Feb. 7, 2023 - Epoch Times
13:09
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| Well, it looks like the state of Oregon is in the process of getting ripped apart. | |
| You see, after many years of being fed up with the policies that are coming out of Portland, over 30% of the counties in Oregon have voted to secede. | |
| Specifically, they voted to leave behind Oregon And instead, to join the state of Idaho, and in the process, create a new state called Greater Idaho. | |
| You heard that right. | |
| Out of the 36 total counties in Oregon, 11 of them have already voted in favor of seceding, because by and large, the people living in those counties, they believe that their values are no longer being represented by the state legislature, which is, of course, dominated by extremely liberal politicians that are coming out of Portland. | |
| And what's truly interesting about this particular movement is that it might actually succeed. | |
| However, in order to explain why it might succeed, I need to back up for a quick moment and set the stage for you properly and explain what the Greater Idaho Movement actually is all about. | |
| And I hope that if you appreciate content like this, you do take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons so this video and this news can be shared out to ever more people. | |
| Now, to start with, it's worth noting that just like most liberal states, the majority of the counties in Oregon are actually conservative-leaning. | |
| And so, for instance, if you take a look at the county-by-county breakdown of the 2020 election, you'll see that the majority of the counties in the state of Oregon voted for Trump, whereas a small minority of heavily populated counties voted for Biden. | |
| This same disparity also then translates into the state legislature, because again, despite the vast majority of the state voting red, Both the State Senate as well as the State Assembly House are heavily controlled by Democrats. | |
| And so, in order to understand the desire to secede, well, put yourself in the shoes of, let's say, a farmer or a rancher living somewhere in rural Oregon. | |
| Realistically, you have almost nothing in common, at least politically speaking, with the people of Portland, even though the politicians from Portland are the ones that are making the decisions that impact your life. | |
| You don't necessarily support their policies. | |
| You don't support their positions. | |
| You don't support what they're doing with your tax dollars. | |
| You don't support the COVID lockdowns that they enacted. | |
| You don't support their soft approach to crime. | |
| But no matter what you do, due to the geography and the demographics of the state, your voice will just never be heard. | |
| And so this is where the Greater Idaho Movement comes in, with its plan to take the eastern counties of Oregon and have them join the conservative state of Idaho. | |
| And as you can see by the map on your screen, this would effectively move the state line of Idaho several hundred miles to the west. | |
| Now this man here is Mr. | |
| Mike McCarter. | |
| He's the president of the Greater Idaho Movement. | |
| And here's what he said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail newspaper. | |
| Quote, Our movement is based on values. | |
| You know, the traditional values of faith, family, freedom, and independence. | |
| We don't want to be catered to by the government. | |
| In other words, if my power goes down, I have a generator, I have water, I have everything, including food storage. | |
| And his movement towards self-independence is picking up steam, evidenced by the fact that the people living in 11 different counties have approved various measures which require their county officials to begin the process of breaking away from the state. | |
| For your reference, here are the 11 counties. | |
| You have Sherman County, Morrow County, Union County, Jefferson County, Wheeler County, Grant County, Baker County, Masher County, Harney County, Lake County, as well as Klamath County. | |
| Furthermore, just last month, the county clerk of Wallowa County also announced that enough signatures have been collected to force the Greater Idaho Ballot Initiative to be voted on in the upcoming elections that are going to be held in May of this year. | |
| And if that initiative is to pass, well, it'll make Wallowa the 12th county to vote in favor of leaving Oregon, leaving only just three counties as the holdouts, which are Crook, Gilliam, and Umatia counties. | |
| And the reason those three counties have yet to hold a vote is It's because the county clerks there are just refusing to allow the movement to gather signatures, and so they are essentially stalling the process. | |
| However, given the overwhelming support that these ballot initiatives are having in the nearby counties in the eastern part of the state, it seems like only a matter of time before those three holdouts join the fold as well. | |
| Now, you might be asking yourself, what would be the tangible difference for these 15 different counties if they were to indeed change states? | |
| Well, besides a difference in representation and besides sending a clear message to the state of Oregon that they're just not down with the program, secession would actually change a lot of tangible things in these people's lives, such as, for instance, what their tax dollars are contributing to, | |
| how much they are paying in taxes in total, which school districts their how much they are paying in taxes in total, which school districts their kids get sent to, what the gun laws are, how and when the elections are run, what the hunting seasons are, what the business laws are, including a total change in the bureaucratic landscape, as well as all the red tape, as well as about several dozen other different changes to However, the big question here is whether this prospect of secession is going to go anywhere. | |
| Is it really the case that if all 15 of these counties vote for it, then just the transfer can happen? | |
| Well, not exactly. | |
| That's because according to the U.S. Constitution, specifically Article 4, Section 3, no new state can be formed within the jurisdiction of another state or by joining parts of states, quote,"...without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress." Meaning that for this plan to actually happen, it would require several things. | |
| A formal vote in the Oregon legislature, a formal vote in the Idaho legislature, and then once the two states reach an amicable deal, it would have to be ratified by the U.S. Congress. | |
| Which sounds like a long shot, but it might actually not be. | |
