Here's a yard sign in Spokane that encourages us to secede from Western Washington....

[RussellCattle]

....and all those liberals in Seattle. What do you think of such an idea? Matt Shea isn't the only home grown nut job that we can boast of.



Thanks to "forgotmylogin" and "billh58" and "Glorfindel" and "cayugafalls" for helping me to figure out how to attach a photo to an OP. Imgur, who knew.

[Aristus]

1. How are they going to support themselves over in Spokanistan?

The West is where Washington happens. We generate the revenue, we attract the tourists, and we do the technological heavy-lifting. So, Eastern Washington: grow the fucking crops and shut the fuck up...

[DBoon]

6. They are rugged self-reliant americans

They need nothing from cities and other liberal areas.

They have mastered the art of flint-knapping and will bring down big game with their spears, after gathering acorns for dinner.

They need nothing from 10,000 of civilized life and commerce with others who are unlike them.

They are happy living in the paleolithic era.

[Chellee]

46. Mmmm... acorn stew...

with a side of story about how you almost got a deer. You missed him by THAT much with your hand made spear.

[RussellCattle]

7. A little sympathy please, I've got to live here with these idiots.

[customerserviceguy]

19. They've got

a lot of the hydropower on that side of the mountains. I would presume that most mineral wealth in WA is also on that side, too.

[fierywoman]

29. It used to be "Free Cascadia."

[lagomorph777]

2. I'd be all for the nutjob areas seceding from blue America, except that there are some decent people

living in the nutjob areas, and the country would look like swiss cheese.

[yellowcanine]

8. Both eastern Washington and eastern Oregon would fail on their own.

As would the Eastern Shore here in Maryland.

[RussellCattle]

32. Thank you. Forty percent of my county, after all, will vote a straight blue ticket.

[Hortensis]

3. :) Sorry, but I think you need a lot more interesting character.

Mean and stupid people are everywhere. Is there a movement for eastern Washington to become a province of Russia, by any chance? That'd at least be a little less ordinary.

[RussellCattle]

42. Interesting that the bar on nuttery has been raised beyond even Matt Shea's...

...truly goofy rhetoric.

[Hortensis]

43. Lol. "Interesting" times, all right.

[AJT]

4. They want 2 more conservative senators in DC.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. No income to sustain themselves as a state, so they'll just be another Socialist Mooching Red State.

[chia]

17. Same here in CA, it doesn't seem to sink in to proponents of secession that they benefit

from state tax revenue generated mostly from counties they're not.

[Thomas Hurt]

9. They never explain how their newly formed nation is going to keep their economy from imploding.

How many state and fed jobs they will lose.
How many people will give them the finger and move out of their utopia
How many will stay and become insurgents even
How they are going to get power, water without treaties with the US.
How many corporations that have facilities in the area but no HQ will bug out.
How they will keep their tax base up
I imagine the whackjobs will have a militia of gun fetishists.

Though I suppose they might have a some immigrant whackjobs who are willing to give up their US citizenship to live in their christofascist utopia.

[chia]

10. Not that I have any sympathy for the idea, but they want to form a new state, not a new nation.

[Thomas Hurt]

12. that isn't secession

[RussellCattle]

13. You may be right, but I meant secede from Washington state, not the union.

What would you call it if the Eastern counties wanted to leave Washington?

[Thomas Hurt]

15. either secession from the USA or the creation of a new state which would be a fed gov't function...

not the State of Washington.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. That Doesn't Really Matter

Given how school funding, infrastructure funding, law enforcement & fire protection, and the like are formulated, rural areas are highly dependent on higher density, economically diverse urban centers
Breaking off as their own state would make funding of police, schools FDs, and the lack of economic diversity puts them at risk every macro hiccup.
They would send far fewer dollars to the fed than they would get back until their congress members' reputation gains experiential clout.
Even though it's just a state, the short term impact of secession would be similar to seceding from the US.
Would be tough sledding for a decade or more.
Given the whininess of that crowd, there would be a lot of wailing!

[chia]

18. I agree, and said as much in post #17. We have similar secede-from-the-state types in CA

They benefit from the coast, while they hate the coast. So I understand and agree with what you're saying, just pointing out the sign clearly says they want to be the 51st. state.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. I Knew

And we agree on the economic fallout of that silliness, whether a new state or separate country.
Have a good evening!

[chia]

21. Thanks, you too :)

[RussellCattle]

11. They want to be the 51st state. A new nation is a whole 'nother can of worms.

[Dan]

28. Ok, with that as long as DC becomes a state too.

[safeinOhio]

16. Any way to divide Seattle area into

as many equal population states as the new Eastern state? Like 3 or 4 states with equal number of Congress people.
Might work out. Compromise.

[EarnestPutz]

22. I'm a flaming liberal who also lives in Eastern WA and I think the sign is just plain funny....

....as well as the seriousness with which it's being discussed. There are a lot of nice people over here and we're being dismissed over such a half-baked idea? Come on. Lighten up a little.

[Tikki]

23. Have these folks looked at the WA Covid-19 numbers?

Spokane, Benton, Yakima and Franklin Counties are ramping up with their case numbers.
What are they now Second, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh in number of cases in WA and the population of the State sits on the Western side.

