Yes, peaceful secession is real. No, it can’t be done without the consent of Congress.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definition of “secession” mentions the Independent California Institute in one of their example sentences:
The recent survey was conducted while fires were still active between Jan. 6 and Jan. 14 by the YouGov firm for another secession outfit, the Independent California Institute, based in north San Diego County.
For at least the third time in the last decade, there’s an initiative in circulation that would let Californians start the process of California becoming its own country.
In many ways, California secession is an idea whose time has come. When we polled Californians in January, 61% of them said California would be better off if peacefully became “an independent country with a friendly relationship with the U.S., like Canada.”
At this point, the #1 barrier to California leaving the U.S. is not legal, political, or economic. It’s in Californians’ own minds.
For the third time, supporters of what’s known as “CalExit” are attempting to get a measure on the ballot that asks California voters a once unthinkable question: Should the state secede from the United States and become its own nation?
Still, while the idea sounds extreme, 61% of Californians say the state would actually be “better off” if it seceded peacefully, according to the January 2025 Independent California Poll from YouGov. At the same time, 62% of respondents said they didn’t think a peaceful and legal break-up would be possible.
Casey Coss: As President Donald J. Trump aims to grab Greenland, make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., regain control of the Panama Canal, and allow Puerto Rico its independence (with Bad Bunny’s support), quite a few Californians are ‘dreaming’ of grabbing the state out of the Union.
So much grabbing, so little time. Where is Billy Bush’s ‘Access Hollywood’ clip when Californians need to be reminded of it?
The state’s independence sentiment is evident in a recent poll by the San Diego-based and ironically named Independent California Institute.
Is it accurate to describe the federal funding California gets as California’s own money? Would the U.S. be poorer and weaker without California? Does California’s economy prop up red states? Is California one of the states least reliant on the federal government?
The short answer to all these questions is yes. But it’s pretty hard to win a debate with just one data point.
Joe Mathews: How do you get yourself thrown out of a ballgame? The late Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel, who was ejected from 40 major league games, believed in persistence and obnoxiousness: “You just gotta argue with the umpire until he gets tired of listening to you.”
How do you get your state thrown out of the country? If Californians want independence from the United States, they should follow the strategy of Stengel, who made his home in Glendale.
On January 31, 2025, Mr. Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release millions of gallons of water from Northern California dams “Fire and Flood: Federal Interference Wastes California’s Water Resources”
Thomas Elias: For every action, says one principle of both physics and politics, there is a reaction. So when President Donald Trump threatened to put conditions on disaster aid in the wake of California’s unprecedented January firestorms, there was a reaction.
Alan Riquelmy: A poll released this month and commissioned by the Independent California Institute — which stated that its first principle is for California to become a “fully functioning sovereign and autonomous nation” — offers some support for secessionists.
According to the poll, 61% of respondents said the state would be better off if it peacefully seceded, and 63% supported using “hardball” tactics to gain autonomy.
Carlsbad, CA: 61% of Californians said they would be better off California if peacefully seceded from the U.S. at some point in the next ten years, in a poll conducted in the weeks before Inauguration Day. This is the highest favorability towards secession ever recorded in a California poll.
