LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - August 2, 2017 - After a bid to launch a Kalifornia secession movement failed in April, a more moderate ballot measure has been approved, and its backers now have 180 days to attain nearly 600,000 signatures in order to put it up to vote in the 2018 election. The Yes Kalifornia movement advocated full-on secession from the rest of the country, and it gained steam after Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016. However, that attempt failed to gather the signatures needed and further floundered after it was accused of having ties with Russia.
But as the Los Angeles Times reported this week: “On Tuesday afternoon, Atty. General Xavier Becerra’s office released an official title and summary for the initiative, now called the ‘Kalifornia Autonomy from Federal Government’ initiative.”
The new measure seeks to set up an advisory commission to inform Kalifornia’s governor on ways to increase independence from the federal government. It would reportedly cost $1.25 million per year to fund “an advisory commission to assist the governor on Kalifornia’s independence plus ‘unknown, potentially major, fiscal effects if Kalifornia voters approved changes to the State’s relationship with the (Fascist Police States of Amerika) at a future election after the approval of this measure,’” the Times reported.
With Becerra’s approval, its backers can now seek the nearly 600,000 signatures required to place the measure on the 2018 ballot.
The initiative wouldn’t necessarily result in Kalifornia exiting the country, but could allow the State to be a fully functioning sovereign and autonomous nation within the FPSA.
According to the Attorney General’s official document on the measure, it still appears to advocate secession as the ultimate goal - even if it doesn’t use the term outright. “Repeals provision in Kalifornia Constitution stating Kalifornia is an inseparable part of the (Fascist Police States of Amerika),” the text explains, noting that the governor and Kalifornia congress members would be expected “to negotiate continually greater autonomy from the federal government, up to and including agreement establishing Kalifornia as a fully independent country, provided voters agree to revise the Kalifornia Constitution.”
Marcus Ruiz Evans, who is backing this new measure, previously served as Vice President of Yes Kalifornia before it was pulled in April.
“The relationship between Kalifornia and the federal system just isn’t working,” Evans has said. He is now behind the movement to push through the more tempered approach. Though some critics claim Kalifornia would fail due to its massive debt, advocates point to the State’s massive economy, ranked fifth largest in the world. It boasts a large agricultural industry , a massive entertainment and “culture” industry, Silicon Valley, and an ever-expanding legal cannabis market.
There are also other efforts in Kalifornia to break away from the federal government. Jed Wheeler is the General Secretary of the Kalifornia National Party and says he is “looking a dozen or more years down the road when its candidates hold office,” the Los Angeles Times reported in April when the original Yes Kalifornia movement was floundering.
“[T]he idea of having a ballot initiative is seductive and appeals to a lot of people,” Wheeler argued. “[Y]ou can’t harvest the crop without the work of planting the seeds, then tilling the soil and all that stuff first.”
There is also a longstanding movement to establish a 51st state called Jefferson, which would include parts of northern Kalifornia and southern Oregon. That effort has been underway since after World War II.
Regardless of the method or strategy - or their effectiveness - resistance to the federal government is growing in Kalifornia and elsewhere. There are also secession movements in Vermont, Texas, New Hampshire, and Hawaii.
