Secession: Conflict of Values

This is first of a series of posts in which I’ll articulate my views of the “why” for California secession. I begin with the deep chasm of values separating California from EORA (“East of the Rockies America”) opened up by the election of Mr. Trump.

First, my justification for associating the above video with Mr. Trump: The author of that video is a single greased-pig hop from Mr. Trump.

Details on the connection:

On the first Sunday following the election, with one of his two first cabinet appointments, Trump named Steve Bannon as his “senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist”. Clearly, Mr. Bannon will be central to the Trump presidency.

Mr. Bannon was a founding board member of Breitbart News, and in 2012 became executive chair of the company. He ran Breitbart until August 2016, when he took over as CEO of the Trump presidential campaign.

Sara Posner of Mother Jones says that in July, at the GOP convention, Bannon told her (“proudly”) that “We’re the platform for the alt-right”. You can read Breitbart “news” and alt-right views for yourself and see that this is indeed the case.

In 2010, Richard Spencer founded the website “AlternativeRight.org”.  Clearly, “alt-right” is a contraction of that website name, and indeed, Spencer is widely seen as the coiner of that term.

Among his initiatives, Spencer founded the innocuous sounding organization “National Policy Institute”. The advertisement at the top of this post is an NPI ad from last December.

The charming, well-spoken narrator in the video is Spencer. I’ve watched enough video of Spencer to understand that this video above is the core of his philosophy.

I thought for introducing Spencer, I would post his self-developed, self-narrated, “best light” video. I mean Spencer is all over YouTube, givings speeches to the faithful, and interviews with the press.

But let’s get the best light for Spencer that he created for himself. That would be this video.

Clearly, it’s meant to move and to persuade.

If you watch that video and feel moved and persuaded, then I have two words for you, the first starts with “f”; the second, “y”. 🙂

That’s right. To my conception of California (living in Silicon Valley, and remembering having lived near Hollywood), them’s fighting words in that video.

The lynchpin of the video isn’t even the blinking blue eyes or the cowboy. It’s the Benneton ad of smiling “multi-colored” people who are meant — in the video — to represent the “cancer of America” that people like Spencer are trying to reverse.

This fellow Spencer is one hop from the president, greased by fellow-traveler Bannon. These are not “fringe” views to the Trump presidency.

Yes, I know Trump disavowed the “alt-right” when Trump couldn’t ignore the furious response to his appointment of Bannon. But Trump didn’t walk back his Bannon appointment. And Bannon ain’t no politician flip-flopper on core values. He’s an ideologue.

So here’s a question for my fellow Californians:

With white nationalism now defining the West Wing of the White House for the next four years, do you want to be in the same country as people like that who now have more power than you?

Now you may respond: “I can hold my breath for four years”.

My next post begs to disagree. It will deal with the flash-point coming in 2017 that will make this values question pressing for all Californians: conflict of laws.