Tikki

[roamer65]

24. Just send in the WA National Guard if they try it.

[cayugafalls]

25. Is this the same Matt Shea, the politician?

The one who wants to start a Christian Theocracy called Liberty? Holy Cow! That guy is CRAZY!

Far-right Washington state lawmaker faces backlash against white nationalism

...snip...So it’s perhaps not surprising that Spokane Valley is at the heart of a district where voters keep reelecting Matt Shea, a state lawmaker who distributed a document last year telling Christians to “kill all males” if gay people and abortion advocates don’t yield to fundamentalist religious law after the U.S. government collapses....snip...

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-11-27/matt-shea-spokane-washington-white-nationalism

Anyone who supports that guy is really a whacko.

[EarnestPutz]

26. Yes it is. This 51st state thing is really his baby, though obviously it is just...

....a vehicle for his other much crazier notions. Fundamentalist Christian Law. It isn't just red states that have the whackos.

[MFM008]

27. I enjoy

The fact we in Western Washington annoy them so much.
We take away almost all of their votes with the votes from King and Pierce counties.
So theres that....

[marlakay]

36. I lived in Leavenworth for ten years

And the republicans bitched about that all the time.

I figured I had to live with the crappy republican congressman before they changed the district so tough luck!

[RiF]

30. Be eating lots of wheat, fish and nuclear waste.

Go, girl.

[panader0]

31. State bashing is dumb. Every state has good and bad--every state.

Dividing a state in half is dumb too. It'll never happen and just seems to be a way for people
to hate the "other side". I wish people would quit it, especially DUers.
My grandfather taught at Eastern Washington U for 50 years--C.S. Kingston. There's a building named for him there.
My mother and three uncles were
born there in Cheney. She was a real liberal, also a life-long teacher.
There are DUers from every state on this site. Are some states more blue or red than others? Sure.
I've seen some wacko state bashing on DU. I think it's stupid and offensive.

[RussellCattle]

33. As the poster of the OP that started all this, I've got to say thank you. I did....

....not expect to see this discussion go in the direction that it has. I am thankful for Western Washington voters who help us elect a good governor and state legislature every year, but I feel a little put upon by some of the comments. We're not "the other" as you point out, nor do we live with "the other". Don't demonize my wheat farmer neighbors whose politics leave a lot to be desired. State bashing is stupid, again like you said, and even more so when it's "intramural" like here in my really great state. I thought the yard sign was funny.

[panader0]

34. There has been a lot of talk here lately about the confederacy.

They divided the nation when they seceded. Our nation is The UNITED States. United, people of all
colors or sex or belief.
Let's concentrate on
shared values. That should be the focus and not the urge to wall off states or divide people by region.

[RussellCattle]

37. To those unfamiliar with Washington State politics, we are not really that divided. These folks...

....who want their own state, it goes without saying, are the lunatic fringe. The big divide here in Washington are those in the East who resent paying taxes to the State ferry system (conservatives) because they do not use it and those in the West who resent that we won't give up our studded snow tires and they have to help pay for all the winter road damage (liberals, mostly). We don't hate each other.

[Red Mountain]

35. Senators

That's the issue. Representation without population.

At some point, Federal expenditures need to be adjusted to more accurately reflect Federal contributions.

[RussellCattle]

38. I'm going to have to think about that one. If you mean that we build more highways...

...and pay for more school lunches in California and cut back in Alabama, I really see a problem. Isn't it appropriate that the people of this country, through the actions of their federal government, try to help out the people who live in poorer states? The "Senators" part you're right about. There's more people in one borough of NYC than in Wyoming and that's a problem. Fixing the disparity in equal representation won't be fixed by only spending in Mississippi what Mississippi pays into the coffers, and vice versa.

[misanthrope]

39. "In order to form a more perfect union"

by splitting up?

[Thekaspervote]

40. The billies in SO Illinois have been pushing the same thing for years!

They would flounder without Chicago and surrounding area

[BGBD]

41. I think they should break away

but they can't be a state on their own. Only if they agree to form a single state with Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and both Dakotas.

That'll give us 46 states, but we don't want to go changing the flag so we need to add 4 more to fix it. Washington DC, and Puerto Rico first of all, and break out three cities from their current states to make their own state as well. New Orleans and St. Louis should work fine.

I think that's a fair deal. Should end up with a Democratic President for the next 50 years and a 60+ Senate majority.

[rockfordfile]

44. That's un-American right-wing crap. It's something Russia would push

[Xolodno]

45. I wish them all the success that the...

...State of Jefferson had.

Kudos to those who get that.

[jmowreader]

47. Y'know, this could be entertaining...

First, there is no damn way Congress is going to allow a conservative state to enter the union without also admitting a liberal state to retain the balance in the Senate. So, we'd have the "State of Liberty" come in at the same time as the "State of Puerto Rico."

And second, Western Washington's property and business tax revenues are the reason Washington can run with no state income tax. If the Shea-ites manage to secede from Western Washington, that comes to an end.