this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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[–] scoobford@lemmy.zip 8 points 56 minutes ago

No. Imagining an independent future for any state (including California and Texas) is pure cope. The states are so interdependent that attempting to secede would be ruinous for the state in question.

The only exceptions I can think of are Alaska and Hawaii, which might be able to survive if they found another country to keep them supplied and economically connected.

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 34 minutes ago (1 children)

What you are proposing would start a North American war deadlier than any that has ever been seen. Everyone thought Texas was dumb for talking about secession, but now that other states don’t want to be part of the union, people act like it is a serious idea. It isn’t. Never has been.

In the words of Ben Franklin, β€œwe must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

[–] psychadlligoat@piefed.social 1 points 26 minutes ago

Everyone knew Texas talking about it was dumb because they're not self sufficient

California actually is, and if we're hated by the rest of the country anyway, we'll just go ahead and leave. Let the rest states have fun paying for shit without us

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 39 minutes ago

Shit's gonna look like the Holy Roman Empire a decade from now...

New England. Maybe with NY, you could have New New.

CA should be split into two.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 hours ago

Absolutely

  • Sincerely, someone from the EU
[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago
[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Sure? Balkanization seems like a good way to speed up the process of the Empire collapsing.

[–] vfreire85@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 hours ago

plus there is the bonus of schadenfreunde, since they always want to balkanize countries that happen to stand in their path.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago (6 children)

Do states even have a legal way to secede?

[–] Nojustice@lemmy.ml 1 points 24 minutes ago

See: American civil war

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Didn't have a way to legally secede from Britain

But this time there would be no ocean between the two sides.

No but there's no law against expelling a state from the union. Kind of a reverse secession if you can piss trump off enough for him to actually do it (no law saying that only Congress can expel them, so it would go to the courts).

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Enshined in law, so that state can unilateraly decide to secede and federal govt must accept it.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 1 points 7 minutes ago

Nope. The south already tried that.

If you want to gain independence, you have to fight the federal government's monopoly on violence. At its core, that's how all law is backed up. Two things you need to be a country. First, the ability to backup your independence with force. Second, the acknowledgement of the international community and their willingness to sign treaties with you. Sealand doesn't have any issues defending their "independence", but no one has signed a treaty with them for instance.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Constitution of the US of frickin A

[–] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That's the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. And for as much as it is a foundational document of the US, it's also not a legal document.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 28 minutes ago* (last edited 7 minutes ago) (1 children)

The preamble is part of the Constitution.

As to being a legal document, it's not only a legal document (which the supreme Court uses as the final legal authority), but

The Constitution of the United States of America is the foundational legal document of the U.S. federal system.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America

The fact that I am being downloaded and you are being upvoted says something about why we're having so much difficulty combating this administration's excesses.

You are slightly wrong in every point.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

The preamble to the Constitution is NOT the same as the preamble to the declaration of Independence. They were completely separate documents written more than a decade apart.

in fact:

The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document.[44]:β€Š92β€Š George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words.[44]:β€Š90β€Š[21]:β€Š165–167β€Š "In none of these documents", wrote Pauline Maier, "is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men's minds as a classic statement of American political principles."[21]:β€Š167β€Š

No. We'd be overrun by federal troops and decimated within a week. If we could secede peacefully? We (Wisconsin) would probably need an alliance with Minnesota and Michigan to survive.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

If the Union completely dissolved and each state had to function as nation, it would be a massive boom for the oligarchs. They already have more money than most states.

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[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

If just my state left, and I could leave to another state, that would be pretty good. Two Republican senators gone, roughly 15 net house reps gone, and an influx of dem refugees like me into neighboring states.

Texas could legit try to make a go of it as an independent nation. It would be a disaster for my family though.

[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

As a US citizen and Oregon resident, absolutely.

But I don't honestly foresee it being possible or happening.

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[–] PTSDwarrior@lemmy.ml 12 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

Yes. In fact, I've decided to take a leap of faith and join the California National Party, which you can all check out here: CNP website. I am sick of the usual Republicans vs Democrats. Everytime one party is in power, we are constantly worrying about the loss of civil and human rights. Lets start with a clean slate. If you are a California resident, at least check out their party platform. Also, in 2026, there will be a gubernatorial candidate for CNP. His name is Sean Forbes.

[–] BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

If having human rights is dependent upon who's in power at the moment, you don't have human rights.

[–] PTSDwarrior@lemmy.ml 2 points 49 minutes ago

Right. Which is why I want to break free from the usual bullshit.

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[–] matdave@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago

I don't support it, only because my state wouldn't be seperating to join the "good" side

[–] veganbtw@lemmy.ml 13 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I support balkanizing the US

It worked wonderfully for the actual Balkans and the Caucasus region

[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 17 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Washingtonian here, I've been saying this should happen for like 8 years now lmao

The marriage isn't working. Let it go.

[–] wolfinthewoods@lemmy.ml 16 points 15 hours ago (5 children)

We have had a name for it for awhile, my fellow Washingtonians call the Washington/Oregon/California union 'Cascadia'. Wouldn't be such a bad idea.

[–] invertedspear@lemmy.zip 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

If you don’t take AZ and NV with you, you will get your Colorado River water cut off and lose a lot of farming power. That might even require UT. Unless it’s only Northern California included, in which case you still lose that agriculture, and possible land based trade lines to Mexico. It’s not a clean and pretty separation.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

That is a problem, but not an intractable one. The first easy win would be to just stop wasting so much water. CA could be a lot more careful with water than it is by just leaning on industry and ag to cut wasteful water use harder than it leans on the suburbs. Don't get me wrong, green lawns in our Mediterranean climate are a stupid waste too, but it pencils out to less than a percent of all water use, where ag and industry are both in the double digits.

[–] Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 13 hours ago

Fuck yeah! Cascadia! Let us stop funding this awful government and actually put our taxes towards improving people's lives

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 10 hours ago
[–] charonn0@startrek.website 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Californian. No.

It wouldn't solve any problems that can't be solved by other means, and it would create new problems that we haven't had to worry about before. It'd be a net loss for everyone involved.

[–] quetzaldilla@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago

We'd have to spend a fortune on defense.

We'd suffer massive losses from being cut off from interstate trade agreements.

We'd have to deal with massive immigration issues.

We'd probably get our shit pushed in from all the federal military bases within the state.

I think it's waaaay easier to just oust the current leadership and remove all the Congress members that aided and abetted.

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