Greater Idaho movement: 13 counties in eastern Oregon have voted to secede and join Idaho ( ktvz.com )

On Tuesday, voters in Crook County passed measure 7-86, which asked voters if they support negotiations to move the Oregon/Idaho border to include Crook County in Idaho.  The measure is passing with 53% of the vote, and makes Crook County the 13th county in eastern Oregon to pass a Greater Idaho measure.

absentbird ,
@absentbird@lemm.ee avatar

Fuck Idaho. How about instead we go back to Washington Territorial borders and have the Evergreen State annex their whole crooked potato patch. They can have statehood back when they learn to behave themselves.

Washington Territory 1859

shikitohno ,

I'm sure it won't happen, but there's a part of me that would just love to hear that when the negotiations get to Idaho, Idaho is just like "Nah, hard pass, we don't want you either."

Montagge ,
@Montagge@lemmy.zip avatar

Idaho can't afford those leeches

Cool_Name ,

Yeah, this isn't greater idaho, this is even worse idaho.

NoSuchAgency ,

I don't blame'em.

Fedizen ,

some 300 people live in some of those counties, which is like a city block in portland. If they want to be idaho so much why not just move there?

Wogi ,

I can really sympathize with these guys. I live in a blue dot in one of the reddest states in the country. I have been talking with my friends about doing this exact thing.

Technically this is not secession. It's partitioning. They want to partition themselves and join Idaho. Just like I'd love to partition my city away from the shit hole parasitic state it's attached to.

The state level representation just isn't there for them. They're so dramatically in the minority that they have no voice in state government at all. So changes are mandated to them, and they're disillusioned. They love their home and they want the government to recognize them.

Set aside the crazy bullshit they want. The grievance is legitimate, the government completely ignores their desires, they haven't been able to get the government to acknowledge that, and so they retaliate by saying they don't want to be a part of it anymore.

To be clear, there is no resolution for people in this situation. They have no control over the state government, no ability to change it. The only choice is to leave, and faced with moving or a long shot at leaving or taking your home with you, you'd choose to take your home, every time.

SeattleRain ,

This is caused by Gerrymandering and antidemocratic voter suppression. But Republicans don't want to fix those issues because they'd be a regional party overnight limited to just the south.

Wogi ,

This is something both parties are guilty of. Neither is all that interested in fixing it until they're the victims of it.

This doesn't get fixed with a two party system.

Donjuanme ,

Ah yes, those vote suppressing Democrats...

I do think there needs to be a dissolution of the parties, but accusing both sides of being the same is not valid nor useful in the state (lol, country?) that we currently live in.

Wogi ,

I'm not saying both sides are the same. I'm accusing two different political parties of employing the same shitty tactics, which they most definitely are.

Is one party more guilty of it? Sure. But denying that the Democrats are gerrymandering is delusional.

Oregon's 2021 congressional map received an F from the gerrymandering project for giving one party a significant advantage.

https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/redistricting-report-card?planId=rec6qj1vAOKsBnXnu

Drawn and enacted exclusively by Democrats.

Don't lie to yourself. They're still fucking politicians.

Montagge ,
@Montagge@lemmy.zip avatar

Please show me a better map for Oregon districts

Wogi ,

There are several available at the link I shared. It might be more than one click but, because you're presumably able to read, a big smart guy like you should have no trouble finding them.

Montagge ,
@Montagge@lemmy.zip avatar

So you don't have one

Wogi ,

Seriously, just click the fucking link and look around, there are multiple proposals for better maps.

PenisWenisGenius ,

What do they want that Idaho can provide that Oregon can't? Some people have to flee entire states over abortion laws for lifesaving medical procedures and they're told stuff like "well if you don't like it just move".

Wogi ,

I appreciate that. And this is a great example to whip out when those idiots say shit like that. Obviously moving isn't an option for most people and for those whom it is, they likely have.

What exactly they want isn't important, just that it's very much the opposite of how the state is being run. Admittedly some of the demands fall under crazy bullshit, but the central issue is agency. Politically speaking they have very little, and this is the one lever left to them to pull.

Imagine you're on a train of trolleys, and every time it comes to a point where a direction could be chosen, every car votes and consistently the ones at the back are out voted by the other cars. You can't get off and buy another ticket. But you might be able to detach the cars.

Furthermore, reorganization like this should be done far more frequently than it's being done. Why shouldn't we allow disparate peoples of similar opinions vote together and govern each other? Why are we locked in to the lines on a map, the last major change of which happened in 1867. Since then, the borders have remained relatively unchanged.