| To start with, the lawmakers, as well as the governor of Idaho, actually seem to be embracing this proposal. | |
| For instance, the governor of Idaho, Mr. | |
| Brad Little, told Fox News this regarding the plan. | |
| Quote, they're looking at Idaho fondly because of our regulatory atmosphere, our values. | |
| That doesn't surprise me one bit. | |
| What they're interested in is they would like to have a little more autonomy, a little more control, a little more freedom, and I can understand that. | |
| Furthermore, just last week, you had two Idaho state representatives introduce a bill to the state legislature that would relocate the Idaho-Oregon border. | |
| Now, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, State Representative Judy Boyle, she said that changing the border can, among many other things, help to protect the state against Oregon's lax drug laws. | |
| Quote, Representative Boyle, whose district shares a border with Oregon, gave the committee several reasons to support the bill. | |
| She explained that her county has been overwhelmed by drugs since Oregon changed its laws on marijuana and decriminalized higher drugs. | |
| She said that moving the state line would move the problem further away. | |
| Furthermore, by citing a study that came out of the Claremont Institute, Ms. | |
| Boyle also said that by relocating the state border, Idaho would receive a net benefit of approximately $170 million in tax revenue every single year. | |
| And alongside the tax revenue, the plan would essentially increase Idaho's territory by 74% and their state population by an additional 21%. | |
| And so, taking all that into consideration, it looks like this plan has pretty solid buy-in on the Idaho side. | |
| That, in terms of the Oregon side, well, you might assume that they would never go for it. | |
| As we mentioned earlier, the Oregon State Legislature is controlled by the Democrats, and so why would they agree to such a plan? | |
| Well, there might actually be two reasons, which were laid out in a bill that was just introduced to the Oregon State Legislature. | |
| The first reason would be financial. | |
| Because of the income disparity, people in the western part of the state, including Portland, they effectively subsidize the rural part of the state. | |
| According to the bill, quote, Eastern Oregon is an economic drain on Oregon's state budget because of the high income taxes paid by the Portland area. | |
| According to a poll, it found that only 3% of the voters of northwestern Oregon are willing to pay what it costs to have rural regions of Oregon included in the Oregon state budget. | |
| The movement estimates the cost is over $500 per Northwestern Oregonian wage earner annually, meaning that by removing the eastern part of the state, the remaining Oregon will actually save tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue that they can then use for whatever they want, which actually then ties perfectly the remaining Oregon will actually save tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue that they can then use for whatever they want, which actually then ties perfectly into the second reason for why they might actually go for this plan, which has to do with the fact that | |
| Meaning... | |
| That by getting rid of the conservative counties, by getting rid of the rural eastern conservative counties, Oregon would be a smaller state, but they would have more money and they will have a very, very progressive Democrat supermajority that can then push forward whatever agenda they wish. | |
| This story actually gets a lot deeper, which we'll get into right after I show you this beautiful coin. | |
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| And then let's head on back to the studio. | |
| And so, it seems like a win-win. | |
| The conservative counties get to leave and join a state that they more align with in terms of values, and then the remainder of Oregon can be left to be as progressive as they wish. | |
| At the moment, the Oregon bill is currently on the desk of the president of the Oregon State Senate, awaiting his approval to be brought to a full vote. | |
| It'll be fascinating to see if it actually goes anywhere. | |
| And also, it's Virginia, where several counties are trying to break off and join West Virginia, as well as counties in Illinois, New Mexico, Colorado, and about a handful of other states who are also trying to break off and either start their own state or join a neighboring state. | |
| And by the way, just as a short aside, in terms of how common this type of thing actually is, throughout the history of the United States, changing state lines has been a pretty rare occurrence, and all of it has taken place before the 20th century. | |
| A few notable examples include how in 1792, the state of Kentucky was created from territory out of Virginia. | |
| In 1820, the state of Maine was created for Massachusetts. | |
| And of course, in 1863, West Virginia was admitted into the Union after breaking away from Virginia proper during the Civil War. | |
| And so, we'll just have to wait and see whether these Oregon counties are successful and whether they become the first to change state lines in the 21st century. | |
| If you'd like to read more about this greater Idaho movement, I'll throw all my research notes down into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And then lastly, since it's quite relevant for today's topic, I'd like to take a super quick moment and read to you a short excerpt, a short excerpt from a pretty famous American document, the Declaration of Independence. | |
| Because as I was reading about these frustrated counties in Oregon, as well as the frustrated counties in several states, I couldn't help but think of these words that were written by our founding fathers close to 250 years ago. | |
| Here it is, the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. | |
| We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to laying its foundation | |
| Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. | |
| And accordingly, all experience have shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. | |
| But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. | |
| And so, I would love to know your thoughts. | |
| Are these counties that are trying to break off from the state governments, are they essentially embodying the same ethos found in the Declaration? | |
| Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below. | |
| I'll be reading them later this week. | |
| And until next time, I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. |
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