Poll: 1 in 3 Californians Supports Secession. Calexit?

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by Amna El Tawil
 
It is a well-known fact that Hillary Clinton is widely popular in California. In fact, her popular vote came from this state and as soon as Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States, Californians started talking their state should leave the country.
 
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, one in every three California residents supports the state’s peaceful withdrawal from the Union. A vast majority of pro-secessionists are, of course, Democrats who strongly opposed Trump. Now, they’re dreaming of a Trump-free country.
 
Reuters announced: “the 32% support rate is sharply higher than the last time the poll asked Californians about secession, in 2014, when one-in-five or 20% favored it around the time Scotland held its independence referendum and voted to remain in the United Kingdom. California also far surpasses the national average favoring secession, which stood at 22 percent, down from 24% in 2014.
 
The poll surveyed 500 Californians among more than 14,000 adults nationwide from Dec. 6 to Jan. 19 and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of one percentage point nationally and five percentage points in California.”
 
Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio said: “There’s such hostility towards Trump that many citizens believe it would be smarter to leave than fight. With 39 million residents and the sixth-largest economy in the world, California is already a nation-state.”
 
During the latest wave of anti-Trump protests in the US, an estimated 1.2 million people took to the streets in California. Although a vast majority of Californians are in favor of going separate ways, in reality, it would be difficult to happen in political, legal, and military aspects. But a secessionist group called ‘Yes California’ is hopeful that it can be reached. Last week it filed a petition with the state attorney general’s office, asking to prepare a referendum on ‘Calexit’ or California exit from the US.