Not only should they, a group of people I likely hold only one fundamental belief in common with, not be afforded some self governance?

NatakuNox ,
@NatakuNox@lemmy.world avatar

These people want to abandon everything that makes their lives great for... (checks notes) The rights to control women, marry children, and to burn crosses on their ethnic neighbors lawn.

Donkter ,

Mostly (and this is probably true for over 60% of Republicans), it's about defunding half of the government programs they rely on but don't realize it, sold to them through the euphemism of "tax cuts".

I think the right to control women is next on the list, but even then we see that even republican public opinion on abortions is stricter than the left's, but would actually prefer less extreme laws than what has been passed.

As much of a meme as it is, most rural religious folk aren't militant about marrying children and burning crosses. We hear about every instance of child marriage cause it sucks so much, and people have been openly, violently racist despite the law for centuries, all it takes is a town full of like-minded people.

njm1314 ,

This is so damn odd, it's a state. Just move. It's not another country. Shit like this is what makes me think we should just abolish the states honestly. This mindset is weird

aStonedSanta ,

Some people are too poor to move. Just move is an insane idea and we need to eradicate it.

AnxiousOtter ,

So moving is an insane idea, but transferring huge portions of land between states is totally rational and reasonable?

aStonedSanta ,

According to the people in power. Correct.

AnxiousOtter ,

The "people in power" didn't suggest that moving is an insane idea, you did.

aStonedSanta ,

Yeah my apologies I was more responding to the second half of your commentary as it’s obvious I suggested that not them.

BradleyUffner ,

Considering that it's just some imaginary line in the dirt that a bunch of people agree on the location of, yeah it's a lot more rational than everything you go through to physically move

Montagge ,
@Montagge@lemmy.zip avatar

lol what?!?

BradleyUffner ,

The concept of "Idaho" is an entirely societally defined concept. If everyone agrees you are in Idaho, then you are in Idaho. If all you care about is being in Idaho, and you can do that with less effort and resources than physically moving across state lines, why wouldn't you do that?

I think it's a pretty short sighted and selfish thing to do, but it is entirely rational.

AA5B ,

Seems like a stupid vote then: choose to leave a state with at least some services to join one without, just to make it easier for a few landowners to extract resources without regard to the environment

bradorsomething ,

The cost of living is cheaper in Idaho! They’d just be giving up things like 1/3 the per student spending, physicians leaving to avoid idaho’s abortion laws, and face lower road spending, worse unemployment rights… I mean the benefits are right there. For the rest of us in Oregon. Sign here, press hard, 3 copies. Finally we can get rid of those walkout issues in the house.

Oregexit your hearts out. Don’t let the non gendered bathroom handle hit you on the ass as you go.

SomethingBurger ,
@SomethingBurger@jlai.lu avatar

The idea of States and federal governments make no sense to me. Same country but different set of laws? Why even form a country?

HobbitFoot ,

The United States formed as a group of semi-sovereign political entities that wanted to make their own laws, but needed a common defense, foreign, and trade policy to prevent recolonization.

The founding fathers knew that the country wouldn't agree on everything, so they set up a system where a lot of decisions would be made by more local officials.

Other federations work on the same principle. It is a lot easier to get political consensus in a smaller group than a larger one, so a lot of decisions are pushed to more local entities.

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

Look at lemmy. Same country, different laws per instance and different laws in the communities.

DrSteveBrule ,

I don't understand what the country is in your analogy

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

The country is Lemmy the software itself.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

Well, the federation. You could have many federations, and many instances don't use Lemmy.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

That will make Idaho look even stupider.

And it's already our stupidest-looking state.

Zorsith ,
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

giphy(1)

WhatIsThePointAnyway ,

Just get rid of the electoral college already and stop giving these dipshit minorities a chance in hell of moving this country backwards.

obre ,

I know what you mean, but... phrasing?

AncientFutureNow ,

How about Lesser Idaho.
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/dee04f11-9fde-4971-9e10-cf542148ba14.jpeg

lengau ,

How about Nodaho.

No map. It's just a lack of Idaho.

tiefling ,

Youdaho

That is all

PlaidBaron ,
@PlaidBaron@lemmy.world avatar

WEdaho

GiddyGap ,

Yomomdaho

MossyFeathers ,

What the fuck?

sp3tr4l ,

So I am from WA and have been aware of this plan for a while.

This is one phase, and the next phase is to try to do this with as many Eastern WA counties as possible.

