As President Donald J. Trump aims to grab Greenland, make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., regain control of the Panama Canal, and allow Puerto Rico its independence (with Bad Bunny’s support), quite a few Californians are ‘dreaming’ of grabbing the state out of the Union.
So much grabbing, so little time. Where is Billy Bush’s ‘Access Hollywood’ clip when Californians need to be reminded of it?
The state’s independence sentiment is evident in a recent poll by the San Diego-based and ironically named Independent California Institute, stating more than 60 percent of Californians agree that they “would be better off if California peacefully seceded from the U.S. at some point in the next 10 years.” The controversial poll found substantial majorities “want California to form a commission dedicated to secession; to use its border stations to check incoming autos for drugs, guns and other contraband; to seek ownership of federally owned land, and use hardball tactics in Congress, such as withholding votes on the federal budget to press for independence.”
But it will not be easy to turn this ever politically evolving land (i.e. Nueva España in 1535, Nueva California in 1804, Alta California in 1822, and finally the state of California on September 9th, 1850) into potentially ‘Nueva y Mejorada California’ (New & Improved California) any time soon. The Calexit movement is trying to get the 546,651 signatures needed by July 22nd to put the following secession question on the California ballot. “Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?”
Dime cuándo, cuándo, cuándo.
If it makes it on the ballot and passes by at least 55 percent, “it would mean Golden State residents have issued a vote of no confidence in the United States. A formal statement that they want California to become an independent country,” per the Calexit campaign.
However, what makes these insurgent rebels believe Latinos would not want to take back the state and have it rejoin the ‘Estados Unidos Mexicanos’ since many claim that California was stolen from México as a result of President Polk’s war provocation?
Californians may be yearning for a “back to the future” moment when the California Republic, or the Bear Flag Republic, briefly formed an unrecognized breakaway state from México in 1846. It didn’t last long, though.
A band of 33 idealistic American immigrants, who ironically entered the Mexican territory of Alta California sans documents, rebelled against the barely existing presence of the Mexican government and declared the establishment of a separate country, the California Republic. For 25 glorious days these gringo rebels militarily controlled most of Sonoma County until the California Battalion of the U.S. military took charge on July 5th, 1846. The federal troops took down the rebels’ bear flag and ran up the U.S. flag in its place.
The irony: A breakaway attempt from México by local gringos was quelled by federal gringos.
Today’s resentment mirrors that time. Only this time, the ‘federales’ represent President Trump’s Republican-controlled U.S. Congress while local state rebels represent the totally Democrat dominated California Legislature. Somehow it reminds me of ‘The Alamo,’ only this time California hopefuls believe the ending will be different.
There have been multiple attempts to break up or breakaway the State of California… an impressive 220 efforts and counting, more numerous than the 174 years we have been officially a state. One movement to breakup the state predates California’s statehood by just a month when in August 1850 a man named Haraszthy proposed that the state (to be) be split into two states, a northern half named California and a southern half named Colorado. This was 26 years before the State of Colorado, we know today, came into existence. The proposal went so far as to be introduced in the U. S. Senate by Mississippi Senator Henry S. Foote in 1850, where the measure was defeated by a vote of 33 to 23.
In 1941, a rebellion begun among the counties along each side of the California and Oregon border declared their independence from both states to form the State of Jefferson. Yreka, California was to be the Jefferson State capital and John Childs, a Del Norte California judge, was quickly elected governor. The momentum for this drive to statehood came to a dead stop, however, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and our nation united to fight our foreign foes in World War II.
The movement experienced resurrection by a rancher and former Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputy named Mark Baird in 2013, when he got the Siskiyou Board of Supervisors along with nine other counties to push for secession once again. Baird has since endorsed the “Greater Idaho Movement,” a new plan for the proposed State of Jefferson counties to secede from California and Oregon and join Idaho. Stay tuned for that!
Oh, and there was Tim Draper, a Silicon Valley billionaire venture capitalist, who singularly wrote and personally funded a measure, Proposition 9, that would break up the state into three states. The initiative met the qualifications to be on the 2018 November ballot, but was stopped by a ruling of the California State Supreme Court due to ‘significant questions’ as to whether the measure had the power to abolish the state constitution.
