California dreaming . . . of secession
In response to Trump’s ambitions to engage in large-scale deportation of illegal immigrants, the state legislature is considering a bill that would declare the state a “sanctuary.”
Lawmakers have even hired former Obama attorney general Eric Holder to battle the Trump administration on the issue. That step earned the enmity of the new president.
“Trump claims California is ‘out of control,’ ” writes columnist George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times, though the irony is undoubtedly lost on the president.
Trump has threatened to cut off federal funds to California. “We’ll defund,” Trump told Fox News. “We give tremendous amounts of money to California.”
The problem is that, like residents of Canada’s “have” provinces, Californians contribute more money to the federal treasury than what comes back.
There has been much grousing about the Trump administration ever since the threats were levelled, fertile ground for Calexit.
The secessionists even have the support of Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel and Shervin Pishevar.
Companies like Google have expressed concern about their ability in an anti-immigrant climate to recruit foreigners for jobs not enough Americans are qualified to fill.
In January, the group Yes California was given permission to circulate a petition with the intention of putting the sovereignty question on the 2018 ballot. If the petition is successful — close to 600,000 signatures are required — a special vote to decide the state’s future would follow in 2019.
Calexit does have its skeptics. “Canadians know you don’t escape the shadow of your giant neighbour by drawing a border,” wrote Prof. Timothy William Waters in the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he believes secession is a bad idea.
Such opinions are far from universal. According to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll taken in California, one-third of respondents support “peaceful withdrawal from the union.”
As one tweeter wrote: “We’ll just take our avocados and legal weed and go.”
Terry McConnell is a former Edmonton Journal columnist, editorial writer and copy editor now living in California