A group calling for California to secede from the United States after Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory will fail in their efforts for independence, an American analyst and peace activist says.
“The effort has no possibility of success,” said Brian Becker, the national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, a US-based protest group consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations.
Although California is large enough to become an independent country, it is unlikely that it would separate from the US due to strong opposition from the political establishment as well as the majority of the state’s residents, Becker told Press TV on Tuesday.
“I know for certain that this movement does not have a chance of becoming a powerful movement within the United States or within the other existing states,” he added.
The Yes California Independence Campaign has submitted a proposal for a ballot measure on removing a piece of the state's Constitution that describes it as an “inseparable” part of America.
On Monday, the group proposed to include the matter on the ballot during the November 2018 gubernatorial elections across the US, where 39 state and territorial governorships as well as numerous other state and local elections would be contested.
The request was filed with the Attorney General’s office, asking it to “prepare a circulating title and summary of the enclosed ballot measure: Calexit: The California Independence Plebiscite of 2019.”
The independence vote would be held sometime in the spring of 2019, provided that the group changes the California Constitution and then collects the number of signatures required to put the measure on the 2018 gubernatorial ballot.
The idea of a so-called “Calexit” was first brought up by the group more than two years ago but it only gained traction after Trump’s election victory on November 8.