The California Freedom Coalition is a grassroots organization dedicated to ensuring that California and its nearly 40 million citizens and residents have a truly proportionate voice and vote in electing a national government that reflects their values, intentions and expectations.

 

The Coalition is equally dedicated to ensuring that Californians have the broad and unquestioned freedom to develop their unique culture, society, and to determine their own future as they best feel and see fit.

 

Home to one in eight United States residents and one of the top six world economies in its own right, California has emerged as a 21st century global economic and cultural superpower. Unlike any other region or country in the world, California excites and empowers the imagination and aspirations of men, women and children everywhere. Its products, personas and lifestyle are renown around the world, and California’s innovations and creativity have transformed nearly every aspect of contemporary life.

 

Yet despite its powerful and prominent role on the world stage, California domestically finds itself at a polar opposite position. As clearly revealed in the 2016 Presidential election—in which Californians voted two to one for the Democratic candidate and singularly gave her a clear 3 million vote lead in the popular vote—California is a state that possesses only a fraction of the power and influence in its own national political system to match its size and importance.  

 

This institutional exclusion has reached the point that today, Californians have in practice no real say at all in the choosing and the running of the Federal government as it was envisioned by the founders of the United States, and as it is still currently believed to be the case by a majority of United States citizens, including those in California.

 

In addition to the over 200 years old Electoral College provision of the Constitution, the retention of which resulted in over 3 million Californian votes being ruled as irrelevant in the 2016 presidential election, California’s political clout has further been decimated in the US national system by rampant Gerrymandering by other states which has negated California’s natural advantage in the House of Representatives and has given smaller states far more say in determining how taxes are raised and where the money is spent.

 

The Senate is another branch of government in which Californians and California have a mere fraction of the voting power that its population size should warrant.  Due to the two Senators-per-state make up of the Senate, voters in other states, many just the size of small rural Californian counties, have as much as 17 times more say in approving Supreme Court and Cabinet appointments than do Californian voters

 

One more factor in California’s near total disenfranchisement in choosing the composition of the Federal government is the flood of private and unaccountable donations that enables the cynical gaming of the system against California and other large states.  With an endless supply of money, large contributors can easily dominate the politics of small states and successfully coordinate the continuation of policies that are opposed by a majority of United States citizens, especially those in large urban states like California.

 

California’s loss of any real say in determining the country’s President, Supreme Court and Federal Court justices, Cabinet members and the national budget, comes at a time when California is evolving into a society and culture quite different than that of the the rest of the country.  With its deep roots in Latin America and the Pacific Rim, California has become one of the world’s most vibrant and successful multi-cultural and diverse regions.  

 

Californians’ views on key issues of the day, such as abortion, civic discourse, the environment, gun control, immigration, military spending and taxation, are diametrically different than that of the rest of country. In particular California’s worldview and values are sharply different than that of the small, rural and culturally conservative states that have gained an institutional and undemocratic lock hold on all the Federal branches and are now in position to force policies on non consenting Californians which would potentially cause severe damage to California’s social fabric, economy and natural environment.  

 

In short, California is facing an existential threat without precedent. It pays proportionally more into a system that it is disproportionately controlled by other regions, many of which hold hostile and even prejudicial views of the state. In a very real sense, Californians have become second class voters in their own country and are facing the threat of political and economic developments that will be detrimental to their immediate well being and to the long term prospects of their unique and thriving society and culture.

 

The goal of the California Freedom Coalition is to educate and raise awareness of this deeply undemocratic and unsustainable situation for California. The CFC is committed to establishing a national dialogue on how to solve the “nation within a nation” problem that is strongly contributing to the paralysis and hollowing out of American democracy.  A democratic system cannot survive when one in eight voters have no real say in the formation of their national government.  

 

More specifically, the California Freedom Coalition is committed to making sure that Californians have the absolute and broad freedom to develop their unique culture and society and to determine their future as they collectively see fit. In furtherance of these goals, the CFC is dedicated to the premise that for California and Californians there are only three options going forward:

 

(1) the re-democratization of the United States Federal system with the abolition of the Electoral College, the prohibition of Gerrymandering, the establishment of a fair and transparent campaign finance system and the proportionate reorganization of the Senate;

(2) home rule and complete autonomy within the system including its own Supreme Court and its own foreign policy;

(3) independence.

 

Californians have a right to live in a society in which their vote is equal to any other citizens’ and they have a right to be able to participate in a national political process that reflects their issues and ideals.

One way or another, the California Freedom Coalition is dedicated to making sure that all Californians live in a democratic and representational country that they deserve.