Cascadia and soft secession
There's been a lot of talk lately about the concept of "soft secession," which first surfaced in a post at The Existential Republic back in August. The idea is that blue states such as California, Oregon, and Washington are testing the waters to see how much they can do without the influence of the United States government.
These efforts by Democratic governors and legislatures range from creating the recent Western States Health Alliance focused vaccine guidance to so-called sanctuary laws that prohibit local law enforcement from participating in the federal immigration crackdown. The piece by Christopher Armitage talks about how Oregon is stocking abortion medications in secret warehouses, how California has built a $76 billion reserve stockpile and how North Dakota's state bank could serve as a model for less dependence on the feds.
As I've pointed out many times before, Washington and Oregon together pay $37 billion more in federal taxes each year than they receive back in funding or services. That imbalance will no doubt grow after the GOP's scorched-earth federal budget eviscerated federal programs.
I'm supportive of soft secession. It's generally consistent with federal law and the constitution (and has been used previously with mixed success by conservative-leaning states to set their agendas on everything from abortion to civil rights).
My primary concern is with federal taxation. If the feds continue to abdicate their responsibility to provide things like health care, social security, disaster relief, and transportation funds, then states will be required to do more of these things on their own.
And yet the federal budget continues to swell, funded by Cascadia tax dollars. The biggest open secret in United States politics is that Republicans don't care one iota about balanced budgets – they care about dumping your hard-earned dollars into things they love. Things like $925 billion for a bloated, wasteful military. Or a $150-billion immigration enforcement system, which is more expensive than most nations' military budgets. Or a $20 billion bailout for Argentina, led by a Trump ally who has bad hair and likes to wield chainsaws during his rallies.
If we achieved true independence, Cascadia would be free of those wasteful obligations.
Andrew Engelson
Look, I like the tactics of soft secession– we absolutely won't be attacking Fort Sumter or using political violence in our effort towards regional autonomy. And don't get me wrong, soft secession has achieved victories: the Western States Health Alliance is allowing me to get vaccinated for flu and COVID – great!
But I maintain that Oregon and Washington need actual separation, peacefully achieved. The push for Cascadia autonomy must be a non-violent movement, no matter what violence the right-wing brings down upon us in retaliation. I'm of the opinion that separation is now necessary and right, and as the US Declaration of Independence itself states, it is sometimes necessary for "one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another."
Now that the Trump administration, in cooperation with a feckless Congress and timid Supreme Court, is increasingly ignoring the rule of law and has effectively abrogated the US Constitution, states are at liberty to reject their contract with the Union. I can imagine an eventual outcome will be a voter referendum on independence in Oregon and Washington, followed by action in the legislatures to ratify independence and begin to craft a new constitution.
That's the sort of soft secession I'm interested in.
On a related note, my friend and mentor Paul Nelson, who has done invaluable work to advance the notion of the Cascadia bioregion in his poetry, writing, and interviews, recently wrote a lovely stream of consciousness meditation on soft secession, psilocybin, opening one's awareness, and Buddhist ethics. And while I agree with Paul's assertion that Cascadia has primarily been a cultural idea, I think we're in a new, urgent era in which Cascadians must also begin to think of it as a political and perhaps even national idea.
Paul's understanding of soft secession reminds us to find peace in an era when the regime is determined to label its critics as terrorists.
I take my refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma,
The Sangha & Cascadia. Worship in the old growth
forests of Seward & Olympic National Parks
& on the trails
of Dead Horse Canyon.
In the living rocks
of Cortes Island beaches.
--Paul Nelson
If you're interested in both poetry and our bioregion, you should check out the Cascadia Poetry Festival, Oct 10-12, 2025, at Rainier Beach Community Club in Seattle. Paul is a longtime organizer of this important event.
--Andrew Engelson
