OPINION:
Cut California in two — that’s the message from the primary Brexit deal-makers, Nigel Farage and Arron Banks, who have joined with key Republicans to split the state along liberal versus regular folk lines.
Perhaps it might just be easier to draw a line around Hollywood and float that section as an island onto itself. Either way, the premise of the plan is a good one: California’s been a thorn in conservatives’ paws for far too long, and it’s high time the population get on the populist wave brought about by President Donald Trump’s election.
“It would be portrayed as the Hollywood elites versus the people, breaking up the bad government,” said Banks, explaining how the rural east would go one way and the coastal elite east, the other, the Daily Mail reported. “Seventy-eight percent of people in California are unhappy with their government. It’s the world’s sixth largest economy, and it’s very badly run.”
Indeed. The state’s far too often turned to the federal government for handouts — for taxpayer dole-outs — due to its own liberal political decisions. How many more blackouts do the poor citizens of California have to endure, at the order of their political leaders? Leave that stuff to the Left Side; those on the newly formed Right Side could soon enjoy daylight conditions even at nighttime. Welcome to civilized society, baby. It’s called a Lightbulb.
The break-away isn’t simple talk.
Farage and Banks have already raised about $1 million for Calexit. And their campaign’s being pushed by a conservative pollster, Gerry Gunster, and Scott Baugh, a former Republican state assemblyman. Will it make the referendum rolls?
Republicans could see a virtual windfall of political pluses from the move. Not only would the more conservative East California probably see its ranks of residents swell in speedy time — who doesn’t like electricity, 24-7? — and therefore, its number of corresponding Republican representatives as well. But the East would automatically get two senators — again, most likely Republicans. What a chance to counter the long-running monopoly California’s Democrats have held in the Senate on Capitol Hill. The state’s not seen a Republican senator since 1992 and John Seymour days — and really, calling him a conservative is a bit of a stretch. Vote-wise, he was all over the map. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, meanwhile, is due for re-election in 2018, so if Calexit supporters hurry, they can finagle a face-off — and win.
Really, aside from the need to change the American flag — but that’s an addition, not a subtraction, so squishing in another star shouldn’t be that difficult — there’s very little downside to a split California state. The liberals will get what they’ve always wanted — a Republican-free existence and window views that don’t include power lines. And conservatives?
A chance for real representation in Washington, D.C. That, and if they’re smart enough to claim San Joaquin Valley early in the negotiating process, all the oranges they can eat. Think of the trade wars they can control.
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