A tale of two states
There have been concerns for years that California would drop into the Pacific Ocean after a massive earthquake. But now, one Southern California politician seems unwilling to wait for a physical separation, and he’s proposing splitting the state in half politically, according to Time magazine’s website.
Oddly enough, he’s not the first person to make that suggestion. Similar proposals have been made in California politics more than 220 separate times, according to Time.
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone is proposing the split as a way to address political and logistical issues; basically, Stone, a Republican, wants to ditch the state’s Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. “This has struck a chord with a lot of people in the state who have suffered economically,” Stone says. “We know it’s going to be a challenge to form a second state, but it’s not impossible. We’re sending a message.”
That message is that Brown is engaged in policies that do not reflect the ideals of half his state, according to the Time article. In fact, Stone’s proposal calls California an “ungovernable” state in financial crisis where residents are suffering steep taxes to pay for welfare and illegal immigrants. “I have come to the conclusion that the state of California is too big to govern, that the political priorities of Southern California and Northern California are completely different,” Stone wrote in his proposal report.
Brown spokesman Gil Duran called the proposal a stunt and a “ridiculous waste of everybody’s time.” “If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there’s a place called Arizona,” Duran says.