CALEXIT

The “Bad Boys of Brexit” throw their weight behind move to split California in two

By Patrick May

The Mercury News
March 27, 2017

If you can’t beat ‘em, leave ‘em.

That’s how many Californians feel lately about the Trump team in the White House, which explains why more and more residents of the Golden State want out.

Out, as in a Brexit-like departure known as Calexit.

This weekend comes word that two of the masterminds behind the United Kingdom’s ongoing divorce from the European Union, Nigel Farage and Arron Banks. The duo just returned from the United States, where they reportedly helped raise a million bucks for one of the Calexit campaigns floating around — a scheme that would split the state into two regions, one encompassing the eastern and more rural part of California while the other would include the more populated – and liberal – coastal communities.

Farage and Banks are known as the Bad Boys of Brexit, and for good reason. As the controversial leader of the UK Independence Party, or Ukip for short, the one-time broadcaster Farage stirred up the anti-immigration pot in England among the white British working class. Banks, who co-founded the Leave.EU group, angered many when he claimed that Britain’s UK membership is “like having a first class ticket on the Titanic.’’ He also got into hot water with his controversial move to commission a poll after the murder of British politician Jo Cox, asking respondents whether the crime would have an impact on public opinion.

Now the Bad Boys have brought their shtick to California, according to a report in the Daily Mail which says the pair are helping exit backers trying to pit the eastern, more rural side of California against the western ‘coastal elite’ liberals in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The plan would be to create a Republican stronghold in the new state cleaved off California’s eastern flank, thus giving the GOP 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.

The Sunday Times reported that Farage and Banks’ goal is to hold a Calexit referendum during the US midterm elections in 2018.

“It would be portrayed as the Hollywood elites versus the people, breaking up the bad government,’’ Banks said. “Seventy-eight per cent of people in California are unhappy with their government. It’s the world’s sixth largest economy and it’s very badly run.’’

Banks said he and Farage wanted to show people in California ‘how to light a fire and win’ the Calexit referendum and they were recruited for the job by polling expert Gerry Gunster and Republican Scott Baugh, a former member of the state assembly.

Banks added: ‘We were saying that people said the same about Brexit — and we just went and did it. The money was pledged to take it to the next level. This could be the greatest political showdown ever.’

In California, 365,800 people must sign a petition for a proposition to appear on a ballot. Calexit supporters figure that can be easily achieved, given the widespread rancor among blue-state Californians about Trump’s victory. In the election, the state broke nearly two-to-one in favor of Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, a second Calexit campaign is underway. It’s called Yes California and it would see the state seceding from America entirely. If that initiative successfully finds a place on the ballot, a Yes vote would repeal clauses in the California Constitution stating “California is an inseparable part of the United States and that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land, ‘’ according to a statement from California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s office said.

ESITOR’S NOTE: Why stop with just two regions? A better plan would be to split California into five or six regions, then dump them all into the Pacific Ocean. Of course, first we would have to get EPA permission to pollute the Pacific.