All hail the 51st state!

One of many disaffected conservative areas nationwide, a California county has voted to secede from California. Because socialism, probably.

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday in favor of seceding from California to form a new state called “Jefferson.” Siskiyou also plans to invite nearby counties in California and southern Oregon to join with them in casting off the bonds that have tied them to their fellow Californians and Oregonians for generations.

Residents attending the supervisors meeting were virtually unanimous in supporting the predominantly Republican county’s secession. According to the Redding Record Searchlight, a local paper, one member of the board of supervisors raised a laundry list of complaints related to “regulation, restriction of rights, lack of representation, regionalism and restoration of limited government.” A staffer from Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s (R-CA) office attended the meeting and claimed that “she and other LaMalfa staff members supported the effort to secede, but she did not know LaMalfa’s thoughts on it.”

Of course this is blatantly unconstitutional, but I say go for it. The loss of California’s services will pretty quickly disabuse them of the notion that government isn’t valuable. However, Jefferson is a terrible name for a state.

Might I humbly suggest Dumbassistan?