were cast in 2016, coastal California would vote to secede and inland California would vote to remain.
ReplyDeleteResult: Southern California would be importing its water from another country. That might become problematic if inland CA now in the US decided to unilaterally increase the water tariff.
Let's not talk down this idea too much. We need to leave room for making this happen.
ReplyDeleteWe need to leave room for making this happen.
ReplyDeleteThere are no despicable voter suppression laws in California. No worries.
Eric Hines
At least they can't make fun of Texans seceding or Southern secession as much any more.
ReplyDeleteBut the problem with the previous civil war wasn't the secession. It was the culture and religious division. Incompatible cultures and religions tend to like wiping each other out in wars of self annihilation. It's a human hobby.
It was "treasonous" when Texans spoke of a Texit (I saw them say as much) and now it is "Cascadia or Bust!" with no sense of irony whatsoever. But I will maintain, such a move can only be good for both sides. Right now the Left and the Right are stuck in a marriage that neither is happy with, and the divisions between both are getting worse, not better. Indeed, very rarely does the Left and Right even speak to each other anymore except to shout insults or when they absolutely must. A divorce would do this nation (and a new "Cascadia" if they wished) a great deal of good.
ReplyDelete"Never assume for a second that this is logic driven...."
ReplyDeleteTHIS X 1,000,000.
Believe me, I'm surrounded by the legions of emoters.