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Now I know not everyone in the guild lives in California, or may even care in the slightest about California, but it is my personal opinion that California should become two seperate states.

Have you ever seen those stickers on cars that say "Nor Cal" or "So Cal" expressing their pride of "Californian-ness?" While they are proud of being from California, they take their pride further as to which half of the state they live in. Obviously, it wouldn't be much of a change to break the state up.

Secondly is the Electoral College. I mean seriously... what is it? 55 votes for California alone?? And poor Rhode Island has two or three at most? For years the two main parties (Republicans and Democrats) have fought over control for places like New York and California because of their large numbers and thus likelyhood for the presidency. If California were broken up, it would be more fair.

Futher on that note, California has been a Democratically held state in the electoral college for a very long time. If you look at the individual counties however, you see that Nor Cal tends to lean more conservative, while So Cal leans more liberal. Obviously again, a break-up into two states would be more fair.

So what do you guys think?

Born and raised in SoCal, currently schooling in NorCal.

Having California as one state is fine, in my opinion. If it were to split, would SoCal residents still be allowed to attend UC and CSU schools up state? And the same applies for NorCal residents who want to school down south. There's much more than just politics at stake here.

Sure, NorCal tends to be more conservative on average, but if you really break down the state, you'll see that liberal voters just tend to be more coastal, and conservative voters increase the further inland you go, both in the North and South. Would that be a case for splitting California up into EastCal and WestCal?

The state's fine as is, SoCal just get's a bigger rep because there's Hollywood and LA who get a lot of attention from the press.

I agree. The number of electoral votes California gets seems overwhelming.

State / Electoral Votes
California 54
New York 33
Texas 32
Florida 25
Pennsylvania 23
Illinois 22
Ohio 21
Michigan 18
New Jersey 15
North Carolina 14
Georgia 13
Virginia 13

Well, the thing about electoral votes is that it's based on population. California just happens to be the more populated state right now, since we've got a large amount of major cities (SF, LA, Sac-town, San Diego, etc.). Does this mean that we should split up every state that becomes the highest populated? If we did that, the US would eventually become a jumble of different states and regions, much like the present Congressional districts of today.

We're a big state, with the 5th largest economy in the WORLD. Hell, we could be our own country. But we're with the US, and splitting up CA wouldn't gain us anything but a headache due to yet another state boundary. I've yet to hear a concise and convincing argument for separating NorCal from SoCal, and most of what I'd heard so far is that we're too big. What detriments are there to being the most populated state exactly?

Well, granted there are going to be problems. A lot of people immigrate into CA, both legally and illegally. But I don't see that as a reason to separate into two states. We'll just end up with 2 states with problems instead of 1. I suppose that would put less pressure on the state government to fix those problems, but they seem to be doing okay as is, minus the whole cutting funding from schools and hospitals and stuff. neutral

I agree with you completely, but keep in mind that the electorial vote depends on the population, which is why Virginia, where I live, gets more votes then some other states that are larger. But in response to the idea of spliting the northern and southern parts of the state, that isn't that big of a deal really. Virginians do the same thing. I am from Northern Virginia, and northern virginians take pride in being from that area because most of the people in the southern parts of Virginia don't have the same wealth, statisicly speaking of coarse.

Think of it this way. If you drive for thirty minutes south of my city you reach an area in which the food goes from nice healthy food to buckets of grease. I can just think of one time when I went to Charlettesville. The hash browns changed completely. I couldn't imagine how different it was.

Anyways the iea of spliting a state isn't that wierd because Virginia used to include West Virginia and they split during the Civil War, and stayed that way. However, California won't split because the state government takes pride in being worth the highest number of electorial votes which gives the state power in a way. Plus the economy would be ruined since the majority of the high wealth ports are in the middle of the coast. The two states would probably argue as to which state would get what city.

But think about it this way, California will eventually become it's own country, afterall it is floating away from the continent.

I dont currently live in Cali but I'm from there. anahiem to be exact, but i wouldn't really see the point in splitting it up. yea its a big state and it gets alot of votes for elections and such, but splitting it up wouldn't really matter. Does it really matter how many votes one state gets? doesn't it matter who the votes are going to? (*isn't good with poiltical stuff* sweatdrop )

oh and responding to north sailor, california wouldn't becaome it's own country just cuz it's split away. do you see alaska and Hawaii getting their own country just cuz there not right next to us?

Generally, the coast (and major cities) of California tend to be more liberal, but the state becomes more conservative as you move further inland. We're actually a fairly divided state, it just seems like we're more liberal because big cities vote loudly. Head just a bit East from Berkeley (which is probably the most liberal city in the nation) to Sonoma, and you'll know what I'm talking about.