An Oregon case, People Not Politicians v. Secretary of State Clarno, was decided last week in favor of People Not Politicians, a group that has struggled obtaining signatures to qualify Initiative Petition 57 (IP 57) for the November 2020 ballot — while observing the governor’s stay-at-home orders.
It is hard to collect petition signatures under social distancing.
So the court is forcing the Secretary of State to give the group some leeway in advancing their redistricting measure.
This is good news for another citizen activist group, Move Oregon’s Border. Chief Petitioner Mike McCarter wants to place initiatives on county ballots in eastern, southern, and southwestern Oregon. His idea is to split off from Willamette Valley politics altogether, leaving wokester Portland — of the comedy Portlandia and antifa riots fame — in the distance.
But he does not want to form a new state. The secession is mere prelude to accession . . . to Idaho!
It has been a long time since the United States has fissioned a state, West Virginia during the Civil War being the most recent — Maine and Kentucky before that.
Great idea? Well, this goes far beyond these two western states. California is ripe for break-up, for by such a political reformation the ratio of citizens to representatives could be increased in favor of citizens.
The idea of calling the proposed new, larger State of Idaho “Greater Idaho” seems a bit much. Surely “Idaho” would do.
But the idea is politically more possible because it wouldn’t change the partisan complexion of the United States Senate, thus avoiding riling up one of the two major parties.
Other fissions, and fusions, would be much harder. Too bad. People should be able to insist on better representation. Democratically.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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2 replies on “Greater Idaho Goes Forward?”
I’m reminded of Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s call a few months ago for the counties in western Virginia where people tend to be conservative to leave Virginia in favor of West Virginia. I expect there’s an awful lot of county-based realignment that might make for more like-minded state lines.
Hardly the first murmur of protest against the progressive domination of large, largely libertarian areas. I was amused when progressives in California started grumbling about seceding from the US after the election of Trump. The seem to have considered the earlier (and on-going) proposed formation of the State of Jefferson from a large area of rural California (and parts of Oregon) both risible and blatantly unconstitutional. Progressives are always strongly in favor of democratic movements, provided the “right” people count the votes in the “right” way, as advised by that famous progressive, Joseph Stalin.