WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.680 For any of you with younger kids, maybe in college, 2 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:09.160 coming out of college, young adults, and especially if your 3 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.599 kid is was able to go to college out of 4 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:17.519 state or something like that, your kid's pretty industrious. I 5 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:20.760 think we all have had to sort of have the 6 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:24.039 thought for younger people. And I sort of was having 7 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:27.679 this thought. I mean, with a young couple from our 8 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:32.039 church that we're helping out with like our church's marriage 9 00:00:32.039 --> 00:00:37.679 prep program, and I'm sort of looking at these young people, 10 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:44.479 and I'm kind of asking myself, should they stay? Should 11 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:50.240 they stay here in the San Joaquin Valley. I see 12 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:55.320 a news story about how Fresnan's Fresno is among the 13 00:00:55.399 --> 00:01:02.439 nation's most rent burdened city. Census data shows thirty four 14 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:07.599 percent of Fresno renters spent more than half of their 15 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:12.280 income on rent in twenty twenty three, the fourth highest 16 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:14.560 rate of cities with more than two hundred thousand households 17 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:18.719 in the nation. According to the news website Axios, the 18 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:23.159 only cities to beat Fresno were Port Saint Lucy, Cape 19 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:27.879 Carrall and Palm Bay, Florida, with Miami in fifth place. 20 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.599 I'm gonna take a wild guess that Fresno has kind 21 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:37.920 of a lower average income than all of those cities. 22 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.400 I don't know they're parts of Miami, I think that 23 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:47.680 are more low income. But that's kind of that's kind 24 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:54.200 of disturbing. And I've been thinking this for myself, just 25 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:59.079 looking around at like, Okay, you know, I got a 26 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:01.760 job that was sort of potentially shopped me. It's not 27 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:06.159 a job I would ever take because it's in Idaho, 28 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:11.199 and I was sort of looking at it and I'm like, Okay, 29 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:13.800 well I could make a little bit more than I 30 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:19.719 make now. And the cost of living to go live 31 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:22.360 in Idaho. To live in Idaho. 32 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:24.639 Is just. 33 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:33.199 Globally smaller. I mean, it's world's apart. Between gas prices, 34 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:43.360 energy prices, housing costs, everything taxes, state income taxes, state 35 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:48.319 regulatory stuff like that. Just your overall if you're gonna 36 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:51.759 make X dollars in Fresno versus X dollars in Idaho, 37 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:54.280 that X dollars is going to take you way farther. 38 00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:59.879 And it just kind of makes me shake my head 39 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:04.439 for someone who is from here. And I guess I 40 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:11.879 want to emphasize that I think there is a problem 41 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:18.039 in modern America with sort of the you know, between 42 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:22.560 air travel, car travel interstate highways and people having more 43 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:27.800 social mobility. There's more of a tendency for especially the 44 00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:30.879 better educated you are, for people to move away from 45 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:35.680 their hometowns. And you see the concept of brain drain, 46 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:43.439 where really smart college graduates tend to leave their hometowns 47 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:50.879 and flock to consolidate to the big cities. I had 48 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:52.639 a bunch of friends from Notre Dame who are from 49 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:56.319 all over and a lot of whom just wound up 50 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:01.199 in Chicago, wound up in Chicago, wound up in New York. 51 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:07.039 I'm sure there's a lot of kids who in colleges 52 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:11.039 up and down California who maybe are from Fresno or 53 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:12.840 are from here or from there, and they wind up 54 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.600 in Los Angeles. They wind up in the Bay Area. 55 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:22.240 Why because that's where the jobs are for students with 56 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:28.600 elite degrees. The concept of brain drain is nothing new. 57 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:33.439 People grow up in Ti Larry, let's say, and they 58 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.399 get their education, they go off to college, and they 59 00:04:36.439 --> 00:04:39.199 just never come back, or they only come back sporadically 60 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:44.560 or at lower percentages. And I think that's a sad thing, 61 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:47.720 you know, And you know, I see it in my 62 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:50.319 own family. I mean, my my brother grew up here 63 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:53.160 and he's living in Washington, d C. My sister grew 64 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:57.279 up here and she's living in Los Angeles. Why well, 65 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:00.519 they followed the jobs that they wanted to follow. And 66 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:03.959 my brother's case, he met a girl from the DC 67 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:08.920 Northern Virginia area, married her. My sister because she's working 68 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:10.920 in movies. Where else is she gonna work? You know, 69 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:14.639 she has to be in uh Burbank. And my little brother, 70 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:17.079 who's an army officer, sort of trying to figure out 71 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:18.839 where he wants to be. And I don't know how 72 00:05:20.199 --> 00:05:24.600 hot to trot he is about wanting to stay in California. 