You learned last week about American Secession, a new book by F.H. Buckley, a Foundation Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University. Buckley believes America is “ripe for secession,” and that “the bitterness, the gridlock, the growing tolerance of violence invite us to think that we’d be happier were we two different countries.” One area of America desperate to chart its own course is Northern California.
In The Washington Examiner, Mica Soellner reports:
Mark Baird is a third-generation Californian who hopes to one day be a first-generation Jeffersonian.
Baird, like many in California’s sprawling, mostly rural north, is disillusioned with his state’s Sacramento-based government, which he believes no longer represents northern interests.
That’s why Baird and many others in the 23 counties above Sacramento have officially declared the reclamation of their state, even if it means breaking away and starting anew in the proposed 51st state of Jefferson, named for the third U.S. president.
“People are basically hopeless here,” said Baird, who lives in Siskiyou County. “We’ve gone from being economically viable and net contributors to the general fund to being what the rest of California jokingly refer to as the ‘welfare counties.’ But, we weren’t the welfare counties. We were made the welfare counties by the state of California.”
Baird and others in the northern and eastern parts of the state say they have little in common with the overtly liberal central and southern parts of the state.
A lot of them work with their hands, express skepticism about government overreach, and are fiercely protective of their Second Amendment rights. It’s a far cry from Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
“Most people up here are conservative, Christian, patriotic people,” said Woody Clendenen, a local barbershop owner in Cottonwood who has defied state lockdown measures by keeping his shop open throughout the pandemic.
Many northerners feel overshadowed by the needs and influence of California’s populous coastal cities, which control most of the state legislature.
An 1862 state law limited the number of lawmakers in California’s statehouse to 120. Back then, the Golden State was home to less than 1 million people. Today, California is made up of roughly 40 million people, but there are still only 80 assembly members and 40 senators in the legislature.
That gives each assembly member almost 500,000 people to serve and every state senator nearly 1 million constituents.
The Los Angeles area encompasses more than 20 of those seats. San Diego and the Bay Area make up around another quarter, and about half of state representation lies mostly from the L.A. County line and south.
The northern counties that would make up Jefferson, home to about 1.7 million residents, have less than a handful of representatives.
The urban-rural political divide has conservatives looking to escape the cities to build “islands” for their family in the country.
California isn’t the first state where rural residents feel dominated by their urban counterparts. For years New York has had partition bills introduced into its legislature that would split rural Upstate New York, from the New York City area in the state’s south.
It’s no wonder rural areas of big blue states are taking a hard look at secession. Their Democratic governors have gone wild during the response to COVID-19, acting like tyrannical dictators, rather than elected officials. After ordering their citizens around like emperors for months, Governors Newsom (D-CA) and Cuomo (D-NY) are facing a recall election and calls for impeachment respectively. Is it any wonder citizens want to separate from those states?
Action Line: During your retirement life, live in a state where your values are represented by the legislature, or you may find yourself longing for secession.
