Sunday, December 18, 2016

A QUESTION BORN OF DESPERATION

Is it possible to be a citizen of California without also being a citizen of the United States?  I would be willing to pay a hefty entry fee if it were.  I mean, as Jerry Brown keeps pointing out, California has something like the fifth largest GDP among the world's nations.  
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8 comments:

  1. RichardDecember 18, 2016 at 9:41 AM

    Were not the citizens of California at one point in time not citizens of the United States? So it is possible, just not at the present time.

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  2. AnonymousDecember 18, 2016 at 9:52 AM

    sow* division

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  3. ChrisDecember 18, 2016 at 10:11 AM

    Perhaps just become a citizen of Asheville?

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  4. David E.December 18, 2016 at 11:47 AM

    With respect to what Mr. Anonymous posted, yes, the Alt-Right is quite interested in secession. Texas and Alaska (Palin's husband, even) have their share of secessionists. And in my readings of the Alt-Right (or better, the rebranded-with-a-catchy-new-name Neo-Nazi movement), the idea of "subsidiarity" or "states' rights" or "nationalism" is built into their dry, crusty Kuchen.

    THAT SAID... What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If Americans were relieved by the dissolution of the Soviet Union (with US encouragement), it is understandable that the Russians might return the favor by at least some wishful thinking along those lines.

    AND THEN THERE'S THIS -- the United States has been at LEAST two separate countries since the Civil War. And the size alone creates despair and a feeling of alienation in everyone who lives in it.

    I'd apply for Californian citizenship too, if it were available.


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  5. AnonymousDecember 18, 2016 at 12:19 PM

    Say what you want about social and political divisions in the country, but Trump was only elected by about 20% of the population (28% of eligible voters). Balkanization is the surefire way to amplify the nightmare of the coming Trump administration and those on the left should be wary of playing into it.

    I really don't see how the independence of former Soviet satellite states is really comparable to American secessionist movements. I don't think there are "ethnic Californians" or "ethnic Alaskans" in the way that there are Estonians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, etc.

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  6. AnonymousDecember 18, 2016 at 12:49 PM

    No. The Civil War settled that issue.

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  7. Ludwig RichterDecember 18, 2016 at 1:40 PM

    Professor Wolff, I'm wondering what your son, Prof. Tobias Barrington Wolff, thinks of the paper recently published by Norman L. Eisen, Richard Painter, and Lawrence H. Tribe on how Donald Trump is on a collision course with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. The paper is called "The Emoluments Clause: Its Text, Meaning, and Application to Donald J. Trump" and can be found here:

    https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/gs_121616_emoluments-clause1.pdf

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  8. Robert Paul WolffDecember 18, 2016 at 2:09 PM

    I will ask him.

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