I just read a diary on the idea that California should secede from the USA. Living in California, I’ve heard this idea thrown around a bit since the election. While it sounds appealing at first, the more I think about the idea, the worse it sounds. It would certainly create more problems than it solves.
For one, it would tear apart families, friends, and businesses. Would I need a passport to visit my friends and family on the East Coast? Would we have to go through customs? Hopefully, we could set up a system like we have with Canada. But going from CA to anywhere else in the US would still be international travel.
My wife’s company is thinking of transferring her job to NY. Would we have to emigrate? What sort of new regulations would the company have to deal with upon having its domestic business transformed into an international one?
All this ignores the concerns that the Founders outlined in the Federalist about having multiple competing nations as opposed to one unified country. Imagine a war between California and the US.
So forget CalExit. It’s not happening. Look for a better, more realistic solution to the policy differences we have with the red states. My idea is to give them exactly what they’ve been wishing for.
Conservatives want to slash taxes and starve the Federal government so that all non-essential services are left up to the states. Great idea! As it stands, federal funding is taken mostly from the blue states and goes mostly to the red states. In other words, red state siphon off money from California and other blue states to fund programs they claim not to want. By implementing their wish and cutting both Federal taxes and spending, we can keep all of our tax money inside the state of California and fund the programs we need.
We could have single payer health care. We could fully fund public education. We could fund public transportation. Fund green energy. Fund the arts. Fund the courts. We could do all sorts of things that we can’t afford because we have to send money to red states that don’t want it. Not only that, but New York, Massachusetts, and all the other blue states could do the same thing.
The red states, of course, would suffer, but that’s what they’ve been asking for. And their Republican leaders won’t mind, since they never cared about their citizens to begin with. It’s a win-win.