DAILY KOS BANNED THIS ARTICLE* about California independence
As Joy Ann Reid pointed outthis weekend, the victory of Emmanuel Macron reconfirms the participation of France in the European Union, while emphasizing the isolation of Britain and the United States (and Russia) from the rest of western world. However, besides repudiating Putin and Trump, Marcron’s victory gives fresh urgency to restoring American leadership in Atlantic and Pacific cooperation, even if that means creating a new prosperous and diverse American federation free of control by Trump and other Russia-aligned conservatives. In short, the success of “Le Pen Non!” increases the need for “California, Si!”
The defeat of Le Pen is a major event. Since 1951, relations France and Germany have been the most important factor in keeping Europe unified, free, and at peace. European economic cooperation is as important to world security as the NATO defense alliance, and the two strengthen each other.
National Front candidate Marine Le Pen campaigned on a complete rejection of European unity. Not only did she promise to force Muslim residents of France to leave the country, she called for France to cease using the Euro as its currency, and suggested leaving the European Union entirely. Had she been elected, pro-Russia Le Pen might have even tried to withdraw France from the NATO alliance, like previous French nationalists.
These policies motivated Donald Trump to praise Le Pen and suggest she would be the best President for France. Meanwhile, Barack Obama , among other American liberals, supported Marcron.
This is why the victory of Macron and the repudiation of Le Pen (again) is a major defeat for the Putin-Trump axis opposed to European unity and peace. Despite the aid and comfort Putin gets from Trump, the victory of Marcron is a powerful blow to the Kremlin goal of breaking Europe apart, leaving its many small countries open to aggression and conquest by Russia. It is also a boon to German leader Angela Merkel, who has succeeded Trump as the true leader of the free world.
However, 100 years of history establish that Europe cannot survive without the involvement of the mighty United States. Likewise, Pacific leaders like Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Australian prime minister Malcoln Turnbull are trying to restore the Pacific partnership that Obama created, Clinton supported, and Russia-aligned Trump destroyed.
Meanwhile, Mexico citizens are actively discussing whether to welcome Chinese investment and reject U.S. trade, a move they call “playing the China card.” Although the Obama administration successfully persuaded Mexican leaders to ward off Chinese overtures to gain influence in our southern neighbor, Trump has ignored the threat of a China-Mexico alliance.
In short, the U.S. must not remain a Russian satellite, at any cost.
Now if you are on as many liberal mailing lists as me, you have been dunned daily with messages suggesting that the Democrats can sweep the 2018 elections and restore the damage done. But this is merely self-serving talk.
For example, although the grounds for removing Trump from office are as definite as Maxine Waters (D-CA), Democrats and independents (e.g., Bernie Sanders) would not only have to flip 24 House seats in 2018, they would also have to keep all 25 senate seats up for challenge in 2018, win the eight Republican seats available, AND then persuade a further nine of the surviving 44 Republican senators to make Trump the FIRST U.S. President ever removed from office.
If that isn’t improbable enough, after impeaching and convicting Trump, the same bloc of 67 Senators would have to remove Vice-President Pence, until finally the Democratic Speaker of the House would become president by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
Since the team of criminals and spies serving Trump cannot be feasibly removed for three to seven years, and maybe decades, the only reasonable alternate method for restoring global security is to create a new globally-minded confederation from the prosperous and diverse states under Democratic leadership. California is the leading such state, but over 20 states could join into one to four new independent nations, joining Canada and Mexico, among the independent countries neighboring the U.S.
Start with California. Our population of 39 million is larger than that of Canada, and 10 million more than Texas. Our economy of $2.5 trillion annually is considerably larger than the $1.6 trillion Canadian economy, and ranks just behind Great Britain. Although California does not subsidize the Red States like over-burdened New Jersey or Minnesota, we still receive only 78 cents for every dollar of federal revenue we contribute. Even in land area, California is larger than Germany, and about the size of Sweden; no one is suggesting Sweden is too small to be independent. California agriculture out-produces the other states, and is about twice as large as the next state down in rank, Texas. California also produces as much oil as Alaska, and 40% of U.S. Asian trade flows through just one port: Los Angeles. California hosts major bases from all four services, and we make the most advanced U.S. military equipment and other technology.
By any measure, California is ready for independence. Officials as high as Governor Jerry Brown have indicated that they are considering at least de facto California independence.
Unite California with Oregon and Washington, and not only does the U.S. lose its Pacific Coast, but this “Pacifica” of 45 million people would form the fifth-largest economy in the world, just behind Germany. Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and all U.S. islands and bases as far west as Singapore, Japan and Korea would fall into the orbit of this powerful new nation on the West Coast of North America.
Not only would the establishment of a “Pacifica” nation force the “G-9” to admit her, but the free world would readily prefer dealing with this sensible new American republic over a fuming madman in Washington. Full NATO membership, Pacific alliances, even partnerships with Mexico and Canada to further marginalize and contain Trump-Putinism would be spread before it.
Moreover, unlike the U.S., which is 62% white, no more than 46% of Pacifica residents would be white. Only 39% of California residents are white, and one-fourth are foreign-born; these facts alone make Trumpist racist policies intolerable to us.
All told, five more western states share enough of the prosperity and diversity of the West Coast that they should join us: Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Such a western federation would also include the Colorado River basin, and thus the regional water supply.
Because the achievement of California independence is a mere matter of will, that prospect is the most powerful tool available for forcing Republicans to accept the legal changes necessary to persuade Californians to not go it alone, and lead at least nine more states with it. For example, the current situation in which every state gets two electoral votes, regardless of its population has created a situation in which one Wyoming voter has more power to elect the U.S. President than 43 California voters. We need a federal law that not only guarantees every citizen the right to vote, but given the ridiculous percentage of minorities convicted of felonies (the list of which has expanded far beyond the traditional seven in colonial times), the law should invalidate all laws denying the right of any mentally-competent adult the right to vote.
Of course, we also need U.S. Supreme Court rulings permitting billionaires and huge corporations to drown out the voices of less-fortunate citizens by spending unlimited cash on campaigns reversed by constitutional amendment.
If Republicans do not accept these substantive changes to the structure of the U.S. political system, then California independence should follow. Once the 55 House members leave Congress, of whom 38 are Democrats, that would force every other state with a Democratic and/or liberal state legislature to consider joining the Golden State, or submit to “Dixie Dictatorship.” The U.S., as we know it, would be no more.
If unity is truly preferable to division, it is up to the Republicans in Congress to prove it. If not, it is better to live free of those who do not deserve freedom, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, because they deny it to others. If they refuse to save all of the American traditions of freedom and equality, then let us save a part of these faiths in a California free of the stench of Trump-Putin oppression and wrong, and in the hearts of all Americans who love freedom.
VIVA CALIFORNIA LIBRE! — LONG LIVE FREE CALIFORNIA!
*This article was posted on Daily Kos on Sunday, May 7, 2017, and was banned by DK just hours later.
Original Title: “ Le Pen Non! — California, Si! Macron win in France strengthens case for California independence.”
