Republicans Propose New State: Southern California

By Erin Sherbert Mon., Jul. 11 2011 at 9:15 AM

Categories: Politics, WTF?

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It's like Arizona and San Francisco in one

One Southern California pol is sick and tired of the Democrats in Sacramento -- tired of the "pillaging" of local governments and, worse, the left-wing policies that dominate the blue state. That's why he's dusted off that tired proposal to let Southern California become its own state.

Yep, that historically failed attempt to break the state into two is being floated again, but this time by a riled-up Republican from the state's inland area. According to the Los Angeles Times, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has rolled out a plan for the 13 inland -- and strongly conservative -- counties to break away from the rest of the state and form their own union, called Southern California.

"We know it's going to be a challenge to form a second state, but it's not a impossible," he tells the newspaper. So far, it has proven to be short of impossible. Groups have tried to divided the state up more than 200 times since the 1850s. But Stone is unrelenting. He's laid out a blueprint for how this could happen -- quickly. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the issue tomorrow.

For real.

If the board signs off on this, leaders will host a statewide summit to get the ball rolling. It's a long shot, but if it were to happen, we in San Francisco can say goodbye to our military-loving, suburban-living, border-fencing friends in Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Tulare.

Nobody asked us, but we think that while they are at it, supervisors might as well continue north and swallow up Stanislaus County,Tuolumne, and San Joaquin counties, where life isn't much different than another day in Texas.

After rolling in laughter, Governor Jerry Brown did issue this blunt response to his conservative constituents: Move to the South.

"It's a supremely ridiculous waste of everybody's time," Brown's spokesman, Gil Duran, told the L.A. Times. "If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there's a place called Arizona."

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