Following the presidential victory of Donald Trump on November 9th, Californian’s expressed their disapproval by protesting and proposing the state to secede from the nation. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Hyperloop co-founder, Shervin Pishevar, has been the leading force behind this ballot measure being termed as hashtag #calexit, on Twitter. The day before the presidential results were revealed, Shervin tweeted, “If Trump wins I am announcing and funding a legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation. Most patriotic thing to do is to questioning [the] idea of a federation of states & calling a new constitutional convention for systemic change.” Many Silicon Valley elites have openly cosigned the idea via Twitter. CEO of Design Inc., Marc Hemeon, tweeted, “I support you in this effort let me know what I can do to help.” Others such as Dave Morin of Slow Ventures and product managers of Comcast have also expressed their willingness to contribute for the cause. Why has this agenda been strongly promoted in the tech capital of the world? Trump’s talk of adjusting the role of NATO, fair trade and offshoring has obviously worried corporate tycoons that rely on such policies to remain intact.
1/ If Trump wins I am announcing and funding a legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation.
— Shervin (@shervin) November 9, 2016
Critics of the proposal say that California resources are needed more than ever and turning its back on the country can be catastrophic. Forbes journalist Alex Konrad replied on Twitter saying, “the reaction of affluent CA techies to talk succession won’t help the half of America that need our help the most.” Others quickly chimed in saying that such an idea could lead to an even more divided nation and a potential civil war. In addition, some people find that secession is not the answer even though they strongly disagree with Trump’s predicted policies. Markos Kounalakis, president and publisher of the Washington Monthly, believes that a more effective route would be to boycott leading media stations such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox that distort American/Californian values. Political analyst, Francis Wilkinson said, “blocking traffic won’t block his agenda, or halt the erosion of democratic norms and civility that paved his way.”
Despite the criticism and discouragement that a Calexit could ever take place, California’s residents and business owners are taking it very seriously. Proponents believe the value that California provides to the world could not be replaced. If California were to become a nation, the golden state would be the 6th strongest economy in the world. YesCalifornia.org so far has over 200,000 signatures attempting to create an actual measure in 2019’s ballot box. They stand by two basic principles: “(1) California exerts a positive influence on the rest of the world, and (2) California could do more good as an independent country than it can do as just a U.S. state.” Facebook has approximately 1,000 people talking about this and Twitter has tens and thousands of people supporting the trend.
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