73 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.319 But there is some and I think there's something really 74 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:35.480 sad about that in certain respects that California has just 75 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:41.480 made itself. California has made itself really inhospitable for people 76 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:45.120 to come back. And I'm seeing this more and more 77 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:49.120 as a you know, older, you know, getting older every day. 78 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:51.639 I just turned thirty seven, and I hurt my back, 79 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:55.040 so I'm not feeling particularly young. But you know, thirty seven, 80 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:58.040 I've got a young family. I've got you know, five 81 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:06.800 young kids, and I see it. I see the possibility 82 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:10.800 of greener pastures on the other side of the state border. 83 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:17.079 I see, how like, oh yeah, this state is really 84 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:23.399 not geared around me economically thriving. This state is not 85 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:31.079 designed for middle class success, not nearly as much as 86 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:35.639 a lot of other places are. And I'm lucky. I 87 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:37.639 mean I was able to We were able to buy 88 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:40.439 our house, you know, with relatively low interest rates in 89 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:47.839 twenty nineteen, before interest rates skyrocketed and before housing costs skyrocketed, 90 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:50.920 the housing costs of skyrocketed over the last you know, 91 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:55.759 five six years, five years here, I think our house 92 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:58.959 would be totally out of reach to me if if 93 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.680 I had was looking for it today rather than five 94 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:10.680 years ago. We were lucky. And I think it's sad 95 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:16.319 because you know, where you are, the political community, the area, 96 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:20.680 the place where you are from, has an impact on you. 97 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:27.560 It helps form and shape you. Aristotle writing about politics, 98 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:34.079 he was writing his Polish politics, okay, And for Aristotle, 99 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:41.560 the city was sort of the signature political unit of 100 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:44.600 his time. The city state, the Greek city state, which 101 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:49.639 basically encompassed the city, the urban center, plus kind of 102 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:53.920 the immediate surrounding countryside, and usually in Greece, because it's 103 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:58.639 so so much of it is near the ocean, the 104 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:06.959 surrounding farmland, plus probably the port. And for Aristotle, that 105 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:14.120 sort of local regional governance was the paradigm. That was 106 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:16.120 the paradigm for Greece, and that was how all of 107 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:18.800 their political divisions were. You had sparred over here in 108 00:08:18.839 --> 00:08:20.480 Athens over here, and Themes over there, and they were 109 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:26.720 different political entities with different governments and oftentimes in alliance 110 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:30.360 with each other, oftentimes militarily opposed to each other. And 111 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:36.320 he thought of politics as and I'm not sure if 112 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:42.240 this was more descriptive or prescriptive or prescriptive. Politics makes 113 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:50.919 sense when you have a community bound together by mutual 114 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:55.799 ties of being from that place, you are that kind 115 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:58.720 of a people. We are Athenians. This is our national 116 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:03.879 political polis based city character. We are this kind of 117 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:06.559 a people. We worship these kinds of gods. We are 118 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:10.200 from this kind of place. We have this kind of 119 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:13.559 Our military is our navy. You know, we're a port city. 120 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:16.080 These are the economic things that ties the religion and 121 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.200 things that tie us, the cultural things that tie us. 122 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:22.840 This is our style of government that reflects our civic character. 123 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:33.279 Where you're from can have an impact on you in 124 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:41.559 a way. That's good in a way that's meaningful and profound, 125 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:47.039 and certainly I realize in modern America and modern California 126 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.000 today that sort of the beauty of being from a place, 127 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:56.639 living in that place, putting down roots in that place, 128 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:03.559 being embedded within that community that raised you. I recognize 129 00:10:03.559 --> 00:10:08.080 that economically and just the happens stands of individual people's 130 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:14.200 lives that can't always be Sometimes you have to you know, 131 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:16.759 you have to put bread on your table, you have 132 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:18.480 to go pursue a job. And if that means you 133 00:10:18.519 --> 00:10:21.799 got to up and move, maybe that's what you have 134 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:23.480 to do. Maybe that's the right thing for you to do. 135 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:27.519 You know, you go to college out of state, you 136 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:30.039 