California Independence Campaign

[Wolfenium]

Absolutely not. Secession is treason. Shit like this is exactly why I oppose Catalan Independence, it encourages other fringe movements based around independence for the lulz without any real need or serious grievances.

Your indignation didn't deter the Scots from trying.

Well, the referendum was done with approval from the UK government, who somewhat rightly assumed it would tank. Unfortunately, even with the victory, they've opened a can of worms that had torn Scotland in two, and the SNP have proven to be very sore losers.

[Second Blazing]

Absolutely not. Secession is treason. Shit like this is exactly why I oppose Catalan Independence, it encourages other fringe movements based around independence for the lulz without any real need or serious grievances.

Your indignation didn't deter the Scots from trying.

And I think those who did are fucking idiots. The British army isn't gunning down Scots in the streets. They aren't suffering from political or religious persecution. Their civil liberties aren't beig denied to them. It's just a bunch of people who saw get hard ones watching Braveheart.

[The Hobbesian Metaphysician]

Frankly once the bombs kill everyone there won't be any need for secession.

Embrace the inevitability of your demise to prevent the suffering of carbon based organisms people.

[Pope Joan]

Just make them pay a fair market price for all that imported water.

And remove the naval and air bases.

[Lady Scylla]

There is currently an effort by an organization by the name of Yes California to campaign for California's independence from the United States. This movement is on the move as they already have a candidate running for the 80th State Assembly District of the California National Party. Their reasons are plentiful but here are a few:

1. California pays excess sums of money to the federal government every FY and a lot of that money gets redistributed to other states instead of California. thus meaning less money for California's projects.
2. The state has some of the worst infrastructure in the nation but pays more in taxes than what it gets back.
3. The federal government allows certain companies like Nestle to extract water from California with permits that are expired and pay an annual fee of only about $500, and we are in a drought.
4. If taxes were kept in California it could fund the infrastructure projects we desperately need and other things such as unversal healthcare and free college education for all high school graduates.
5. California can implement a guest worker program to allow lawful immigration for those wanting to immigrate to California thus solving much of the illegal immigration problem.
6. California has rarely ever swayed a presidential election one way or the other.

An excerpt from the main page of their website:

"California is not a state. It is a nation lacking only the recognition from the international community that would make it a country. This campaign is about seeking that international recognition for our future country of California. Inspired by the people of Catalonia and other independence-seekers around the world, we intend to achieve our independence from the United States through honest referendum on the California ballot. The United States for decades has supported the right of self-determination for people around the world and we intend to hold them to their word here in California.

Why?

California was militarily annexed in 1846 and forced to join the Union in 1850. Since then California has grown significantly and has become the seventh largest economy in the world and the home of nearly forty million people. Additionally, California is a global center of innovation and technology, and a global leader in the fight against climate change. California has got what it takes to be the world's newest independent republic.

Beyond that we citizens of the United States are living in a post-constitutional era. The United States government is spying on its own people and militarizing our local police forces. We have seen presidents from both political parties use executive orders to circumvent the law, we have seen the Supreme Court rule that corporations can buy our elections, and we have seen the Congress capitulate its authority to the ever-growing imperial presidency. We have seen the Internal Revenue Service politicize the tax code, the National Parks Service mismanage our forests, the Environmental Protection Agency deny us access to our own water, and a justice system that continues to mass incarcerate our people, particularly the poor who cannot afford adequate legal representation. At the same time, our national debt has surpassed $18 trillion dollars even though the federal government is receiving record tax revenues, and our Nation's credit rating has been reduced for the first time in our history.

Where is all the money going? Not to our homeless, nor our sick. Not to our poor, nor our students. Not to our roads, nor our drought. Yet there are more than 100,000 homeless in California today, our country can't afford to provide universal health care like most other countries, there are people working forty hours a week and living in poverty, students are graduating under a mountain of debt, our roads are deteriorating, and our drought persists. At least the rich are getting richer and we might get to pick between the Clinton and Bush families for the next president. America is a mess and in decline.

