The Underworld Podcast - Introducing: The Last Resort

Episode Date: December 18, 2022

The Last Resort explores big, crazy, dangerous ideas – ideas that no one took seriously, but which may now be our best options. What would actually happen if we put these ideas into practice? In season one, we ask: what if California seceded from the United States? To do so, we follow the rise and messy fall of Yes! California, the state’s most prominent independence movement. The Last Resort is a timely exploration of political polarization in America, at a time when many Americans feel anxious about the future and don’t understand – at all – the people on the other side of the aisle. With the mid-term elections looming, and actual sitting members of Congress calling for a “national divorce,” we indulge the fantasy of escaping it all. Could we just wipe the slate clean and start over? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-last-resort/id1644754112 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Now just $199. Plus, get up to 45% off select major appliances to keep dishes, clothes, and food fresh. Having fun in the sun is easy with us in your corner. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. VALS. VALSUPS7. While supplies last, selection varies by location. See Associate at Lowe's.com for details. What if California seceded from the United States?

If it did, what would happen? The Last Resort is a new documentary podcast about the rise, fall, and rebirth of Cal Exit, the campaign for Californian independence. Join our host, Shuteska, as the story unfolds about dreaming of a new progressive West Coast utopia, fighting for America's future, and ending up in the middle of a still unfolding global criminal conspiracy. Binge all episodes of The Last Resortive. available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Cal Exit Movement was started by Marcus and another activist, Louis Marinelli, back in 2014.

Supporters believe that Cal Exit is the only way Californians can live according to their values. That's great that Gavin Newsom wants to enshrine it in our Constitution. But just because you put something in our Constitution does not give you any additional legal protection against decisions by the federal Supreme Court. So that's great. You're doing that and that will absolutely not protect us from the Supreme Court at all. We have to get connected as Californians and push for CalExit before they take away another right.

Because this isn't going to stop. Most Americans support abortion rights, but that didn't stop the Supreme Court from taking them away. Maybe that's one reason why, according to a recent poll, a majority of voters believe that, our system of government doesn't work. That's created an opening for people like Marcus Ruiz Evans to argue that it's time for change. Still, though, Cal Exit?

This is crazy talk, right? No state has ever seriously tried to leave the union since the Civil War, but some experts believe that this moment we're in could be different. Hi, my name's Barbara Walter. I'm the Roar Chair of International Affairs at the University of California, San Diego. I've studied every single civil war that's happening. happened since the end of World War II, and there's been over 200 of them.

Walter helped identify two factors that strongly predicted if a country would fall into civil war. The first factor was something we called anocracy, which is just a fancy term for a partial democracy. Imagine a country where you have elections, but that the person with the most votes doesn't always win. That's anocracy. And then the second factor is something we called factionalism, which

is a fancy term for when citizens in a country organize themselves politically pretty strictly around identity. Today, the Republican Party is almost 80% white and Christian. In other words, a faction. So you start to get political parties that are ethnically, religiously, or racially based, and then those parties try to gain power, not because they want to share power, with the other groups, but because they want to actively exclude them from power. And I'm seeing that both of these two features were emerging here in this country, and they were actually emerging at a surprisingly fast rate. We don't always end up with the government that we vote for.

According to Walter, we don't just see each other as political opponents, but as enemies. These factors could mean big problems ahead. I have no doubt in my mind that there is going to be sometime in this decade the very first, very real secession crisis the U.S. has faced since the 1860s. Here's Casey Michelle. He's reported on CalAXA for places like political and the Washington Post. I don't know if that's going to be in Texas or California or elsewhere, but given the fraying of political bonds and the broader political tensions,

people are just going to start casting about for other ideas. And we're going to reach some kind of breaking point. some kind of tipping point for Americans across the country to ask themselves, is this something that we want to continue? Or, if it's not, what are the potential alternatives and what should really be on the table? Marcus from CaliXA thinks that this tipping point, it's actually already behind us. That Caliq Z isn't just possible, but it's inevitable. Oh, we're convinced Caliq's going to happen in the next five years.

A lot of people think that that's a little bit extreme. But our point is this. When we started in 2014, people laughed at us. No one's laughing anymore. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank.

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