It’s no secret that California is one of the most liberal states in America. In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by 30 points in the state, and afterwards, liberals began collecting signatures calling for California to leave the United States, a movement known as “Calexit.”
Now, the controversial Calexit movement has just gained a powerful supporter, but his motives are not the same as those leftists who want to see California become its own independent nation. Nigel Farage, the leader of the “Brexit” movement in the United Kingdom, is supportive of splitting California into two states, an eastern, more rural state, and a western, more liberal state.
Farage is a major conservative leader, and his involvement in the “Calexit” movement, is likely to enrage liberals, who get triggered over anyone opposing their liberal ideology.
From The Daily Mail:
Former UKip leader Nigel Farage and Leave backer Arron Banks have just returned from the United States, where they helped raise $1million (£800,000) for a ‘Calexit’ campaign, which would split California into two eastern and western regions.
There are several ‘Calexit’ campaigns competing for a referendum in the United States, with one aiming to remove the state from America entirely as a response to President Donald Trump being elected last year.
Farage and Banks, who led the ‘Leave.EU’ campaign, appear to be pitting the eastern, more rural side of California against the western ‘coastal elite’ liberals in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
If broken apart, the eastern part of California would more likely vote Republican, giving the party two more senators and electoral college votes for a 2020 presidential election. The Western side of the state would likely continue to vote Democrat in elections. Farage and Banks’ goal is to hold a referendum during the US midterm elections in 2018, according to The Sunday Times.
Given that California is overwhelmingly liberal, it’s hard to know whether or not there would be enough support to split the state in two, as opposed to the state leaving the nation altogether. Of course, even if any Calexit proposal was approved by the voters of California, any addition or subtraction to the number of U.S. states must be approved by Congress, a difficult, if not impossible feat.
Take Puerto Rico for example, whose citizens have consistently voted for statehood, but get turned down by Congress each time. But even if Calexit fails, Farage may be successful in helping to empower those in California who do not subscribe the the far-left political views of their neighbors.
The California Republican Party is virtually powerless in vast swaths of the state, but Farage’s efforts may help to reignite a conservative revolution in a state that once elected Ronald Reagan as governor.
Would you support the Calexit movement? Should California be its own country, be split into two states, or remain as is? Share your thoughts below!