PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — A lot of Californians are mad as hell. Some even say they’re not going to take it anymore.

“It” is the outcome of November’s presidential election. A network of Californians is organizing a secessionist movement; their goal is to take the state out of the United States altogether.

Their movement is called #Calexit, as in #Brexit. Their inspiration is the growing gulf that separates them — politically, culturally, demographically — from the rest of the Union. Hillary Clinton outpolled Donald Trump by a two-to-one margin here. “Without California, Trump would have won the popular vote,” tweeted conservative pundit and Trump critic David Frum.

The Golden State has a population of 39 million people — that’s more than any other state in the Union, more people than in all of Canada. Greater Los Angeles alone is home to close to 19 million people, a population greater than that of Ontario and Alberta combined.

As Frum points out, those are numbers that come with economic clout — and Californians know it, too. The U.S. without California, Frum writes, would be world’s second-ranked technological power instead of the first. California boasts the world’s sixth largest economy — greater than the economies of France, Italy, South Korea or India. It’s also a global technological giant, home to the Silicon Valley and companies like Google, Apple, Cisco, Intel, Oracle and SpaceX.

California is also culturally distinct from much of the rest of the U.S. It’s synonymous with liberal causes, from environmental protection to gun control to health care — which leads a lot of other Americans to see Californians in an unflattering light. Marcus Ruiz Evans, one of the movers and shakers behind #Calexit, understands the gulf between his home state and the rest of the country. “California,” he told the Washington Post, “[is] seen as weird.”

California has the largest immigrant population in the Union — approximately 10 million, a quarter of them undocumented. If you’re not an immigrant in California, you know one. Or two. Or more. California has the largest immigrant population in the Union — approximately 10 million, a quarter of them undocumented. If you’re not an immigrant in California, you know one. Or two. Or more.

If California is weird, then that weirdness extends to politics beyond the presidential level. The Senate election in the state last November was contested by two Democrats, both of whom defeated all comers — Democratic and Republican alike — in the primaries. Governor Jerry Brown has vowed to ensure Californians have health insurance coverage, offered through the state-run health exchange called Covered California, even if the Trump Republicans repeal Obamacare.

But where the state’s political culture really breaks away from the rest of the country is on the issue of immigration. Californians are decidedly in favour of it, and it’s easy to see why. California has the largest immigrant population in the Union — approximately 10 million, a quarter of them undocumented. If you’re not an immigrant in California, you know one. Or two. Or more.

In response to President Trump’s plan to engage in large-scale deportation of illegal immigrants, the state legislature is considering a bill that would declare the entire state a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants. Lawmakers have even hired former Obama attorney general Eric Holder to battle the Trump administration on the issue.

That step earned the enmity of the new president. “Trump claims California is ‘out of control,’” writes columnist George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times. (The irony of that statement is undoubtedly lost on the president.) Trump has threatened to cut off federal funds to California. “We’ll defund,” Trump told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. “We give tremendous amounts of money to California.”

Actually, Californians — like residents of Canada’s “have” provinces — contribute more money to the federal treasury than their state receives from Washington in return. There has been much grousing about the Trump administration ever since the defunding threats were levelled — fertile ground for the #Calexit movement. The secessionists even have the support of two Silicon Valley billionaires, Peter Thiel and Shervin Pishevar. Companies like Google have expressed concern about their ability in an anti-immigrant climate to recruit foreigners for jobs that not enough Americans are qualified to fill.

In January, the group “Yes California” was given permission to circulate a petition with the intention of putting the sovereignty question on the 2018 ballot. If the petition is successful — close to 600,000 signatures are required for that to happen — a special vote to decide the state’s future would follow in 2019. The secessionists have 180 days to compile the necessary signatures. Evans says they have recruited 7,000 volunteers to get the names.

The #Calexit movement does have its skeptics (“Canadians know you don’t escape the shadow of your giant neighbor by drawing a border,” wrote Professor Timothy William Waters in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece). Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he believes secession is a bad idea.

Still, such opinions are far from universal. According to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll taken in California, one-third of respondents support the state’s “peaceful withdrawal from the union.”

As one tweeter wrote: “We’ll just take our avocados and legal weed and go.”

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