Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/27/calexit-aims-to-amend-californ.html
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The Rebel State of California, that’s what I proudly call it.
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There is something deeply wrong with all these *exit initiatives. They all defend some particularistic sentiment that basically boils down to right-wing nationalism.
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Yes California? The “Californian” movement run by some guy in Moscow? Thanks but no thanks! Suspending the US Constitution here sounds particularly NOPE. http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/12/13/from-his-home-in-russia-calexit-leader-plots-california-secession/
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Resistance by California over the next four years will be fine and effective and necessary – it’s a big island of sanity in a sea of crazy. Efforts toward separatism*, however, are a waste of effort and resources that will ultimately only benefit Putin and his orange-furred pet.
[* especially those led by an anti-LGBTQ right-wing bigot living in Russia, per @kath2cats]
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I’m kind of inclined to agree with you? But just want to note that I think in this case, it’s a particularist sentiment that doesn’t want to be associated with right wing nationalism. It’s seeking to avoid that, I think and to stake out something different than could be seen as along the lines of nationalism of some variety, but a much more amorphous, open-ended definition of what it means.
This. And exiting the country does nothing to help, I totally agree with that. It abandons the rest of the country, including other seas of sanity that do exist out here. Let’s not forget that the US government still has the military and a state attempting to break away could mean that the use of the military in the US won’t apply in that case. California breaking away would cause a lot more problems then it could fix.
Also, this is something that the elites of Silicon Valley have been pushing for over recent years.
Also, also… did you see this?
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I don’t think secession or nullification talk helps anybody, but I really can’t wait to hear all the Texas elected officials who are so happy to spout “don’t mess with Texas” secessionist rhetoric lose their minds that the libruls are now doing the same thing.
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Yeah, read it a couple of days ago. It’s another form of conspicuous consumption for those with more money than sense. Spending millions of dollars in anticipation of living for months* in a metal tube underground with other selfish and short-sighted wealthy people is not a genius move.
[* months, because that’s how long the hillbilly thugs guarding the bunker will be able to wait before killing or enslaving the residents]
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The had better start building those desalination plants and zeroscaping. Also, they should ramp up their energy production. Right now, 33% of electricity in Ca is imported, and the vast majority of electricity generated inside Ca comes from natural gas, of which they import 95%. No doubt much of the imported electricity and water would still be available upon Calexit, but the price might go up.
On the other hand, if Ca did manage some measure of water and energy independence, it would be a great example for the world.
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Discount the possibility of Calexit at your own peril. If you think this thing won’t grow legs then you haven’t been paying attention. As for helping out the rest of the U.S., fuck’em. Most of the population below the Mason-Dixon line are recidivists. Let them off. As for the rest, move to California after independence (should happen by the second year of Trump’s second term).
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Though, to be fair, people voting to separate California are explicitly voting to abandon the rest of the country. That’s kind of the point.
I honestly don’t know what to think about separations and exits and everything. I didn’t like Brexit because it was driven by racism, but I didn’t really know the arguments beyond that. For a Californian secession, I wonder what the issues really are. The whole “we pay out more than we take in” thing is bullshit. But the real question is the USA a useful construct for it’s citizens? I find it hard to blame people for thinking the answer is no.
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No. I can understand the impulses behind this movement. They feel like they have been betrayed by the voters in other places. I feel that way, too. That they voted against a woman specifically, against a workable economy, against immigrants, against LBGQT rights, against women’s rights generally, against science, against democracy, ultimately. But I also think that there is a lot of frustration out there, which drove the vote, too. Some of that frustration is about changing race and gender dynamics, which I have no sympathy with. But some of it is about the economy. And some of it is about feeling talked down to by the “coastal elites” who they feel lecture and don’t actually SEE what’s been happening in their lives.
If the nation-state has become the problem, dissolving everything out of anger does little to ameliorate the actual problems that exist. It’s just the creation of a new entity that will run along the same lines (but in a neo-liberal, globalization fashion, rather than in the direction if isolationism). California itself has deep red pockets and pretty strong economic inequality itself, of course. All we have to do is look at the problems in a city like San Fransisco or at Silicon Valley or Hollywood for that matter, to see extreme wealth and poverty juxtaposed. All the problems we’re blowing up over will still exist in an independent California.
So… I don’t know. I understand the feeling (I often feel the same about the ATL and the rest of GA). But I think the path forward needs to include mutual understanding and trying to solve the rural and urban issues together, not to build walls against the perceived enemies. Easier said than done, of course. But nothing worth doing is easy, I think.
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The separations and exits have been happening for a while now, just with individuals on a mass scale instead of entire states. Every state has its liberal cities or college towns, and I’ve lost count of the number of Internet posters describing how at age 18 they left their dying, bigoted small towns and suburbs for the city and never looked back. The U.S.'s broken and outmoded and deliberately sabotaged electoral mechanisms haven’t kept up with the “Big Sort”, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to break up the country.
For example, California could solve a lot of this supposed “cultural disconnect” problem by allocating its electoral college votes according to the state’s popular vote and using its clout to demand that this become a national standard. That reform alone would have given us a different outcome in November and would have reminded Californians that there are a lot of other sane Americans, even in “flyover country.”
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FWIW, without Cali, the rest of us liberal scum in other states will have a harder time STOPPING the tide of bullshittery. I’m all for CA straining at the leash, but if it goes its own way, that’ll suck for CA and for the rest of America. We need them with us.
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Same shit they say here in Texas. Except now that Trump is our fearless leader, that has kind of quieted down.
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I eagerly await the calls of treason against California legislators that mysteriously never were applied to Texans.
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If CA breaks away, then maybe OR and WA would join them?
I live in MA and if the nation breaks up maybe we can create a new country composed of the New England states (and maybe NY … yea, NY can come with us). But can we kick out NH?
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Power and water are definitely an issue. On the other hand, a huge amount of that goes to agriculture, which I would wager is as much or more in demand to the other states.
They also have a lot of tech geniuses and a lot of engineers. I don’t know if I’d put money down on it, but I think it’s definitely possible they could gain independence from others easier than others could gain independence from them.
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