meet a girl from another part of the country. She's 137 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:31.679 from one place, you're from another place. You got to 138 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:32.759 pick one place to live. 139 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:33.679 You know. 140 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:36.279 That's what our family's done. I'm always so grateful to 141 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:41.679 my wife that she was willing to move to from 142 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:47.480 her home in Minnesota to where to Fresno, California, where 143 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:51.919 it's one hundred degrees in the middle of September. That's 144 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:54.600 quite the thing. It's less of an ask when it's 145 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:58.879 February and we're wearing shorts and her family in Minnesota 146 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:01.080 is buried under twenty feet of snow or whatever. So 147 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.559 that's when it becomes a bit of an easier ask. 148 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:06.360 But when it's September and it's that we've got more 149 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:11.200 one hundred day temperatures coming up in the forecast next week, 150 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:13.000 this is this is the time when it becomes a 151 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:23.080 little trying. I recognize that there's happenstance like that where 152 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.360 people have to move from where they are. I just 153 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:32.200 think that California, you know, I think California is making 154 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:38.960 this that necessity of needing to move more urgent to 155 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:42.879 more and more and more people in a way that 156 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:48.080 is horrible, in a way that is going to be 157 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:53.840 economically unsustainable for the state, and in a way that 158 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:59.639 that I think is culturally deeply sad. I mean again, 159 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.279 I I'm looking at, you know, young couples just starting 160 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:08.960 out their lives, and I'm thinking, man, like, you know, 161 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:13.840 trying to make it here when you could just move 162 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.720 to I don't know, Idaho or Arizona, Nebraska or anywhere 163 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:25.000 and just have such less cost, such better economic opportunity. 164 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:26.600 I mean, trying to make it here, it's almost like 165 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:31.799 trying to trying to play, you know, I don't know. 166 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.000 It's like trying to box with one hand behind your back. 167 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:39.279 You're at this like automatic economic disadvantage by deciding to 168 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:46.120 settle down here, And I guess that's what just depresses me, 169 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:54.279 that this region which is really my home. If you're 170 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:57.120 going to say, how do you John DROREDI identify I 171 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.799 identify as someone from the San Joaquin Valley. I've never 172 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:05.320 thought of myself as a Californian. I would say probably 173 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:09.440 I'm first and foremost a clove site. I still don't 174 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:12.600 know the I still don't know the adjective for someone 175 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:15.279 who lives in close. I lived in Clovis my whole life. 176 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:18.039 After I was done with college, in law school, I 177 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:24.399 came back. I moved back to Clovis, probably primarily Clovis, 178 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:26.879 and then my secondary identity is someone from the San 179 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:31.440 Joaquin Valley. I've never thought of myself as a Californian. 180 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:35.000 I mean, I don't even know what a Californian is. 181 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:37.679 I don't think there's anyone in California who identifies as 182 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:40.720 I'm a Californian. No, you identify with whatever region of 183 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:45.559 California you're in or from. You would probably more so 184 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:49.000 identify as someone from the Bay Area, or someone from LA, 185 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:53.279 or someone from even your particular region of LA or 186 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:56.919 the greater Southern California area. As being from Orange County 187 00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:58.919 is a very different thing from being from East LA. 188 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:02.120 Being from San Diego is a very different thing from 189 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:07.200 any of those people identify with regions of the state, 190 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:16.399 not as I'm a Californian. And yet that's the level 191 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:19.559 at which all these decisions, or most of these decisions anyway, 192 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:25.399 are being made to govern our lives in ways that 193 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:29.919 are often harmful. When we return, I'll dig a little 194 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:33.279 bit more into this and talk about my firm, long 195 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:36.799 standing belief that California should be broken up into several states. 196 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:41.159 That's next on the John Girardi Show. I've long had 197 00:14:41.159 --> 00:14:45.840 the opinion that California should be broken up into several states, 198 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:50.039 and also the equally firm opinion that it will never 199 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:56.679 ever happen. Let's talk about why it should. First of all, 200 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:01.919 why should it? I think when people hear the proposal here, 201 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:05.879 a proposal that California should be broken up into several states, 202 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:10.120 they sort of look at it with this kind of incredulity. 