What began as a fringe political movement calling for California to secede from the United States has gained momentum in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump as president.
#Calexit began trending on social media on election night as it became increasingly clear that the Republican nominee had won. California, meanwhile, showed a marked disconnect with much of the rest of the country, going even more blue than in previous elections.
“The election has certainly given (the “Yes California Independence” campaign) the instant popularity that it lacked before,” said Sac State professor Thomas Clark, who teaches California history and American legal history.
The Yes campaign, which according to its website “advocate(s) for peaceful secession from the United States,” hopes to put a measure on the ballot in 2018 that, if passed, would begin the legal process to secede from the U.S.
“As the sixth largest economy in the world, California is more economically powerful than France and has a population larger than Poland. Point-by-point, California compares and competes with countries, not just the 49 other states,” the campaign website says.
However, “a peaceful secession” simply isn’t possible, according to Clark.
“If California were to claim a right to secede, I don’t imagine the federal government would sit idly by while California seized federal land and military bases. We have no military, after all, so we couldn’t put up much of a defense … The question of whether or not a state may unilaterally secede from the Union has already been decided by the US Supreme Court, and the answer was ‘no.’ ”
Despite doubts over the feasibility, the movement has already added high-profile Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to its ranks, including Hyperloop One founder Shervin Pishevar, who has become an advocate for “New California.”
“If Trump wins I am announcing and funding a legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation,” Pishevar tweeted on Nov. 8.
Pishevar has called his plan a “temporary withdrawal,” adding that California could reenter the U.S. at a later time.
Mark Brown, a professor of government at Sac State, compared the movement to proposals made by Northern states during the Civil War.
“(Calexit) makes me think of the 1850s — when William Lloyd Garrison and the Anti-Slavery Society of northern abolitionists, in their fight against slavery, argued that the best thing was to secede from the South. They had a motto: ‘no union with slaveholders,’ ” Brown said. “Frederick Douglass pointed out that that would do nothing at all for the slaves and that it was basically just an attempt of northern abolitionists to keep their own moral purity and keep their own hands clean. (Calexit) has similar problems.”
Clark also felt that secession isn’t a solution, adding that some problems would affect Californians regardless.
“Most of the things that are apparently prompting the current push — the anticipated policies of a President Trump — would still be problems. Global warming, for example, does not respect international, much less state, boundaries,” Clark said. “In other areas, we might not be affected by Trump policies, but our fellow Americans in the remaining states would still suffer from his policies, with the only difference being that we would no longer be able to do anything about it.”
Daniel Wilson contributed to this report.
Carma Chan • Nov 25, 2016 at 11:00 am
First of all, it is peacefully and legally possible for California to gain independence. To say that it can only be done violently is absurd. Any union can be dissolved amicably and fairly. California can purchase its freedom. The U.S. government owes California for 21 years of taking more than it has returned, using income tax revenue from Californians to subsidize corporate welfare and other states that are incapable of supporting themselves. As with any divorce settlement, lawyers can and will–if California voters agree to Calexit–hammer out the terms of agreement.
As for military, California can be as much of an ally to the U.S. as any other nation. If we do not want our children and resources to be spent on wars to control oil prices, we can abstain. If we agree that war is unavoidable and just, we can pitch in as much as we choose. We simply do not wish to be part of an oligarchy that is so obviously controlled by old dirty energy moguls and the industrial war complex.
Californians are passionate about moving forward. Many of us are no longer willing to wait and see, to try to work it out with a population that is obviously dominated by irrational fears; states that vote to force their religious fears on the federal justice system; states that refuse to make the move toward clean, renewable energy; and states that are comfortable denying science.
The majority of Californians are comfortable with equality, diversity, minding our own business (not forcing our fears on others), and new technology. To us, people who believe that God will punish their nation if they do not fight laws that allow a woman the right to decide what is best for her sanity and body; people who believe that God will punish their nation if they do not spend their tax dollars helping a certain group that shares a common thread in their religion; people who are superstitious and need a federal legal code that bans love between two consenting adults or treats those adults as inferior, irrelevant, or criminal–those same people should be glad at the thought of drawing the boundary of their nation so as to exclude California! For decades those very same people, who have allowed gluttony and greed to spread rampantly as if it is a Christian privilege, should beg their elected officials to expedite the Calexit issue so as to protect themselves from that wrathful God–the vast majority of Californians are NOT going to become like-minded, ever! We are sick and tired of your superstitions, your hypocrisy, your small-minded meddling into the lives of others, and we are unwilling to continue this toxic relationship. We will find a way. We will do it via civic and peaceful methods. Grow up, get real, and learn more than you already think you know.