Free Republic

California’s secession movement, CalExit, gained momentum immediately following Donald Trump’s victory in November, but it seems to have already fizzled out. “Yes California,” the leading political action committee fighting for California’s independence from the union, capitalized on the shift in public opinion after Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly carried the state on Election Day. Last January, for example, the campaign committee submitted a proposal to Secretary of State Alex Padilla, allowing it to collect the signatures necessary to create a ballot-box measure for the November 2018 election. The proposal, intended to repeal the provision in California’s Constitution that describes...

Donald Trump’s stunning election win has some Californians so upset that they want to secede from the United States. A group calling itself Yes California has organized a petition drive for a referendum in the spring 2019 election to demand a convention of states to approve “Calexit,” which would recreate the Republic of California of 1850. Louis Marinelli writes that the movement “is about California taking its place in the world, standing as an equal among nations.” Taking one’s place in the world is something Marinelli knows about, as the New York Times discovered. His place in the world isn’t...

Louis J. Marinelli is a man on a quixotic mission: to help California secede from the United States and become an independent country. Surprisingly, this quest has been going relatively well of late. Marinelli's group, Yes California, is attempting to collect 585,000 signatures necessary to place a secessionist question on the 2018 ballot. Buoyed by California's already tense relationship with President Donald Trump, the campaign has received a large amount of press coverage and support over the past few months. But for the 30-year-old Yes California president, there remains one annoying problem: People keep asking him why he lives in...

Threatening secession is far from the only thing that the Golden State has in common with the Old South. Over 60 percent of California voters went for Hillary Clinton — a margin of more than 4 million votes over Donald Trump. Since Clinton’s defeat, the state seems to have become unhinged over Trump’s unexpected election. “Calexit” supporters brag that they will have enough signatures to qualify for a ballot measure calling for California’s secession from the United States. Some California officials have talked of the state not remitting its legally obligated tax dollars to the federal government. They talk of...

There are some people in California currently gathering signatures to get an initiative on the ballot to change the language in California's constitution to allow California to secede from the USA. If it passes the law will also put a question on yet another future ballot asking if Californians want to secede. If the vote is yes then it becomes their declaration of independence. It might happen. I won't rule it out especially after 2016 in which so many 'impossible' things happened. So what happens if California votes to secede? Well, before they vote on independence but after they vote...

Like the talk of secession in conservative southern states after Barack Obama became president, the idea of a separate California Republic builds on long-standing separatist feelings amplified by a momentous national election. Since Donald Trump became president while securing less than a third of the vote in California, the Yes California campaign — a.k.a. Calexit — has gotten a lot of attention and perhaps even some momentum in getting an initial measure placed on 2018 general election ballot. An estimated 7,000 volunteers have begun amassing the 585,407 signatures necessary to place a constitutional amendment on the 2018 ballot deleting the...

Liberals used to hate secession, the notion that states could leave the Union as they did before the Civil War because they didn’t agree with the policies of the federal government. But with Donald Trump’s election, many California liberals suddenly have warm words for a budding ballot initiative that has just begun collecting signatures in order to place secession, or “Calexit,” on the ballot.

Los Angeles — Liberals used to hate secession, the notion that states could leave the Union as they did before the Civil War because they didn’t agree with the policies of the federal government. But with Donald Trump’s election, many California liberals suddenly have warm words for a budding ballot initiative that has just begun collecting signatures in order to place secession, or “Calexit,” on the ballot. At the height of the tea-party movement, Texas governor Rick Perry merely hinted at the thought that Texas might react to President Obama’s executive overreach by reclaiming its one-time status as an independent...

California has granted a pro-secession group 180 days to gather enough signatures to get their Calexit initiative on the ballot. From the Hill: The California secretary of stateÂ’s office announced that the group could begin collecting signatures on Thursday.The group needs 585,407 signatures from registered voters over the next 180 days to qualify for the ballot. The mechanism here is not very straightforward. If the Yes California Independence Campaign can gather the needed signatures in time, that would put an initiative on the ballot next year. That initiative, if passed, would change portions of the California constitution and set...

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Thursday that a ballot initiative called “California Nation” has been approved by the state to begin collecting signatures to qualify for the 2018 ballot. The effort is supported by the “Yes California” campaign, an organization that enjoys the support of the Russian government and whose founder, Louis Marinelli, now lives in Russia.

