Okay, so I hadn’t heard about the latest scheme to break up California. As Jack Ohman notes, it’s the latest in a long line of such proposals that have gone exactly nowhere as they faced nearly unanimous opposition from the powers that be.[1]
As Ohman also notes, this is not the only effort afoot to redraw state boundaries. He criticizes the lot of them on fiscal grounds,[2] an argument I will leave aside.
California is one of a few states where Democrats, quite in contrast to their federal-level debacle, have a lock on power. It’s one reason the Silicon Valley broligarchs often grumble about leaving the state, which is difficult because when you stack up anyplace in Texas, for example, against San Francisco, you can see where they just might have a problem recruiting talent.
For less well-heeled Republicans, the reality in California is that their voices often go unheard—they are effectively disenfranchised. It’s the reverse of the situation at the federal level where the electoral college and U.S. Senate are biased in favor of rural areas and urban Democrats often feel their votes don’t count as much as those of rural Republicans.
I know the feeling. I’ve long been disgusted with the Democrats for their evident preference for sitting in opposition where they can complain about Republicans without ever actually being expected to actually accomplish anything. And Republicans are simply beyond the pale. In 2024, I found I didn’t even have a third-party candidate since they were all either 1) capitalist libertarian or 2) tankies (pro-Russia). In point of fact, I’ve felt effectively disenfranchised for decades.
But given that we’re keeping the falsely dichotomous two-party system and given that we aren’t getting rid of the electoral college or rejiggering the Senate, the remaining option is the very one that Ohman ridicules: Breaking up blue states to rebalance both.
To be sure, I wouldn’t favor the plan that provokes Ohman’s rant: It would simply add yet another red state,[3] exacerbating the existing Senate and electoral college biases. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem that needs fixing. And until Ohman makes a proposal that actually addresses that problem, I can’t think much of his column.
[1] Jack Ohman, “The California GOP's latest stunt: splitting the state in two,” Jack Ohman’s You Betcha! September 5, 2025, https://jackohman.substack.com/p/the-california-gops-latest-stunt
[2] Jack Ohman, “The California GOP's latest stunt: splitting the state in two,” Jack Ohman’s You Betcha! September 5, 2025, https://jackohman.substack.com/p/the-california-gops-latest-stunt
[3] Jack Ohman, “The California GOP's latest stunt: splitting the state in two,” Jack Ohman’s You Betcha! September 5, 2025, https://jackohman.substack.com/p/the-california-gops-latest-stunt