Californians cannot trust the President, the Congress, or the Supreme Court to solve our problems. We cannot trust our financial institutions to engage in fair and ethical market practices. We cannot trust corporations to allow fair competition in the free market. We cannot even trust our own federal delegates to Washington to represent our needs. It is time to turn the page and write a new chapter in the story of California.

This new story is based upon the principle of the right of self-determination: that the people have the right to determine their own destiny. California's destiny lies in a future independent of the turmoil facing the United States. California's destiny lies in a future as a country that leads the world as it does today. The world looks to California for its leadership and California now looks to the world for recognition of its independence."

Feel free to express your whole opinion about is best for California. I would recommend reading the book to obtain a full perspective.

http://www.yescalifornia.org/
Book: http://www.yescalifornia.org/cf_2016
https://www.facebook.com/VoteCNP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH_dEnZCU1o

You know, generally when I read an OP, I expect to be a little enlightened. Maybe I'll learn something new, or learn something that might change or alter my opinion. Maybe it'll have good points, or a compelling argument that gets me all tingly, so that I may experience a plethora of thoughts and visualisations. But that depends on the attitude of the writing, this reads off as a bit stand-offish and as-a-matter-of-factly, and I really don't care for that level of snobiness.

[Wallenburg]

No. I say this as a Californian.

Well, maybe if Trump becomes president.

i support the full secession of all 50 states into another unified country if donald trump is elected.

^This

[Parhe]

California join voluntarily. They declared independence and then after Mexico lost the Mexican-American War, California decided to join the US. They became a state as a result of the Compromise of 1850.

No, not really.

[Costa Fierro]

And how would we instate a Constitutional Monarchy? Are you talking about one of the Californio families? I can't picture too many people signing up for that. Especially considering no one in the Californio families holds any power or has for a century, and are barely know by anyone anymore.

King Arnold of the House of Schwarzenegger.

[TheDrunkenLlamas]

Your indignation didn't deter the Scots from trying.

And I think those who did are fucking idiots. The British army isn't gunning down Scots in the streets. They aren't suffering from political or religious persecution. Their civil liberties aren't beig denied to them. It's just a bunch of people who saw get hard ones watching Braveheart.

If your standard for government tyranny is 'gunning people down in the streets' then you have a very skewed view of government overreach.

[Stormwrath]

I thought US states can't leave the union, ever. :/

[Herargon]

To my eyes the differences between Rotterdam and Amsterdam, -or for Anglophones - the differences between London and Liverpool are larger than the differences between California and the rest of the USA. They may call themselves proud, but it's rather absurd to call California a country on its own.

The points OP states are essentially attention seeking - especially point 6 - from the Californian Independendists. Now you ask me, why - because they find they pay too much? So does every richest state in a country! It's nothing of a good reason. Besides, do Californians want to make their own country that much smaller and less proud by becoming independent, and thus making the US go from #1 to possibly #2 or even lower, with the precedent that follows? The US is a country composed of fifty states, not fifty states and a federal government. They aren't a confederacy. They are a federation.

In a federation, a state already gets so much freedom to decide for himself - yet some people want independence.

Another point; if I were to be very honest, the infrastructure of California is certainly better than that of Belgium, I think. People always drove over the border from the Netherlands to Belgium and fell in sleep. When they drove over the actual border, always, they could feel the 'bump' from going to a smooth to a bad road.

The guest worker plan sounds good, and I think it can work in the US, where immigration is part of the identity. But yet I think that that idea won't work. The guest workers should have to assimilate or at least integrate. The current social conflicts we have in Europe come as a result of aging and a previously non-assimilationist/integrationist policy. I wish you good luck.

Anyways, I'm not really worried for now. Let's look whether the Americans of California are supportful enough of their own country to want to help their other states.