203 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:12.919 I mean, it's kind of a while it's a wild 204 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:16.799 sounding idea to a lot of people. They see, any ah, 205 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:23.519 that's crazy, that can never happen, even like state wide 206 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.240 ballot initiatives that have sort of proposed it as you know, 207 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:28.440 ineffective as those would have been. As I'll explain later, 208 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:31.679 there have been state wide ballot initiatives, you know, pos 209 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:36.039 proposing the idea, and they never really get much traction. 210 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:39.039 You know, people have come up with a lot of 211 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:41.080 different schemes. There's a lot of different schemes you could 212 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:46.840 come up with. I think that fundamentally, the idea of 213 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:51.480 breaking California up into its kind of distinct regions would 214 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:53.879 make sense. So let me let me explain a couple 215 00:15:53.879 --> 00:15:59.159 of reasons why. So there's the theoretical reason, and then 216 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:02.000 there's the kind of good governance reason, and maybe the 217 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:07.480 good governance reason comes first. First of all, I think 218 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:10.159 people have this idea that the boundaries of California were 219 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.799 drawn by Almighty God himself and that they cannot be 220 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:17.480 touched or changed. No, California was a sort of arbitrary 221 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:22.879 set of boundaries, just sort of bounded by the mountains 222 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:25.200 over on one side and kind of going up a 223 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:29.720 sort of indeterminate mountain north. And it followed along the 224 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:35.399 settlements that Spanish settlers like Spanish slash Mexican settlers like 225 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:40.279 Huniproserra who Nimbrosara was just Spanish that who Nipprosera and 226 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:44.559 others made mostly along the coast, but also further inland. 227 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:54.639 And it turned out that we had gold, and so 228 00:16:54.759 --> 00:16:57.000 we had the gold rush, and we had more and 229 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.840 more and more people coming here in ways that we 230 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:03.240 couldn't have really anticipated, and all of a sudden, we 231 00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:10.039 now have California encompassing forty million people. Should a state 232 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.759 have an American state? Should an American state have forty 233 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:18.799 million people? I think you can just safely answer that no, 234 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:23.839 I don't think it should. Like if you look at 235 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:26.559 the original thirteen colonies at the time of the founding, 236 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:31.000 the estimates are that the total population of the thirteen 237 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:35.599 colonies was in the ballpark of about two point five million, 238 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:39.559 and it grew from there until seventeen ninety it was 239 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:45.680 maybe around three million or something. So your average colony 240 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:51.079 just did not have a population even close to forty 241 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:56.359 million people, And you can start to make the question 242 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:58.440 of is that just too big for a state government 243 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.079 effectively to be I think it is, especially when you 244 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:08.759 look at questions like how many people are represented by 245 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:14.839 a state legislator on average California State Assembly members. Okay, 246 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:16.880 so we have our two houses in our state legislature. 247 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:18.920 We have the State Assembly and we have the state Senate. 248 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:27.559 California state Assembly members represent five hundred thousand people a piece. 249 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:32.440 California state senators represent a population of about a million 250 00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:40.119 residents a peace. That's the most disproportionate ratio for any 251 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:44.160 state legislature in the country. Most state legislators are representing 252 00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:49.559 about a couple tens of thousands of people, not hundreds 253 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:54.640 of thousands. State senators in California represent more people than 254 00:18:55.559 --> 00:19:01.920 a member of the US House of Representatives does. So 255 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:09.319 the divide the distance between an individual citizen and their 256 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:14.079 state government is so vast. I mean a state legislator 257 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:16.480 at the time of the founding, like one of the 258 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:22.440 various individual thirteen state legislators. If you were a state legislator, 259 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:27.039 you could probably get to know individually every single voter 260 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:36.240 you represent. Wasn't that large of a pool. And I 261 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:38.599 think there's something to be said with the kind of 262 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:41.920 there's this sort of political apathy in California, where I 263 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:43.759 think there's a ton of people who just feel like 264 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:47.759 they have they make no difference in politics whatsoever. I 265 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:54.200 think it leads to depressed voter turnout. You can very 266 00:19:54.400 --> 00:20:00.240 credibly you know there are more Republican voters in California. 