 "The Golden Gate Bridge stands in front of the San Francisco skyline in Sausalito, California. A new initiative to place a measure on the ballot that would ask Californian voters to approve the state's secession from the US has been greenlit for signature gathering. AFP")
Donald Trump wants to make Canada the 51st American state. He has eyes on Greenland. But amid all this, one state does not want to be part of the US. California wants to leave.
The idea of the Golden State becoming a country of its own is not new. It even became a nation for 25 days following the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 and celebrates it to this day.
But why does California want to leave the US? And is it possible?
What is Calexit, California’s plan to leave the US?
California has been part of the United States for 175 years. Now a new bid to secede from the country is gathering momentum.
A ballot initiative is asking voters if the state should become an independent country. It was cleared by the California Secretary of State’s office to start collecting signatures. According to Shirley Weber, the measure must receive more than 50,000 signatures by late July.
The proponent of the measure, Marcus Evans, must collect signatures of 546,651 registered voters (five per cent of the total votes cast for Governor in the November 2022 general election) for the measure to become eligible for the ballot, says a press note from Weber’s office released on January 23. It would place the following question on the November 2028 ballot: “Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?”
At least 50 per cent of registered voters are expected to participate in the election and 55 per cent have to vote “yes”. Once voters give a go-ahead, it would constitute “a vote of no confidence in the United States of America” and an “expression of the will of the people of California” to become an independent country. However, this would not change California’s current government or relationship with the United States, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Before the vote, California would need to create a 20-member state commission to study if the state is viable to be an independent country by 2027 and publish a report the next year. Fiscal analysis from the Legislative Analyst’s office estimates that this bid would cost California $10 million in terms of election expenditures and the formation of the commission. It would take $2 million annually to run the commission.
Can California break away from the US?
There is no legal way for California to secede from the US. The American Constitution has no such provision.
The California state constitution says that it “is an inseparable part of the United States of America”. It also says that the US Constitution is a supreme law of the land, which means that the state cannot supersede it.
Constitutional expert David A Carrillo, director of the California Constitution Center at UC Berkeley Law School, criticised the secession as impossible and unconstitutional.“Even if this [ballot measure] passes, there’s virtually no way it can result in California leaving the union,” he told ABC10.
Why does California want independence?
A survey by YouGov in February found that 29 per cent of Californians said they’d support seceding from the United States.
California, which is a Democratic state, is disgruntled with Donald Trump. And this is not the first time. A proposal for the state to secede came up after Trump’s election victory in 2016 – the one originally called Calexit, inspired by Brexit.
Evans, who was part of the initiative, feels that they have a better chance now than they did back then. He also spoke about Trump’s return to the White House despite two impeachments and federal prosecutions.
“We believe that now is the best time to Calexit - NOW we are better situated to make Calexit happen than in 2016,” Evans, who faces a deadline of July 22 to gather signatures for the bid, told CBS News.
Some Californians also believe that the wildfires have brought them together but they don’t feel close to the country. “If what I see coming down the pike from the current (Trump) administration, if it goes in the direction that I think it’s going to go, I think that seceding is something that needs to be considered,’’ Michael Bryant, 56, whose girlfriend’s house in Malinu was burned down, told _USA TODA_Y.
It doesn’t help that a recent Los Angeles Times survey found 48 per cent of Republicans believe California is “not really American”. Trump’s constant threat about putting conditions on aid for the Los Angeles Wildfires is disheartening. “They’re telling us they don’t see us as Americans, that’s why it’s okay to talk about cutting us off from funds when people are dead and homeless [from the wildfires],” Evans said.
According to Chris Micheli, a McGeorge School of Law professor and a California Capitol inside, Trump’s recent actions could help proponents of secession gather signatures. “I think a proposal like this becomes more mainstream and takes on more legs the more that Californians feel disenfranchised or otherwise at odds with what is going on at the federal level,” he was quoted as saying by ABC10.
Why is Trump a big concern for California?
Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of California, the most populous state in the US, and has been at loggerheads with Governor Gavin Newsom. The president is Republican, while the governor is an outspoken Democratic leader. Many Republicans considered California a failed state and while leaders put their differences behind them once they become presidents, Trump has had his reservations.
After the deadly wildfires that ravaged the state, Trump blamed the governor and accused him of neglecting water restoration efforts. In his first interview on Fox News, he labelled the California governor as “radical left” and said he looked “like an idiot” on immigration policy. He also repeated the false claim that firefighters had no access to water to douse the raging LA fires.
Newsom too has hit back at Trump, accusing him of fuelling “hurricane-force winds” of misinformation .
Trump and Newsom have also crossed paths over aid. During the Fox News interview, the president said, “I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down from the north to the south.”
Newsome probably knew what was coming. During Biden’s last few days in office, the state secured an unusual amount of emergency federal aid to cover the full cost of fire management and debris removal for 180 days when the standard immediate coverage is typically 75 per cent of those costs, reports The Guardian.
On 16 January, the California governor also wrote a letter to congressional leaders, “Our long national history of responding to natural disasters, no matter where they occur, has always been Americans helping Americans, full stop.”
There were tensions between Newsom and Trump’s transition team before the inauguration. They did not respond to a letter from the governor inviting the Republican leader to visit, reports CNN. Days after his inauguration, Potus and First Lady Melania decided to tour the areas ravaged by wildfires in Los Angeles. The White House did not invite Newsom to visit when Air Force One landed. Yet the governor showed up and it seemed like it was all in the past. Even Trump’s “Newscum” remark.
But there is too much history. Newsome has been critical of Trump’s Covid response in 2020. He was a big backer of Joe Biden and then put his weight behind Kamala Harris. And, the governor’s ex-wife was engaged to the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. She is still close to the First Family and is now set to serve as US ambassador to Greece.
Yes, it’s complicated. The Trump and California relationship might be rocky. But seems like there is no way out.
With inputs from agencies