[Ifreann]

The idea of an independent California is stupid one you will have marines navy army and the army running through the streets,along with loyal Americans running guerrilla operations against California if not the US will cut off fresh water going into California and blockade them then deprive them of supplies until they rejoin the union so just stay in the union to save time money and US lives.

Why would any US troops be running through the streets of an independent California that peacefully seceded with permission from Congress?

Also the majority of California is made up of gun hating brain dead liberals

It's rude to call people brain dead.

so unlike Texas they could never success fully succeed
because at least texas alone can fight the US head on for a year or so.
Reasons why:
Texas are patrotic to the US and texas
Own a lot of guns
Fort Hood(Thats also a down fall for texas too)

Holding out for a year, even if Texas could do that, is hardly sufficient to defeat the US military and force them to accept Texan independence.

---

Just make them pay a fair market price for all that imported water.

And remove the naval and air bases.

Removing them would be difficult. Be easier to just remove the really cool, top secret stuff they got from the Moon people and then sell the rest to California.

---

I thought US states can't leave the union, ever. :/

They can't unilaterally secede, and no state has ever left the union, but there's nothing to say that they can't ever do so.

[Alvecia]

Urgh, no. It would makes the maps of North America look awfully untidy.
Alaska already annoys me.

[Farnhamia]

The idea of an independent California is stupid one you will have marines navy army and the army running through the streets,along with loyal Americans running guerrilla operations against California if not the US will cut off fresh water going into California and blockade them then deprive them of supplies until they rejoin the union so just stay in the union to save time money and US lives.
Also the majority of California is made up of gun hating brain dead liberals so unlike Texas they could never success fully succeed
because at least texas alone can fight the US head on for a year or so.
Reasons why:
Texas are patrotic to the US and texas
Own a lot of guns
Fort Hood(Thats also a down fall for texas too)

*** Warned for trolling. ***

[San Lumen]

It would never happen. A state cannot leave the union.

[Ifreann]

It would never happen. A state cannot leave the union.

They could if they asked nicely enough.

[Wallenburg]

It would never happen. A state cannot leave the union.

Yes, actually, it can.

[San Lumen]

It would never happen. A state cannot leave the union.

Yes, actually, it can.

The South left sparking the Civil War. Give me an example where a state could leave the union.

[Ifreann]

Yes, actually, it can.

The South left sparking the Civil War.

Actually, they didn't, for the purposes of the US government.

Give me an example where a state could leave the union.

It would never happen. A state cannot leave the union.

They could if they asked nicely enough.

[Wallenburg]

Yes, actually, it can.

The South left sparking the Civil War. Give me an example where a state could leave the union.

The South rebelled. The states, however, did not. And I can't give you an example because it has not happened yet.

[Thermodolia]

It would never happen. A state cannot leave the union.

Yes, actually, it can.

Technically it cannot leave the Union according to SCOTUS

[Vistulange]

California was its own nation in 1846, I don't see why it can't be again

Well there's no real political will to make that happen and even less military capacity. It's pretty much impossible.

---

White vs Texas

Texas v. White.

It's almost as if all the other countries which have had secessionist movements allow secession. When it's every other country, people say "OMG NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION", but when it's the United States, it's "Texas v. White" every single time. It's not like it's legal elsewhere.

That said, I would enjoy it, but no. If the U.S' justice system says it's illegal to secede, it's illegal to secede. Just like other countries who say seceding is illegal.

[Ifreann]

Yes, actually, it can.

Technically it cannot leave the Union according to SCOTUS

That is not true. The majority decision in Texas v. White was that states cannot unilaterally leave the union.

[New Benian Republic]

Is this like Fallout or something.

[Northern Freikur]

I have an Idea...
1. I move out of California
2. California gets set free
3. 55 Democrat Electoral College votes go away (Because, here in California, your vote doesn't matter if you're a Conservative)
[They should split the EC votes here]
4. So does most of the immorality of the USA (Those 55 EC means a big population...)
5. Problem solved