Let me introduce you to a special place.
This country has a population of nearly 40 million people. With a Gross Domestic Product of $2.7 trillion, its economy ranks fifth in the world – ahead of the United Kingdom and almost equal to Russia. Its two major industries, tech and entertainment, lead the world in advances, funding, and job growth.
This country is not a country. This is the state of California, and it’s in the middle of a civil war that thus far has remained civil. It seems our beach-going friends aren’t getting along with each other as there’s a measure on this November’s ballot that could split the state into three – Northern California, Southern California, and California. Take a look at this map; it’s interesting where organizers decided to draw the borders.
Ladies and gentlemen, we know how bad California government has been for a long time, but it wasn’t always this way. Not long ago, people like Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson were electorally victorious, and the good people of the Golden State reaped the benefits of limited government that promoted individual liberty and capitalism. Why, even Mr. “Read My Lips: No New Taxes” George H. W. Bush won the state by a few percentage points in 1988. However, the administration of Bush 41 ushered in a long slide of failure, and somewhere between the high taxes, ridiculous regulations, and moral decay, we on the outside saw the chances of turning California red again turn from maybe to “we still have Texas.”
It would seem those on the inside have had enough.
How bad does it have to get in one of the most progressive bastions in the world before the general population thinks dividing the state into three, separate states is worth a go at the ballot box?
Naturally, political ideas bring in all sorts of opinions and players.
Paul Preston, vice president and co-founder of the New California movement that want a two-state solution in California, based on rural-urban lines, says venture capitalist Tim Draper’s partition plan — the one on which voters will vote in November — wouldn’t address the issue of voter representation, as it would merely create two deep blue states and one swing state.
“With Draper, he makes sure every area has an urbanized zone that will ultimately be blue. You still have the rural-urban thing going on in his formula,” Preston told the Times. “The rural people will be shafted again.”
According the Article IV, Section 3 of the US Constitution, no new state can be created unless the respective state’s legislature and US Congress approve. I’m not into predictions, but if I had to guess, in my mind the measure – while stronger than Tim Draper’s original idea of six states – will fail. Even if it makes it past the California borders, Congress will shut it down quickly.
Think of it this way: Would a Republican controlled Congress want to hand-create a situation where there would be four more US Senators (two for each new state) and two more members of the House of Representatives (one for each new state) that would most likely be hard-core Democrats?
Good luck, Californians. Godspeed.
Image: CCO Creative Commons; Excerpted from: https://pixabay.com/en/map-globe-country-map-of-the-world-3476638/
