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BARRETT RAINEY Second Thoughts |
This week’s results of the secession votes in Northern California have been posted. The score is two to one: two deciding to continue their established relationship with this country - one opting to join four other counties that previously decided to pioneer a new “State of Jefferson.†Butte County, California, voters will decide the issue for themselves come Tuesday next.
Now, to some it might appear all this “smoke-in-the-California-woods†is just that: people blowing smoke. But, if you clear the air a bit, you’ll see there are some “flames†to all this and some real problems - maybe more violent problems than voting - could be ahead.
In Del Norte and Siskiyou Counties deciding to stay with the union, the count was roughly 60-40. Tehema County voted to go, and it was about the same ratio to leave. About six in ten. In other words, no terribly lopsided majority either way. So, the secession question isn’t going to disappear, regardless of how impossible such a move might eventually be. The discontents and the malcontents still equal 40-60% of the residents. They’ll continue to create very heated political situations in anything those counties try to do. Anything.
There really is some “beef†to all this secession business. Watched a spot on the T&V the other day showing several dozen kids with dummy wooden rifles being marched across an open field ala the British in 1775. They also were getting lectures from old guys in uniforms - astride old horses - about “freedom†and “personal rights†and all that. In other words, prepping the next generation of Northern California kids to carry on the fight when the old guys and the old horses are long gone. That’s dangerous.
When you have 40-60% of the local population getting onboard this secession train, the reality is not all these folks are on the loony fringe. Several I’ve heard support leaving California express some very legitimate concerns i.e. political and economic dominance by large cities, unequal distribution of government assets and programs, little representation in matters of government, etc. All fact maybe, but also all legal.
The U.S. Supreme Court put us on the “one-man, one-vote†highway in the 60's. Soon, rural sections of all states found themselves losing their grips on the levers of government and commerce. Power began shifting to metropolitan areas. Idaho may be one of the last states where this isn’t necessarily true. And that’s only because the legislative bunch from Ada and Canyon Counties - where a third of the population lives - have clout in numbers but keep fighting among themselves over political B.S. So less populated regions of the state still kick their butts in the legislature because the rural communities have learned to stick together. (more…)
