I will sing this vict’ry song
‘Cause I’m already gone
— The Eagles
Divorce has a legal concept called “constructive abandonment.”
When a spouse fails to perform the responsibilities of marriage — provides no emotional support, makes no financial contributions, refuses to have sexual relations — the spouse has abandoned the marriage.
Californians, even happily married ones, may find this familiar.
Because the U.S. has constructively abandoned California.
Which is why we should stop talking about secession. Trump dismantled the government and ended the democratic republic. He dumped us.
We’re already gone.
I’ve written about the idea of California breaking up with the U.S. for a decade. I’ve embraced independence at times, in frustration. But I’ve also expressed doubts.
There were simply too many reasons to stay.
But now those reasons are evaporated.
For me, the most compelling reason to stay came from David French. In his 2020 book Divided We Fall. French argued that a California departure would damage the world because it would weaken America. The democratic world needed a mighty America to keep the peace and protect against authoritarians.
But that’s no longer true. The U.S. government has switched sides on democracy, allying itself with right-wing authoritarians, from Jair Bolsonaro to Benjamin Netanyahu, and strengthening regimes in Russia and China.
In this new context, California’s departure would be good for the world — precisely because it would weaken a dangerously autocratic America.
It would be good for California too. America’s authoritarianism has scrambled our calculations.
Before, we independent-minded Californians might have asked: How will we protect ourselves without the military and federal law enforcement? Today, however, the military and homeland security are being used in our cities, to control and intimidate us.
Before, we might have asked: What would an independent California do without America’s social safety net? This year, however, the administration gutted Medicaid and is planning to privatize Social Security. An independent California has the wealth to replace such programs.
Before, we might have asked: What would an independent California do without federal funding of university research, or the skilled scientists of federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control? Today, however, the NIH and CDC are being ruined by cuts and the administration’s pseudo-science. And the feds are threatening to bankrupt the University of California.
Before, we might have asked: What would California do without the free trade and market access guaranteed by the U.s.? Today, however, the Trump regime is blowing up free trade agreements, closing markets with over-the-top tariffs.
Before, we might have asked: What would California do without federal assistance after the natural disasters that so often hit our state? Today, however, the Trump administration is ignoring requests for billions in aid after L.A.’s fires, and moving to shut the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Before this second Trump administration, legal scholars emphasized that there was no constitutional way for California to depart. Today, scholars are express doubts.
As Jorge Roig, an Touro University constitutional law scholar, recently told Verdict, “The American President now rules above the law, no longer subject to it and indistinguishable from a monarch. With the American Republic thus dismantled, there is no meaningful legal barrier left to secession.”
The choice of whether California’s future is inside or outside the U.S. is no longer difficult.
To stay in the U.S. is to choose to fight for a marriage the other party has abandoned. It is a choice to live under a tyranny that could forever destroy California.
Outside the U.S., California has a better chance of survival. Moving on from this bad marriage also offers hope for a new beginning that we’ll never find under fascism.
If we, California’s people, seize this moment to build our own new republic, we might soon live again in freedom — and sing that victory song.