267 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:03.880 There are enough Republican voters in California that there's something 268 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:08.839 like twelve million Republicans in California if you well, let 269 00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:10.640 me put it this way, if you take all the 270 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:14.920 red counties of California, that there aren't twelve million Republican 271 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.160 voters in California, but this is true. If you take 272 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:21.720 all the red counties of California and put them together 273 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.920 as one, it turns into a bright red state of 274 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:29.519 about twelve million people. That's like more, that's about as 275 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:34.880 much as Ohio. So hidden inside ultraliberal California because it's 276 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:39.000 so huge, is a red state about the size of 277 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:48.839 Ohio that nobody really knows exists. And to have that 278 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:53.559 many tens of millions of people just kind of disenfranchised, 279 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:56.839 not disenfranchised, but just like, yeah, you're gonna be in 280 00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:01.400 the minority all the time, and you must live under 281 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:04.680 these people. I don't know that that's a great thing 282 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:09.440 for democracy to have that enormous a population of people 283 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:14.799 become that apathetic to politics because they know they're going 284 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:19.559 to lose everything all the time. All Right, when we return, 285 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:21.759 I'll talk a bit more about the theoretical reason why 286 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:24.079 I think California should be broken up into multiple states. 287 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:28.559 That's next on the John Gerrardy Show. Why should California 288 00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:32.119 be broken up into several states? There's a lot of 289 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:36.400 the practical reasons. There's the fact that state legislators in 290 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:40.319 California represent way more people than state legislators do in 291 00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:42.920 any other state. It's not even close. Your average state 292 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:47.119 assembly member in California represents five hundred thousand residents. Your 293 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:51.720 average state senator is representing about a million residents. It's 294 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:58.279 completely insane the distance between your average voter and his 295 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:01.880 or her average state legislator, or it's just a bigger 296 00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:04.599 divide than you see in any other state in the Union. 297 00:22:05.559 --> 00:22:08.440 You have such a huge population, that you have such 298 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:10.759 a huge population of people who feel like their political 299 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:15.680 views are completely unimportant, not listened to, not cared about. 300 00:22:16.279 --> 00:22:20.720 Leads to voter apathy, It leads to voter burnout. It 301 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:23.319 leads to people wanting to leave the state. And we 302 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:25.920 see that, we see people moving out, we see the 303 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:29.880 population dropping. And especially when you think about the idea 304 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:32.279 that there's basically a if you take all the red 305 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:36.720 counties of California and put them together, it creates a 306 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:42.079 red state of about twelve million people, which is about 307 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:45.920 the size of Ohio. Like there's a there's a huge 308 00:22:46.039 --> 00:22:50.480 red state just hidden inside of California that just gets 309 00:22:50.559 --> 00:22:56.599 swallowed up by that behemoth that is California. Now I 310 00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:01.839 understand practically speaking, politically speaking, California will never be broken 311 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:05.000 up into several states. Why well, it'll never be broken 312 00:23:05.079 --> 00:23:08.920 up into several states because of the politics of it. 313 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:18.799 To create a new state requires Congress to vote for 314 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:28.200 it and whatever state or states legislatures to vote for it, 315 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:32.559 whatever states might be involved. So if if you wanted 316 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:34.279 to create a new state out of a chunk of 317 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:37.759 Oregon and a chunk of California, for example, the state 318 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:40.240 legislature of Oregon would have to vote for it, and 319 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:42.559 the state legislature of California would have to vote for it, 320 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:48.000 and Congress would have to vote for it. Okay, So 321 00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:51.720 to split California up into several states. What would it require, Well, 322 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:54.720 it would require the California state legislature to vote for it, 323 00:23:55.400 --> 00:24:01.160 and it would require Congress to vote for it. I 324 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:08.640 don't think those outcomes are likely to happen. Why. Well, 325 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:13.200 because of the Senate. If you were to create like 326 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:16.960 a state of San Joaquin basically, which is what I 327 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:20.599 would want to keep California as it is, but let's 328 00:24:20.680 --> 00:24:24.119 just cut out the middle chunk of it, and that's 329 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:29.160 the state of San Joaquin, Well, that would probably be 330 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:37.599 a red state and Democrats don't want that. They absolutely 331 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:41.359 wouldn't go for that. Why vote for that? It would 332 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:46.799 take away presidential election electoral college votes because right now 333 00:24:46.839 --> 00:24:50.039 Democrats get all fifty or whatever it is of California's 334 00:24:50.039 --> 00:24:53.799 electoral college votes every single presidential election. If you create 335 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:56.119 a new state that might be Republican leaning, they just 336 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:59.480 lose out on a couple of those electoral college votes. Secondly, 337 00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:05.200 the Senate, it would just add two Republican senators to 338 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:08.519 the Senate. Why would any Democrat go for that? So 339 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:12.880 Democrats would never go for it. So if you were 340 00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:14.400 to break up the state, you'd have to do so 341 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:18.319 in a way that equitably split things between Democrats and Republicans. 342 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:20.039 Democrats would only go for it if they got a 343 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:25.440 Democrats state and Republicans got a Republican state. So maybe 344 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:29.039 you could do something where you break California up into 345 00:25:29.079 --> 00:25:32.640 maybe like from one state to maybe like five states 346 00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:35.319 to create two new Republican states, two new Democrats states, 347 00:25:35.319 --> 00:25:40.119 plus the existing California. So Republicans add form more senators, 348 00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:43.000 Democrats add form more senators. But still Democrats wouldn't go 349 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:46.440 for that. Why Well, because again they're losing out on 350 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:50.079 electoral college votes during presidential elections. They don't want to 351 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:54.960 break California up. If they break California up, that means 352 00:25:55.559 --> 00:25:58.000 they don't get all those electoral college votes. Now, if 353 00:25:58.039 --> 00:26:02.680 electoral college votes in California worked the way they do 354 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:09.200 in Nebraska, where in Nebraska you get an electoral college 355 00:26:09.240 --> 00:26:15.519 vote based on the individual vote within each Nebraska congressional seat, 356 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:19.960 that would be a different story. Okay, So that's why, 357 00:26:20.119 --> 00:26:23.759 like in I think Nebraska and Maine both have this 358 00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:27.160 where you could get like one of Nebraska's electoral college 359 00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:31.400 votes rather than all four or five, you can get 360 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:35.920 one in Maine is the same way. But that's not 361 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:38.039 how California does it. If you win California, you get 362 00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:41.200 all the electoral college votes. In spite of the fact 363 00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:45.039 that you know, if you live in Vince Fong's congressional district, 364 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:51.240 Vince Fong's congressional district is super duper right wing. But sorry, 365 00:26:51.319 --> 00:26:57.000 your electoral college vote is still going to Kamala Harris now. 366 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:01.759 So Democrats will never go for it, and that's the procedure. 367 00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:03.960 Congress has to vote for it, and the state legislature 368 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:05.839 has to vote for it, and it's never going to happen, 369 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:10.839 but it should. And here's why. It's some of the 370 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:12.640 stuff we talked about in the first part of the show. 371 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:24.039 A good political community is bound together by ties of love, affection, 372 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:31.559 and commonality. A good political community has these sort of 373 00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:34.440 common traits with each other that are formed by being 374 00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:39.960 from the same place, caring about the same things, working 375 00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:47.400 the same fields, living in the same spaces, walking the 376 00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:53.319 same streets. If you walk the same streets as someone, 377 00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:56.440 you have something in common, you have a bond, there's 378 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:02.440 something you share, and that's what a true political community is. 379 00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:09.160 The music you hear, the songs you sing, the in 380 00:28:09.720 --> 00:28:15.000 ancient Greece, the gods you worship and maybe here now 381 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:21.160 in America, we've made religion and race less important as 382 00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:26.359 the ties that bind a political community together. In some 383 00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:35.640 ways that are better than ancient Greece. But to have 384 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:39.839 a tie of commonality is what makes you able to 385 00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:42.799 identify with this other person in that other person, that 386 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:45.480 other person, all these people who live in one place. 387 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:50.000 It's why it feels weird for you and I. You 388 00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:53.079 listener and I listen. I talker to say that we 389 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:57.519 are from californ I'm a Californian. I don't identify as 390 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:02.880 a Californian. What even is a Californian. California is such 391 00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:09.839 a heterogeneous, diverse place that there's no one thing a 392 00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:14.799 Californian is. Someone living in a ranch up north near 393 00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:22.279 the Oregon border has basically nothing to do with someone 394 00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:29.880 who lives in Beverly Hills, who also is quite different 395 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:33.880 from someone who lives in Oakland, who is also quite 396 00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:42.079 different from someone who lives in Selma. These are wildly 397 00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:46.119 different places from each other. They have very little who 398 00:29:46.519 --> 00:29:49.680 is different from someone who lives in Oakhurst Like These 399 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:55.640 are wildly, wildly different places from each other that don't 400 00:29:55.680 --> 00:30:02.599 really have a lot in common. I think someone Monterey 401 00:30:02.680 --> 00:30:06.000