Reuters has a poll out which found a surprising number of Californians are ready to secede from the union now that Donald Trump is president: One in every three California residents supports the most populous U.S. state’s peaceful withdrawal from the union, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, many of them Democrats strongly opposed to Trump’s ascension to the country’s highest office.The 32 percent support rate is sharply higher than the last time the poll asked Californians about secession, in 2014, when one-in-five or 20 percent favored it around the time Scotland held its independence referendum and voted...

Friend -- The cause of Californian independence requires us to adopt multiple lines of attack. Yes California is busy working to qualify a ballot measure that will give us the chance to hold a vote on independence on March 5, 2019. Register to volunteer to collect signatures if you haven't already, or chip in a few bucks if you can't. Now there's another way you can help the cause of independence and it will take just a few minutes. Yes California is reorganizing its political party, the Californian National Party, to begin running pro-independence candidates to local, county, and state...

#CalExit just received a big boost from an unlikely source: Peter Thiel, billionaire tech buddy of President-elect Trump. In a “Confirm or Deny” interview with the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, the 49 year-old Thiel confirmed that he believed California should secede. Maureen Dowd: California should secede. Peter Thiel: Confirm. I’d be fine with that. I think it would be good for California, good for the rest of the country. It would help Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign. Apparently Thiel’s comment that “…it would help Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign” was made rather tongue-in-cheek. But it does raise an interesting question. With...

California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession, nicknamed "Calexit," in 2018. Louis Marinelli, a San Diego resident who is the leader of the group promoting an effort to turn the state into an independent country , organized the Moscow event that was publicized on social media. "We want to start laying the groundwork for a dialogue about an independent California joining the United Nations now," he said in an email Monday.

California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession, nicknamed "Calexit," in 2018. Louis Marinelli, a San Diego resident who is the leader of the group promoting an effort to turn the state into an independent country , organized the Moscow event that was publicized on social media. "We want to start laying the groundwork for a dialogue about an independent California joining the United Nations now," he said in an email Monday. (TWEET-AT-LINK) Marinelli is currently working as an English teacher in Russia,...

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Louis Marinelli, leader of the movement, said the embassy will not deal with diplomatic issues, but will act as more of a cultural center that will educate Russians about California's history, boost trade ties and promote tourism. “We're not requesting military assistance from Russia,” Marinelli explained. “We're certainly going to request recognition of our independence and recognition of our [2019] independence referendum result, as we're going to request that the entire international community recognizes the results.”

Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 led South Carolina to try to secede from the Union. Donald Trump’s election last month has raised similar talk in California, known as the “California Independence Campaign.” Billionaire activist Tom Steyer said in that aftermath of the election that, “It’s impossible to look at the Trump campaign and not see a direct threat to the civil liberties and dignity of California citizens.” The leftist anti-constitutionalist Jeff Rosen is also touting “States’ Rights for the Left” in a recent opinion piece. California can’t secede. The Civil War settled that. But there are other potential avenues by...

When people speak of Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote, they are really speaking about California. In that state, Hillary Clinton won 6,621,346 votes to Donald Trump's 3,549,576 as of this writing. This margin of over three million votes alone accounts for any claim that Clinton exceeded Trump in popular support. Consider some numbers. In New York, Trump won 37.5% of the vote; in New Jersey, Trump won over 40%; and in Illinois, Trump won 39.4%. Among sizably populated states that lean "overwhelmingly" Democrat, California is in a class by itself. Trump struggled to get even a third of Californian...

In 2018, the issue of whether California should secede from the union could come to a head. Yes California Independence Campaign, a fringe political group that calls for the state to become an independent nation, filed a proposed ballot measure with the Attorney General's Office on November 21, The Sacramento Bee reports. If it garners the half a million signatures required to appear on the 2018 gubernatorial ballot, the measure would strike language from the state constitution that would help clear a path to secession. Still, a state holds no right to secede under federal law. Californians would need to...

A group of left-wing Californians, frustrated with the recent election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States, has filed an application to put a secession referendum — “Calexit” — on the 2018 ballot. The East Bay Times reports that the group, called Yes California, intends to circumvent the U.S. Congress: A “yes” vote would trigger a special election the following March in which residents would decide if “California should become a free, sovereign and independent country.” Another “yes” vote would require the governor of the newly minted “Republic of California” to apply to the United...