Category: Military

trump-v-california

The Atlantic: Trump vs. California

ICI June 11, 2025

David A. Graham: Under Donald Trump, the federal government is like a bad parent: never there when you need him but eager to stick his nose in your business when you don’t want him to.

If California is not getting disaster aid but is getting hostile deployments of federal troops, Californians might find it harder to see what’s in it for them. No wonder one poll commissioned by an advocacy group earlier this year found that 61 percent of the state’s residents thought California would be better off as a separate nation.

annie-lofthouse

Texas v. What? 5 Big Myths about Peaceful Secession from the U.S.

C.C. Marin April 13, 2025

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.

ca-population-taxes-spending

What it Means to be a Donor State

C.C. Marin March 14, 2025

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.

two Canada geese in flight

CalMatters: If California split from the US and became a nation, it would be comparable to Canada

ICI January 24, 2025

Legendary California reporter Dan Walters covers our poll for CalMatters:

The transcontinental sniping raises an old question: Could California sever ties with the United States and once again become an independent country? The San Diego County-based Independent California Institute thinks so.