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While many people across the nation have likely heard the news that some Californians have suggested that the state should secede from the United States of America, very few took the notion too seriously. In fact, most laughed it off as some left coast foolishness and moved on with their days. However, recent opinion polls in California have shown that somewhere in the neighborhood of one-third of the state actually supports the idea of secession. That means that almost 13 million people are in favor of it.
The past year has been the year of the long shot with no hope of succeeding. Just as the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump who was thought to never have a chance of taking the White House. As such, it is important to think about what could happen if California did vote to secede from the Union and what that would mean for people in California and across the United States.
In order to imagine a world in which California was its own separate nation, we will have to forgo the disbelief that the state could actually push through an agenda and vote for secession. If we do that, then we can begin to develop a picture of what that world would look like.
First and foremost, California is one of the liberal hubs of the United States and has 55 electoral votes. While it is the home of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, it is also the home of a wide and varied geography and population. It has numerous natural resources and military bases through which it can foster trade, protect its people, and otherwise sustain an independent government.
An independent California would like see some power clashes and shifts in demographics in power and as such could be an excellent show of what progressive policies and politics in action, uninhibited by the conservative backlash from other areas of the United States could do. In other words, it could show that progressive policies are a way to remedy many of the problems plaguing modern day society including race relations issues, wage gap issues, wealth disparity, and more.
However, the transition would not be all pleasant and cordial. There would likely be a great deal of resistance from the United States and that hostility could affect trade and would cause problems when it comes to the scarceness of natural resources. Waterway agreements and accords would need to be restructured. Of particular concern, California gets 14 percent of its water from the Colorado River and losing that water access would cause a great deal of trouble in terms of drought and agriculture.
Powering and fueling the new country would also be an issue. While California does produce a great deal of oil, it would need to produce a lot more to maintain current lifestyles or quickly develop alternative energy sources to sustain their own power grid. And, of course, there is the issue of structuring a new government and developing a Constitution of its own. If the new nation were to develop a three or more party political system or another alternative, this could be a major departure for most Californians. There is also the possibility that a California secession would result in the state returning back to its historical roots, under Mexican rule or control.
As you can see, if California were somehow to secede from the nation, the situation would be new and surprising and might result in something far different than what those looking to support CalExit could be expecting.