And finally, in the late 1970s, a novel, Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach, envisioned Northern California, Oregon, and Washington forming their own country with its own social order including healthcare for all, an emphasis on local governance, a focus on environmental sustainability, and the development of highly imaginative technology to keep foes away. Some want the entire west coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) to leave the U.S. for Canada as a new province of our northern neighbor.
So far, secession has been a bad bet, but perhaps the time has finally come.
California is the fifth largest economy in the world and grew 6.1 percent in 2023, year over year. We have a massive agricultural industry that feeds most of the U.S. along with our own 40 million resident consumers. Distributing it all through our huge sea ports for Pacific Rim trade, our several international airports for world trade, and our legacy highway system for land trade with the United States and Mexico. The capitals of technology, in Silicon Valley, and entertainment, in Hollywood, give us innovation and cultural gravitas that is the envy of the world. Tourism abounds here with the original Disneyland and other theme parks and world-class events such as the Rose Parade in Pasadena, along with natural scenic locations such as Yosemite, and, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney.
Although we have good relations with all our land neighbors (Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and Mexico), militarily, California has the infrastructure for land, sea and air bases if necessary for our defense. However, all of these powerful resources that could serve as a foundation to launch a nation, are also powerful reasons that the United States would never give us our independence.
Why is it different this time around?
Well, it is the first time, maybe the second time if you count Trump’s first term, that California has been singled out and directly targeted by an executive branch hell-bent on harming our state. Some of the flurry of 87 Executive Orders issued by Trump in less than two months in the White House pose specific challenges to California. Trump has stated “I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.”
Even research projects at Pasadena’s Caltech are threatened with being defunded. Cuts at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have put in jeopardy the 174 active projects at Caltech funded by the NSF totaling $220 million dollars and another 129 active projects and subprojects funded by the NIH at Caltech, exceeding $90 million dollars. Consequently, Caltech is “avoiding new commitments that create financial risk for the Institute, or that draw unnecessarily from our unrestricted funds,” per The California Tech.
All of which is making Caltech, specifically, and Californians, in general, experience ‘abandonment issues.’
As it pertains to the L.A. wildfires, Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down.” Subsequently, he ordered the floodgates of two Northern California reservoirs to be opened, threatening the survival of endangered fish and, even as vital, threatening the survival of Central California farms that rely on that water during the dry season.
A natural disaster and an economic disaster all due to Trump’s misconception that the L.A. wildfires were caused by a lack of water in Southern California. That’s a notion debunked shortly after the fires began but still believed by many.
Another Executive Order undoes our state’s aggressive emission standards, slowing our transition to electric vehicles – hello Tesla – I guess in President Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk found a ‘frenemy.’
Other Executive Orders revoke birthright American citizenship, increase ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) raids, ban sanctuary cities and prevent the undocumented from accessing government services, which potentially impacts 1 in 4 California residents born outside of the United States.
That all makes this gringo wonder: Why did California and Texas Latinos vote for Trump? Even with his anti-immigrant rhetoric Trump won the Mexican-American vote hands down.
However, California was already prepared for this onslaught of hate with a special session of the California Legislature convened by Governor Gavin Newsom to “safeguard California values” and approve funding for the state’s Department of Justice, and other agencies, to “immediately file affirmative action litigation.” In other words, California set aside $50 million dollars to fight Trump’s policies in court, policies that the governor and a majority of the state legislature consider to be harmful to Californians.
The resulting legislation from the special session was passed by the California Legislature and signed into law by Newsom on February 7th. It is unprecedented for the state to preemptively dedicate funding to fight what is perceived to be an openly hostile executive branch of the U.S. government… but here we now are.
However, successfully petitioning for secession is problematic. Texas v. White, a Supreme Court decision after the Civil War, held that states have no right to unilaterally secede, but theorized that a state might secede through “revolution or consent of the states.”
It appears to be less of a long shot due to Trump’s overt provocations against the interests of Californians, but still a long way off once we acknowledge the state’s past and California’s future challenges.
It makes one wonder when a 21st Century ‘Zorro’ will make an appearance to save Californians from an oppressive government.
Once again, dime cuándo, cuándo, cuándo.
