Stop Talking About Secession or Independence. We're Already Gone
This column is co-published with Zócalo Public Square.
Yes, I’m already gone
And I’m feelin’ strong
I will sing this vict’ry song
‘Cause I’m already gone
–“Already Gone” by The Eagles
In divorce, there is a legal concept called “constructive abandonment.”
The term applies to a spouse who remains in the home—this is not physical abandonment—but refuses to perform the responsibilities of marriage. The spouse provides no emotional support, makes no financial contributions, and/or refuses to have sexual relations. Through repeated neglect and misconduct, the spouse has abandoned the marriage.
Californians, even happily married ones, should find this idea familiar.
Because the United States has constructively abandoned the Golden State.
Which is why we should stop talking about secession or declaring independence. Trump dismantled the government and ended the democratic republic. He dumped us.
We’re already gone.
I’ve written about the idea of California breaking up with the U.S. for a decade. In all that time, I’ve noted the appeal, and growing cultural relevance, of California independence. I’ve embraced independence at times of great frustration. But I’ve also expressed doubts and skepticism over whether it would ever happen.
There were simply too many reasons to stay.
But now those reasons have evaporated.
For me, the most compelling reason to stay was offered by the conservative columnist David French in his 2020 book Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. French argued that a California departure from the United States would be terrible for the world because it would weaken America. And the world—and especially its democracies—needed a mighty America to keep the peace and protect against authoritarians.
That was true five years ago. But no longer. The U.S. government is not only dismantling its own democracy—it has switched sides on worldwide democracy, by allying itself with right-wing authoritarians, from Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who attack self-government and human rights. Worse still, the Trump administration has taken actions that strengthen the regimes in Russia and China.
In this context, California’s departure would be good for democracy and the world—precisely because it would weaken a dangerously autocratic America.
It would be good for California, too, because the U.S. regime’s authoritarianism and abandonment are damaging the people and governance of this state.
Before, we independent-minded Californians might have asked: How will we protect ourselves without the U.S. military and federal law enforcement? Today, however, the military and homeland security are not our protectors. They are being used against us, as tools of control and intimidation. And the Supreme Court, which once protected our rights, has affirmed these federal attacks. A recent court decision, issued without hearing or explanation, allowed race-based policing while nullifying the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in Southern California.
Before, we might have asked: What would an independent California do without America’s social safety net? This year, however, the administration has gutted Medicaid and is planning to privatize Social Security. Medicare is the next target under the Project 2025 plan that Trump aides are following. An independent California has the wealth to launch stronger, more modern replacements to such programs.
Before, we might have asked: What would an independent California do without the skilled scientists and technocrats of federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? And how could we ever replace the billions the federal government invests in research through our universities? Today, however, the NIH and CDC are being ruined by cuts and the administration’s pseudo-science. And the feds are threatening to bankrupt the University of California by pulling research funding, and demanding billions in fines.
Before, we might have asked: What would California do without the free trade and market access guaranteed by the United States? Today, however, the U.S. regime is blowing up free trade agreements, closing markets with over-the-top tariffs, and threatening free enterprise, with threats and attacks on signature companies (including, recently, Disney).
Before, we might have asked: What would California do without federal money and assistance after the natural disasters that so often hit our state? Today, however, the Trump administration is ignoring requests for billions in aid after the Los Angeles fires. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Trump may shut down, is refusing to do essential soil testing and remediation work. The U.S. regime says it wants state and local governments to do such work instead—a historic abandonment of the federal role.
Before this second Trump administration, legal scholars emphasized that there was no legal or constitutional way for California to depart the union. Today, scholars are starting to express doubts.
Jorge Roig, an expert in constitutional law at Touro University, argued that the Supreme Court, by endorsing the single-person rule that that document explicitly prevents, has effectively abandoned the Constitution. As Roig told his colleague Rodger Citron in Verdict, “The American President now rules above the law, no longer subject to it and indistinguishable from a monarch. With the American Republic thus dismantled, there is no meaningful legal barrier left to secession.”
The question of whether California’s future belongs inside or outside the United States remains a choice, but it is no longer a difficult one.
To stay in the U.S. is to choose to fight for a marriage the other party has abandoned. It is a choice to live in misery under the tyranny of a neglectful and abusive spouse. California itself could be destroyed forever by that tyranny.
Accepting the fact that America has abandoned us, that we have been kicked out of the union, that we could lose everything if we seek to stay in the Union, is emotionally difficult. And perilous, given the violence of the U.S. regime. But moving on from this bad marriage also offers us hope for a new beginning we’ll never find under fascism.
Outside the U.S., California has a better chance of survival. If we, California’s people, seize this moment to build our own new republic, we might soon live again in freedom—and sing that victory song.
(Image via Google Gemini)
