Similar to the “Calexit” movement (in which some Californians made noises about starting their own country in the case of a Donald Trump victory) but not really, political conflict has fueled another drastic plan within the state. CBS News reports that the founders of the “New California” declared independence from the rest of the state on Tuesday. That is to say, they want to separate all of the state’s rural counties from the urban monoliths lining the Pacific coast.
To that effect — and partially on the grounds of too-high taxes — the group released a Declaration of Independence and declared their intent to transform the map in the following manner:
New California co-founder Robert Paul Preston has aired his grievances, per USA Today and CBS News:
“The current state of California has become governed by a tyranny … it’s been ungovernable for a long time. High taxes, education, you name it, and we’re rated around 48th or 50th from a business climate and standpoint in California. There’s something wrong when you have a rural county such as this one, and you go down to Orange County which is mostly urban, and it has the same set of problems, and it happens because of how the state is being governed and taxed.”
The group isn’t the first movement to attempt to split the state up, for 2014 saw a venture capitalist submit a plan to divide California into six separate states. However, New California co-founder Tom Reed insists that his group is going about the process while following the U.S. Constitution (specifically, Article 4, Section 3) to form a new state in the same way that West Virginia happened.
No word on whether the movement will be successful, but only time (and plenty of drama) will tell.
(Via CBS Sacramento, NBC News, USA Today & Yale.edu)