BY NATHAN SU
Rick Perry, the U.S. Secretary of Energy who recently announced that he plans to resign later this year, has been nominated by the New California State movement to be the interim governor of the proposed new state.
“He is coming to us,” Paul Preston, president of the new state movement, said enthusiastically.
The new state movement has drafted a resolution to propose that Perry should be the interim governor. The resolution will be voted on by the interim new state legislature, which is already in place, at the Fifth Convention in Irvine, California, on the last weekend of October.
Preston told The Epoch Times that he has high expectations that the resolution will be supported by the majority of the interim legislature.
The New California State movement is a statewide grassroots effort to break away most of California’s rural areas from the current state and form a new state. So far, representatives from 47 of the 58 counties in California have joined the movement. Portions of five other counties have also joined.
The movement claimed its independence on Jan. 15 last year and claims to be following a constitutional process based on Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which specifies the process for establishing a new state from an existing one. The last time this process was done successfully was when West Virginia broke away from Virginia in 1861.
Since New California would be formed by most of the rural areas of the current California, the new state would possess a variety of natural resources such as water, oil, gas, and mines. The economy of the new state would rely heavily on the agricultural, mining, and oil industries.
The new state movement, in its proposed resolution, highly praises Perry’s “loyalty to the United States of America, its Declaration of Independence and its Constitution.”
Counting on his experience serving as Agriculture Commissioner of Texas, governor of Texas, and U.S. Secretary of Energy, the resolution claims that Perry is “the most qualified, and mentally and morally equipped person to provide the needed leadership for New California State.”
The movement has been filing weekly grievances to counties involved in this process, using the First Amendment right of petitioning the government for redress of grievances. So far, the movement has filed 90 grievances.
The grievances issued by the movement have stated that California has been in violation of U.S. Constitution Article IV, Section 4, which is known as the “Guarantee Clause.” This section of the Constitution requires that the state and federal governments provide the citizens of the United States with a republican form of government, protect them against invasion, and protect them against domestic violence.
The movement claims that the current state has a “mono-party control” system instead of a republican form of government, and that it has adopted sanctuary state policies that have failed to protect California from invasion by illegal immigrants and failed to protect Californians from domestic crimes caused by illegal immigrants.
Since Article VI of the Constitution states that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the new state movement believes that by violating Article IV, Section 4, California has also violated Article VI.
Perry has long been known for having an interest in moving to California, which started even before he ran for president in 2016, according to a report by The New York Times.
Even though the upcoming convention of the new state movement may approve Perry’s nomination, the birth of the 51st state in the Union will still face many uphill battles.
The U.S. Constitution requires that the formation of a new state from an existing state must be approved by the legislature of the existing state. What motive the California legislature would have for letting the rural areas form a new state is not clear.
In addition, the U.S. Senate must approve the formation of the new state. Doing so would likely require 60 votes to bring the matter before the Senate for a vote.
As the Senate is currently constituted, this would require several Democrats to vote to create a new, likely Republican, state and diminish the electoral power of California that gives their party a significant advantage in presidential contests.
These difficulties have often been brought up at New California State meetings, but the movement continues to grow in membership.
It has been announced that the upcoming convention will feature many famous speakers, such as Trevor Loudon, author of the book “The Enemy Within”; Linda Paine, president of Election Integrity; Ruth Weiss, vice president of Election Integrity; Morgan Zegers, founder of “Young Americans Against Socialism”; Illinois State Representative Brad Halbrook, who is leading the New Illinois movement; and others.
