California: exit stage left?
Right after the 2004 election, my father, who left California a while back for a better position in Texas, called to talk politics. We had an extended and worried conversation. At one point there was an exchange that went something like this:
Dad: We can't afford another 4 years of Bush. Maybe it's time to become an expat, for a while at least. To which I said glibly, snidely, and seriously all at once:
"I already am at expat. I'm in California."
Been thinking about that remark again this week. There is no factual truth in it. But I wonder how much emotional truth I was speaking. The idea of California becoming the Republic of California again is not at all a new idea. We would be just fine as a country. Better than fine, really. A power in our own right. Better suited for nationhood than any other state in the Union. Sorry Texas- it's true. I am deeply loyal to the United States. But how long will it be the country I know and love? Are we in a bad patch of our history? Or have we been poisoned by the fear mongering Right? I have no intention of ever living in a theocracy. Or in a country that goes too long without demanding accountability from its executive. America is an idea much more than a location. How much of the majestic ideas of Jefferson, Paine, Adams, and Lincoln will be chewed away by the petulant, greedy little minds in Bush's world before it's time to leave?
Dad: We can't afford another 4 years of Bush. Maybe it's time to become an expat, for a while at least. To which I said glibly, snidely, and seriously all at once:
"I already am at expat. I'm in California."
Been thinking about that remark again this week. There is no factual truth in it. But I wonder how much emotional truth I was speaking. The idea of California becoming the Republic of California again is not at all a new idea. We would be just fine as a country. Better than fine, really. A power in our own right. Better suited for nationhood than any other state in the Union. Sorry Texas- it's true. I am deeply loyal to the United States. But how long will it be the country I know and love? Are we in a bad patch of our history? Or have we been poisoned by the fear mongering Right? I have no intention of ever living in a theocracy. Or in a country that goes too long without demanding accountability from its executive. America is an idea much more than a location. How much of the majestic ideas of Jefferson, Paine, Adams, and Lincoln will be chewed away by the petulant, greedy little minds in Bush's world before it's time to leave?
posted by J -SOM at
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
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