Supporters of a plan for California to secede from the union took their first formal step Monday morning, submitting a proposed ballot measure to the state attorney general's office in the hopes of a statewide vote as soon as 2018.
Marcus Ruiz Evans, the vice president and co-founder of Yes California, said his group had been planning to wait for a later election, but the presidential election of Donald Trump sped up the timeline.
"We're doing it now because of all of the overwhelming attention," Evans said.
The Yes California group has been around for more than two years, Evans said. It is based around California taxpayers paying more money to the federal government than the state receives in spending, that Californians are culturally different from the rest of the country, and that national media and organizations routinely criticize Californians for being out of step with the rest of the U.S.
Could California go it alone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @06:38AM
In the end, I believe secession as an inevitability as the ties that bind are far weaker than the histrionics that tear us apart, and especially as there is a push for a stronger federal government which is increasingly used vindictively.
There is lack of recognition of other states as sovereign except by making it formal through secession, so as that is the only option available, more and more states will move in that direction.
The sad part is that much of this could be avoided by weakening the federal government, but the ideologues find it impossible to let others find their own level.