And to anyone wondering why this is happening, ya'll obviously are not from around the PNW.

Basically, Seattle, Tacoma and Portland are bastion of liberals and actual leftists. Bellevue is as well, but its only for corpos these days.

Nearly everywhere else west of the cascades is just barely more blue than red, and there are tons of smaller towns with Republican controlled county legislatures and town/city governments.

On the East of the Cascades, in the desert, basically, Republicans are generally in charge of everything that isn't a Reservation.

Its a bit more complex than this, but it is pretty much 'big cities' are blue, mid and small cities and everything else is red.

While I am against this succeeding, I do not think this is as cut and dry, obviously unconstitutional as some other posters here are making it seem.

It is not creating a new state. It is counties voting to leave one state and join another. To the best of my knowledge, this is completely unprecedented in the history of the US.

They've got a whole detailed plan for how to attempt to get this actually done. And they have a lot of judges, and now a popular mandate.

I honestly do not know how this will play out as it will likely hinge on various judiciaries and possibly executive (Governor) moves.

Yes, the state legislatures have to sign off on it and thats a big hurdle to jump, but it may actually be doable if enough political pressure is applied... especially if Trump wins.

It could possibly make it to the Circuit Courts and then the Supreme Court.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

I describe it like this... the places where people actually live are blue.

The places where there are more square miles than people are red.

evidences ,

It should be noted this is true for almost the entirety of the United States.

rayyy ,

Places where people are poorly educated seem to be mostly red too.

Pretzilla ,

Happen to be more easily persuaded to vote against their own interests, too

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not that they’re poorly educated (farmers are typically smart people in very practical ways that city people are not), it’s that they don’t have government services to rely on so they don’t understand why people in the city need it as they see themselves as self sufficient.

TechNerdWizard42 ,

While true, this is true in basically every area in the USA. If you have a tractor supply store near your house, you're in redneck territory. If you have a Lululemon, you're in blue territory.

jj4211 ,

Funnily enough I have one of each of those within about three miles of my home.

Dagwood222 ,

Where do you live?

Thank you

jj4211 ,

Well not going to say, but it is funny because it is a "swing state".

But realistically this specific area is deep blue, but TSC has a healthy enough market, between nearby rural area and suburbanites that want to play farmer with a couple chickens in the backyard and buying their pet food there.

Dagwood222 ,

Cool!

jaspersgroove ,

Found the centrist.

xmunk ,

Can we merge Idaho with the rest of the Midwest? It'd be pretty fucking sweet to have less GOP senators.

jj4211 ,

They wouldn't want that if course.

However, of they do this, then they would likely make an argument for reallocating electors...

Xbeam ,

It would reallocate electors as well as congressional seats. Those are both based on population and are already realloated every 10 years.

Neato ,
@Neato@ttrpg.network avatar

Will this change the number of electoral votes and house representative each state has? Because if not, this seems to benefit Oregon: concentrates Republicans in Idaho while lessening the impact of their vote.

cbarrick ,

The number of electoral votes and the number of reps is based on population and is decided by the census.

So if this happens, at the latest, the votes would get fixed in 2031. But I wouldn't be surprised if this is part of the deal. Obviously those switching to Idaho want to bring their votes with them.

SeaJ ,

Not really a thing that can be done. The state legislature would have to approve it and so would Congress.

Zier ,
@Zier@fedia.io avatar

Just make all the racists move to Idaho proper. No need to change state lines.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

The parts of Oregon wanting this are rabidly anti-tax. The instant they find out Idaho has a 6% sales tax they'll cry and come crawling right back.

Hegar ,
@Hegar@kbin.social avatar

They'll swallow a 6% sales tax in exchange for joining the white ethnostate of their dreams idaho.

Corkyskog ,

Or they will just shop in Oregon.

bradorsomething ,

Most of them will have to drive hours, western oregon is about 4 hours+ across

Neato ,
@Neato@ttrpg.network avatar

It's so fucking weird anyone would want to move to Idaho.

sparkle ,
@sparkle@lemm.ee avatar

Conservatives are super pro-sales tax because it's regressive taxation. A common fake-libertarian argument is "we don't need income taxes, we can just have sales taxes".

Crackhappy ,
@Crackhappy@lemmy.world avatar

I say let's split oregon in twain, then let western Oregon join Washington and northern California to create an Ecotopia.

aeronmelon ,

cough Republic of California cough

astrsk ,

Let eastern Washington split off too and call them East and West Cascadia.

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