 Welcome back to Teens On Topic. I'm your host Emma. Today I'm joined by my friends Blaine and Sarah. We have a very exciting topic today that I'm interested in getting in more depth about. So we're going to have some clips roll from some adults around Davis. Hi, so do you think we should split California up into two or three states? You ask me if it's two or three or just split it period. Just split it period. No, why not? Because I think that there would be a state that couldn't make it economically. You know, and I think we're doing okay the way we are. I know. Why not? I'm not sure that if that would be, you know, the best for Californians to be split at this time. No. Why not? I think the I think the state has more to offer as a whole. There are different areas where different things are happening, but I think the synergy of all the different parts in different populations working together is a good reason to stay as one. And then also think about like the way that California would lose power for the United States. I mean right now, like if you think about the laws that they've put for the things they've put in place for cars have have affected the whole United States. And so having a market share that bag has imparted us with a lot of power to. Yeah, I mean the saying as California as California goes so goes the country that wouldn't hold anymore. And currently California is the fifth biggest economy in the world and and you would lose all of that. It's the fifth biggest economy. I think it has a larger I think California has a larger economy than the United Kingdom or about the same. I think that's primarily because of agriculture, Hollywood, high tech, obviously. That's really interesting. I like that the last people had a lot to say about all the different economy and stuff like that. What do you think? Do you guys agree with what she had to say about the economy? I'll take this one. I don't know if I agree. I think that or not so much that I disagree. I think that she's right on target when she says that California's got a super big economy and that's correct. But I don't think that that's something that would go away if the state were split into three. It would be these three states combined have a really large economy because the contributions made by the people inside the state wouldn't change the things that make the economy so good would not go away. So the economy would still be very good. Yeah, I agree. I don't know. I feel like it wouldn't break up into like like it would still function as three different states. I don't know if it would function well. Yeah, but it would still function. Yeah, I think that none of the speakers brought up the idea of like voter representation, which I think is a big issue currently. If it's but with the economy thing is that if it's true that like the lady on the left said that the California is so good because the people inside of California like geographically work so well together that's those relationships are not going to go away just because there's new borders drawn if that if they're working together and the teamwork makes the economy work that's still going to stay if there's three separate states. Yeah, that's true. I mean at that point, why separate them though if it's working well together? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I mean like there's something to say about like voter representation and stuff like I know you were starting to talk about that. I mean because I know there's a huge population in California so maybe it would work. I don't know. I don't know a lot about voter representation to be honest but what do you think about it Sarah? What do I think about it? I think the population of California is massive and so the representatives that we do have making decisions for us in Washington if they're not fairly representing our voices I think that's something that we should consider but I also don't know how much of an actual viable possibility it is to split up like that. Yeah and it's in Washington too but it's even in the state legislature too because the like the biggest problem with the representation is that there's so many people in California and the population keeps growing and the way that districts are made for state legislatures isn't the same as it's made for federal legislatures so the end result is that like one assemblyman or assemblywoman in California is responsible for a growing number of like representing a growing and growing number like more than any other state like California is a really big problem with represent like lower state level representatives representing so many people and because they're representing so many people it's like nearly impossible to broker a deal if your constituents are split or you have like a significant portion that agree on something or disagree on something they can't compromise on anything anymore. Yeah I think something else that was brought up I think that like a family event a few years ago it was like around the 2016 election and it was just like I'm not even going to go out and vote because I know how it'll be decided it'll be decided even if I don't vote because California is blue and I think that's something to be brought up based on active involvement in voting. Yeah and the thing about splitting California up into three states that the one about the one that was going to be on the ballot proposition nine called for splitting it up into three states which is like a little weird because it had a northern California a California and a southern California most of what or like almost all of what makes California blue comes from southern California central California and the middle of California is is a toss up and northern California is pretty red and if we were to split California into two or three separate states it would kind of dispel that notion it would let people know that their voice