This post marks the end of the California Independence Movement

I brought Calexit into this world and now I will take it out

It is vitally important for millions of rational, normal people living in California that that state as we know it never becomes an independent country. By rational and normal, I mean just about anyone who is not a left wing lunatic pushing a modern-day Cultural Revolution through cancel culture, critical race theory, and woke politics. In most places, that isn’t a high bar to pass. California is not most places.

As much as I would love to see California no longer part of the United States, allowing it to secede would only allow its left wing ideology to further metastasize and kill whatever remains golden about the Golden State. Independence would unbind California from the only thing that has thus far kept it from completely deteriorating into a third world communist state. That one thing is the United States Constitution.

Then again, maybe a third world communist state is exactly what they deserve. In fact, all evidence appears to indicate that what was already an uphill battle to save California from itself is, to an increasing extent, a losing one. This is an aggressive opinion about California coming from a man who founded the California independence movement and spent the last seven years promoting California exceptionalism and making the case for its independence.

The truth is I spent the last seven years promoting California exceptionalism based on data that was often rushed and incomplete, or simply inaccurate. I worked with the flawed data that was provided to me by my team to build a political movement around California exceptionalism as a foundation for its independence. Today that movement is known around the world as Calexit and I am proud of how far I was able to take that movement with so few resources.

From the beginning, my goal was to demonstrate public support for California independence and that goal was achieved early on. Several public opinion polls following the 2016 presidential election showed support for California independence in the mid thirties - a great starting point for a brand new political movement which had never taken to the airwaves, never put up a single billboard, and had never had an endorsement from a well-known public figure.

My hope was that a demonstration of public support would pique the interest of some of California’s many political opportunists and that they would take the movement to levels I never could due to the lack of resources at my disposal. After the 2016 presidential election, the political opportunists from Silicon Valley did indeed show up. Although, as the media frantically organized to discredit our movement with bad headlines in the face of its exploding popularity, these investors predictably tucked tail and ran like the cowards they are.

That’s the difference between investors and activists like myself - there is no such thing as bad press for activists. We rocked the boat and that is why we had to be discredited and investors didn’t want to threaten their investments. If our movement did not present a threat to the powers that be, we would have been ignored like every political movement out there you’ve never heard of.

Undeterred by this maliciously coordinated media attack, we beat on, boats against the current, fueled by the very same negative press the establishment hoped would silence us. Although we fought on for years and achieved new milestones and enjoyed success while at it, that struggle is now over. As the founder and president of the California independence movement, I’ve decided to bring this ship I launched back into the shore and throw away the oars.

California, contrary to what some opposition leaders who are fighting the good fight in that state may say, can not be saved from itself. Personally, I can not imagine returning to that state to raise my family. I understand those families, business owners, and other taxpayers who have left the state to find refuge elsewhere and plan to follow their lead.

I can not imagine once again subjecting myself to the lunacy of California’s leftist government policies and political culture that are the enemy of individual liberty and the source of daily friction in so many lives. I can not allow my wife to form her first impression of America based on what she sees and experiences in California, a state which is antithetical to what it means to be American. I can not as a parent bring my child to live in a state that does not respect a parent’s right to make the most important, yet basic decisions about their health, education, and future.

That leaves one final act for Calexit: my personal exit from California. Upon my return to the United States, which will occur as soon as my wife’s immigration papers are processed and she can immigrate to the United States legally, I will not be returning to California, a state that harbors millions who have immigrated to the United States illegally, and encourages more to skip those families such as my own which are patiently waiting in line.

Instead, I intend to bring my family to a red state where parents rights will be respected, the political culture is more friendly to American values, and where individual liberties are protected, not infringed, by the government. The red state I have chosen to establish my new roots is the state of Arkansas.

As such, with the end of my residency in the state of California so comes the end of the California independence movement, which is hereby ceasing all activity. At some time down the road, the United States may break up into smaller countries. This national divorce won’t - and shouldn’t - happen along existing state lines. Instead, we will need to draw new lines to separate, to the extent possible, the blue counties from the red ones.

When that days finally comes, as it will, I strongly suggest we consider strategically amputating our left wing first. It may just Save America from the cancer that is California. When we do so, we must not forget the millions of rational, normal Americans who live in California in deep red counties like Modoc and Shasta, the rest of the area known as Jefferson, and those who are scattered across the rest of the state behind enemy lines. In short, the rest of the country will be more politically homogeneous and may actually be able to stay in tact if we are willing to amputate the west coast.

There are others in California who believe in an independent California. It is up to them now to do what they have thus far not been able to - form a movement to achieve California independence. I do not have much faith in their ability to achieve this goal, because I know these groups. After all, I founded Yes California and every pro-independence group that exists today can trace its roots back to Yes California. It was I who established the California National Party, designed its logo, wrote its original platform, and served as its first chairman. Other groups are merely spin offs of Yes California and were founded with resources and funding from Yes California.

I hope they will prove me wrong because I will always be an advocate of California’s independence. Not for their sake, but for ours.