Bored, Walking Empire

California Republicans in the Inland Empire have been trying to split the state's electoral votes for years now and have been blocked (and rightfully so) at every turn by Democrats.  So finally in Riverside County, one Republican (County Supervisor Jeff Stone) is finally going there:  secession from the state because Democrats are stinky.

"We have hit a nerve with citizens who are just fed up with business as usual in the state," Stone said. "I'm talking about a secession plan from the state of California."

This week, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors gave the OK to Stone to hold a summit of California's local leaders to discuss remedies for the state's long list of woes -- including secession.

But the county board stopped short of endorsing Stone's secessionist plan by insisting no taxpayer money be used for the conference.

Stone has come up with a name for the new state: South California. It would be composed of 13 largely Republican counties, most of which are inland along the Nevada and Arizona state lines. The plan would exclude Los Angeles County, but would include Orange and San Diego Counties, both on the coast.

Stone has a long list of grievances against the state and its legislators: high taxes and fees, inability to reform welfare programs, high unemployment and excessive regulations.

"What the state has done is they've been balancing their budgets on the backs of our local coffers. They've been stealing our sales tax, property tax," Stone said. "The bottom line for me and my constituents is jobs. We are sending jobs out of the state of California by the train load."

Riverside County is among the hardest hit communities by the recession and mortgage meltdown, leaving many communities pockmarked with vacant homes, Stone said.

"We are the foreclosure capital of the world," Stone asserted. "We have some areas of the county that have 25% unemployment. The average in Riverside County is about 15%."

To recap, Stone's brilliant idea is to take San Diego, Palm Springs and all the inland stuff, and leave the rest of California to the Democrats.  Which is fine with the Democrats, because I'm sure they would enjoy having things like Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and water and then not have to worry at all about the border with Mexico.

Look, I appreciate the fact there are enough Republicans in these counties to pretty much form a 51st state without any problems, but we're really talking about splitting states up because you don't like Democrats?  That's what this is all about, frankly.  Why work with them when you can make national news by threatening secession?

That's Republican politics in California these days.