would count more than it does right now because it's like a winner take all thing where there are more people in the south than in the north even though the people in the north vote for republicans more than the people in the south do. I think it's definitely like California is just such a massive thing I think it could work I don't think it should split it up that I think it's like I feel like it could work I don't know like yeah it would never happen though because it's not it's not a legal maneuver like a state can't vote on splitting itself up there's a supreme court case about it so it would never happen so we just I guess we're just like hypothetically arguing the impacts of it like would it do more harm than good I'd say it probably would or do more good I think we should have a civil war I'm starting to like this like three-part California yeah interesting things in the United States yeah I don't know where would the new capitals be that's true that's a good point doesn't matter it's like it's like an interesting thing to think about but the United States like when we were making our capital we were like where did we put it and that was a big debate but it wasn't like I don't know the nature of the question is not one where we should be like we should not do this because where we put the cap you know like we should do this because it's going to solve voter representation in partisan gridlock you know not because we don't know where the capital is going to go that's it we'll figure it out later yeah I don't know I think it's interesting yeah it's interesting there are a lot of interesting things on the ballot that's true that's done they're like if you guys have ever been up to northern California I remember when I was going north to go to Canada over the summer I saw so so so many signs that said the 51st day of Jefferson and like there's apparently like strong political will to to get some kind of sovereignty for northern California even if it's just a gag but in order to for it to be on the ballot it had to get something like a hundred thousand signatures or something like that so people like they're serious we'll seriously want to consider it yeah I think I think that's really interesting that people feel like the need to separate like California like I mean obviously not everyone but like a lot of people and I don't know like do you think it's like people who actually want to do it are people like it would be so funny if we split up California into three states like imagine that just for the last yeah I think it's more humorous than a serious recommendation I mean it's on the ballot but it's not everything on the ballot is always well do you think a hundred thousand people say they're like let's get this like it's just a joke though but let's actually have a vote on it I wouldn't be surprised I feel like I'm gonna say I would decide if I would have voted if I could vote I'd vote for it no but yeah I don't know like honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it was kind of I mean I'm sure there's a lot of people who are like we need this split into California but I think a lot of people are like yeah yeah northern California and southern California are just so starkly different that yeah I agree there's like I don't know it because it's kind of for me it's the question of like do we want to incentivize this behavior like do we want to look at because for the most part I'm kind of in favor of it I think that it would help a lot federally and also would deal help with a lot of California's problems but also for me like the big question against it is like do we want to incentivize this kind of behavior like because California is obviously not the only state with a significant political divide California is like 60 30 Republican Democrat or something like that same is true of Texas which is another big state and like do we want to set a kind of precedent politically and legally that just because your state has a big like political divide that you can just split it up into a new state and deal with it that way like I don't know if that's the best solution to the problem even though I kind of do think it's a good idea I don't know like Texas I mean I guess I could see that I'm breaking it up I mean it California and Texas are pretty massive states but like why does size matter well I mean population or does population matters well I don't know how many people are in Texas right but there's like there's a comparable amount of people in New York yeah and New York is geographically much smaller than California but I feel like the whole idea of Prop 9 being on the ballot was more driven like economically or like based on like how it would affect our economy than like this like political divide coming into real life right I don't know because I don't categorize California as a whole as red and blue I see it as yeah blue period and I would argue that the majority of Californians see it that way yeah yeah that's what it is but I mean that's that's kind of in part due to the winner-take-all system that we have because like 51 percent of Californians will vote for a Democrat in most elections and that's that's enough like under the way our federal system is structured that's enough to get a Democrat elected but the divide in California like it's not 51 to 49 but it's close and there's a lot of like it's solid solid one color and solid the other color in half of California but it just so happens that the states or sorry the counties in the south of California have a lot of people like Los Angeles and San Jose and San Diego a lot of people there and they all vote Democrat yeah I think it's a really interesting topic to think about I mean I don't think it'll ever happen um but it was really fun I enjoyed talking about it with you guys uh next week another real fun topic we have affirmative action so I'm excited about that so stay tuned