The secessionists won.
Last year, I reported on the seemingly quixotic attempt by rural Oregonians to divorce themselves, politically, from the cosmopolitan woke-crazies in Portland, Salem and Eugene by voting via initiative, county by county, to leave to form a “Greater Idaho” with the neighboring state. Well, those secesh ballots were cast on the 18th, and voters in Malheur, Sherman, Grant, Baker, and Lake counties “approved various measures that require county officials to take steps to look into moving the Idaho border west to incorporate the counties.”
The Epoch Times story, from which I learned the news, is oddly titled “Oregon Counties Vote to Secede Into Idaho.”
Well, one doesn’t secede into anything, one secedes from.
The plan is, after secession, to accede into Idaho.
The opposite concept of secession being accession.
Disgruntled rural Oregonians are begging their governments to allow a double maneuver: secede-then-accede.
The secessionists won the vote, but what happens next? The idea that the Democratic-controlled state government in Salem would allow this is a stretch. And though Idaho’s Republican governor hasn’t pooh-poohed the idea, no guarantee there, either. Plus, the deal would take congressional approval.
Still, the secede-accede strategy makes sense — political bodies are less kludgy if made up of somewhat like-minded people, not people who cannot stand each others’ guts. The sad truth of government today is that the malign intent of many is not “Divide and Conquer” but “Lump Us All Together and Glory in Making Our Opponents Pay and Pay and Pay for What They Hate.”
Arguably, this is driving us crazy.
And some to secession . . . and into new states.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
3 replies on “If at First You Secede”
If I read Article IV correctly, this deal would require Congressional approval and also the approval of both Oregon and Idaho legislatures. Oregon could just say no.
What most don’t realize, at least from what I’ve read, is that the eastern counties of Oregon cost the state more than they receive in taxes.
Financially it is in Oregon’s interest to let them go.
I’m not sure how Idaho feels about this.
There is/was a movement in Northern California called the State of Jefferson. It has been around for decades. It was To be voted on Dec 7th 1941 but something happened that day..
There were about 7 counties in Oregon and I believe 23 counties from the Northern part of California. It will probably never see the light of day and one big reason we left cali and moved to Idaho late 2017. The term used there was not secede but separation.