Friday, August 29, 2014

"6 Californias" initiative quietly moving foreward - Part 3

I always thought that a simple "north-south" divide would be best for California, with Monterey County being on the north side. Not the general divide in which two-thirds of the state is considered "northern California." Of course, there are many pluses and minuses to California, two Califonias, or six Californias. Although it doesn't move me either way personally, it's curious that most of urban and coastal-central California is heavily Democrat, while the rest of the mostly rural parts of the state are Republican.

"Six California" feels like a coalition of Silicon Valley concerns--the new billionaires--flexing their muscles against the modern state establishment. If this passes in 2016, which is unlikely, they would have their own defacto state. These concerns may actually just be using this as a launching pad for long-term goals to be reached stepping-stone style at some later point. Things change fast in California. Who would have thought that San Francisco would be turning Republican, as it is in a slow steady pace though gentrification. As is usually the case, this isn't some idea that Tim Draper thought up; he's a figurehead for these Silicon Valley concerns.



State of Jefferson (Wikipedia)

The State of Jefferson is a proposed U.S. state that would span the contiguous, mostly rural area of southern Oregon and northern California, where several attempts to secede from Oregon and California, respectively, have taken place in order to gain statehood.

This region on the Pacific Coast is the most famous of several that have sought to adopt the name of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark expedition into the Pacific Northwest in 1803, and envisioned the establishment of an independent nation in the western portion of North America which he dubbed the "Republic of the Pacific", hence the association of his name with regional autonomy. The independence movement (rather than statehood) is instead known as Cascadia.The State of Jefferson is a proposed U.S. state that would span the contiguous, mostly rural area of southern Oregon and northern California, where several attempts to secede from Oregon and California, respectively, have taken place in order to gain statehood.

This region on the Pacific Coast is the most famous of several that have sought to adopt the name of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark expedition into the Pacific Northwest in 1803, and envisioned the establishment of an independent nation in the western portion of North America which he dubbed the "Republic of the Pacific", hence the association of his name with regional autonomy. The independence movement (rather than statehood) is instead known as Cascadia.


**************************************************

The movement(s) for a Jefferson state go back to 1941, with the most recent starting in 1998 (JeffersonState.com). Naturally they're excited with this proposal, as it includes the full portion of Jefferson as far as California is concerned (they want to include part of southern Oregon as well). They don't feel represented by Sacramento (or Salem) both politically or culturally. The website must be under reconstruction, as it usually has a lot of webpages and an archive of podcasts.

.

No comments: