From Climate to Human Rights, California Is Already Its Own Republic
This column is co-published by Zócalo Public Square. Photo by Joe Mathews
California independence is not a crazy idea for the Golden State’s future.
California independence is an everyday reality.
And an enormous success.
Indeed, California independence is succeeding in so many ways that it’s now time—as the second Trump regime turns the U.S. into a petrostate-dictatorship—to consolidate that independence.
Look at the history of our independence. For decades, California has effectively operated with a level of economic, regulatory, and moral autonomy that rivals most sovereign nations. That autonomy is perhaps most visible on environmental matters.
California has established protections for endangered species and the coast (check out this terrific documentary) that go far beyond what the rest of the country provides. California has capitalized on waivers from the federal Clean Air Act—which allowed it to set tougher emissions standards to fight smog—to build its own highly skilled regulatory agencies.
The results are stunning. While the U.S. doubles down on coal and oil and gas, California’s power grid is increasingly powered by wind, solar, and battery storage, sometimes hitting 100% renewable usage. Electric cars have proliferated, tailpipe emissions have been controlled, and greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2020 met. Two years ago, California completed the largest removal of ecosystem-destroying dams in U.S. history on the Klamath River.
California’s independence also raises global standards. California has forged its own foreign policy, clinching treaties to boost trade and investment with China, Canada, Mexico, and various European countries. The state’s groundbreaking climate rules, now two decades old, have touched off similar planning in subnational and local governments worldwide.
Our commitment to independence benefits Californians in other areas, too. California has set its own, far-reaching labor regulation standards that treat gig workers and fast-food employees as citizens of a modern social democracy rather than economic cogs. California’s California Consumer Privacy Act effectively governs how Silicon Valley treats data worldwide. And when the federal government repealed “net neutrality” rules, California imposed its own law to prevent internet service providers from favoring specific content.
California is an essential independent force for human rights in an America that is abandoning those rights. When the Supreme Court rolled back reproductive rights, California enshrined them in its constitution. In the face of Americans’ anti-immigrant hysteria, California extends rights in health, education, and mobility to all its residents, regardless of their legal status. And while California’s sanctuary laws should be stronger, they remain a declaration of independence from U.S. mass deportation policies that include enforced disappearances, concentration camps, and other crimes against humanity.
All this independence is why Trump aims constant attacks and lies against California. Our state’s successes in going its own way threaten this effort to consolidate his right-wing dictatorship.
So he is relentless in fighting our independence. We’ve protected and integrated immigrants into our communities and governing systems, so he steals them away. We’ve been making progress at finding housing for our unhoused people, so he freezes funding. We’ve reduced air pollution and greenhouse gases, so he cancels the federal “Endangerment Finding,” which provided a legal basis for our righteous climate fight.
We’re leaders in broadband and AI research, so he terminates funding for both. We’ve been storing more water in wet years and protecting our fish species, so he recklessly orders the opening of two dams, wasting that water. Our economy runs on trade, so after California successfully fought his tariffs in the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump ignored the ruling and reimposed them.
His plain intention is to make California a colony from which he can extract money and resources. One example was his use of the Iran war to invoke the Defense Production Act, seize control of California’s energy infrastructure, and open an oil pipeline in Santa Barbara County, a blatant violation of the state’s laws and constitution.
Frighteningly, some candidates for governor—Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat—have argued for playing ball with Trump, and trading in resistance for a normal relationship with the federal government.
Surrendering independence would mean more than surrendering the benefits of our autonomy. It would be suicidal, because independence is California’s best survival mechanism.
This would be bad for Americans too—since California independence is a buffer of resilience against U.S. government volatility.
When the federal government shuts down because of partisan gridlock, California’s government continues to function. When the president starts a war and spikes gas prices, California’s renewable energy investments provide essential alternatives. While the Trump administration’s gutting of emergency agencies diminishes its response to disasters around the country, California sends its own personnel and equipment to help.
And when Trump issues destructive economic orders on tariffs or spending, capital can flow to steady, growing, innovative California.
In short, California’s independence is not a risky gambit. It’s a safety measure, a force for stability, here at home and around the globe.
America, we are your Western Firewall. You’re welcome.
Now is not the time to pull back. With the U.S. turning against California values—democracy, freedom, trade and free enterprise, diversity, inclusion—now is the moment to become even more independent.
And we are. As Trump dismantles the federal government and its agencies, California has been building replacement infrastructure especially in public health, environment, and science. Much of this new building is being done in cooperation with other states, including Oregon and Washington.
Our next step should be to create replacements for American finance, including our own version of the IRS and the Federal Reserve, to preserve stable, independent banking and tax enforcement. We also need to ramp up our own military and civil defense structures, as stupid wars and Trumpian mismanagement degrade the U.S. military.
With our finances and defense in order, California can become a fully independent republic—and perhaps the most successful country on earth.
