PRINEVILLE, Ore. – Tens of thousands of rural, conservative eastern Oregon residents are so frustrated with their liberal urban neighbors that they have decided they can no longer even share their ZIP code.
The Greater Idaho Movement would move Oregon’s state border 320 miles west and is a secession effort that would align conservative farming, ranching, and logging communities in eastern Oregon with like-minded neighbors to the east. . More than a dozen eastern Oregon counties have already approved the plan, and voters in Crook County and the county seat of Prineville are now considering the nonbinding measure, with results expected Tuesday..
“I love Oregon, but I don’t love the people who are running it now,” said Eric Smith, 48, who owns two retail stores on Prineville’s Main Street. “I don’t think they want to keep us anyway.”
Beyond Crook County, Pop. 26,325 voters said even those who opposed the measure were tired of liberal lawmakers’ orders in Salem, the state capital, and Portland, the state’s population center, to legalize marijuana. , efforts to reduce fossil fuel use, and gun control measures. The state has responded to the coronavirus pandemic.
The sentiment in eastern Oregon reflects broader national dissatisfaction and division over the direction of the country, from school districts, college campuses and big cities to Congress.
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A 2023 poll by Colby College professors found that more than 25% of Americans support some form of state secession, and nearly 25% agree that it makes sense to divide the country. I understand.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) emphasized the division many Americans feel when she tweeted the following in February 2023:we need a national divorce. We need to shrink the federal government by dividing it into red states and blue states…”
Ryan D. Griffith, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said Oregon’s voting plan is the latest in a long series of efforts, most of which have been little more than slogans and bumper stickers. These include a failed “Jefferson State” proposal in Northern California, smoldering secession movements in Vermont and Texas, and a short-lived effort to transfer parts of northern Colorado to Wyoming. It will be done.
Griffith said that, like other secession movements, the Greater Idaho movement lacks a significant surge of public support and is mostly a referendum on state-level governance.
“In some ways, it’s a pipe dream. What they’re doing is partly performative and for ideological purposes,” he said. “In many cases, separatist movements are really just negotiation efforts.”
Griffiths said that scholars who study secession efforts like those in the former Soviet Union view the U.S.-based movement as “pretty light.” But he also acknowledged that secession efforts like Greater Idaho continue to gain momentum.
“There’s a strange creeping momentum building,” he said of the partisan divorce proposal.
“If you imagine a serious project to divide America into red states and blue states, that would be very dangerous because you would have to divide people,” he said. “Despite what many people think, the population is actually not well categorized.”
Should neighbors share the same values?
In Oregon, proponents of the bill are using the peaceful existing political process to reduce friction between people on opposite ends of the political spectrum who already live separate lives in the state. It is claimed that Supporters say they don’t want to just sell their home and move to another state because they like living where they are.
“People are already sorted into like-minded communities,” said Matt McCaw, a spokesman for the Greater Idaho Movement. “People like to live around people who share the same values as them.”
Mr. Smith, the store owner, lived near Bend, part of the much more liberal Deschutes County, but he left after becoming dissatisfied with its political direction.
In the 2020 presidential election, Deschutes County voted 52% for Joe Biden, while Crook County, where he currently lives, voted 73% for Trump. Supporters of the bill say they would not seek support from Deschutes voters, even though the county is considered part of eastern Oregon.
Mr Smith said he did not know how he would vote on Leave, but he understood why people supported it.
“Stop treating us like Portland,” he said, echoing the sentiments of many Crook County residents.
Experts say the decision to self-isolate made by people like Smith reflects not only recent national migration to states such as Texas and Florida, but also the effects of the 1950s and 1960s, when city-dwelling whites moved to the suburbs. This is also reflected in the “white flight” movement of the 2000s. .
The Greater Idaho Movement would require approval from both the Oregon and Idaho legislatures, as well as Congress. It’s also unclear how Native American reservations in eastern Oregon will be incorporated, as they straddle county and state lines.
McCaw, a foster parent who lives north of Prineville, said she doesn’t want to be forced to accept that there is more than one gender or that people can change their gender, and is frustrated by liberals who reject the role of the Christian church. He said he felt it. In everyday life.
He said he and many of his neighbors remain angry that Oregon required businesses and churches to close during the coronavirus pandemic, compared to Idaho’s looser restrictions.
“We were forced to do things we didn’t want to do, and it was all done under threat of punishment from the western part of the state,” he said. “It opened a lot of people’s eyes. It’s one thing to see Congress pass policies you don’t agree with. It’s another thing to have your business shut down and not be able to go to church.”
Employees and owners shop at the same store
Above all, Crook County residents know their neighbors best, from farmers and ranchers to tech support workers at Facebook and Apple’s massive data centers to the woman behind the counter at a sandwich factory. It is said that
Amanda Halcomb, 30, who works at a store in Prineville, said she doesn’t know yet how she will vote. She said she is concerned that housing costs are rising and substance abuse is on the rise. She said she believes the many laws passed by the Oregon Legislature will ultimately make Crook County more urban.
She said knowing your neighbors, taking personal responsibility for your actions and solving local problems locally are important values.
“We’re supposed to be a small town. That’s the whole point,” said Ms. Halcomb, who worries about raising her children in an environment she considers increasingly liberal. “That’s what we’re here for.”
One concern is what will happen to Halcomb’s salary if Eastern Oregon joins Idaho State. The minimum wage in Crook County is $13.20 an hour, compared to $7.25 an hour in Idaho.
The closest Walmart to Prineville is 30 miles away, and political interest typically revolves around whether new dollar stores fit into the community and whether nonprofit cleanup groups will have free access to the county’s dumpster. The focus is on whether or not to.
In general, Crook County has more in common with the state of Idaho than with most of the state. The county overall has less racial diversity than Oregon as a whole and the United States as a whole, and the people who live there earn less than the Oregon average. The median household income in Crook County is about $75,000, compared to about $70,000 in Idaho and about $87,000 in Oregon as a whole.
“Factory owners and factory workers have to go to the same restaurants and shop at the same grocery stores. That keeps things under control,” Crook County Commissioner Seth Crawford said. Told.
Crawford hasn’t taken a formal position on the proposal, but he understands why many neighbors support it. He said he shares their concerns about how things are decided by “The Valley,” the western Willamette Valley, where 70% of the state’s population lives in Portland, Eugene and Salem. Stated.
Crawford has knocked on hundreds of neighborhood doors during his campaign, talking about Crook County’s opposition to statewide marijuana legalization and how lawmakers want to regulate guns. He said he regularly hears the same concerns, including complaints about People also resent paying high taxes to fund government services they oppose and want the freedom to support their families as they see fit.
While he said he still believes Crook County can make its voice heard in the Legislature, he understands why its neighbors would take the drastic step of secession.
“They want to send a message to Salem that they’re not happy with the situation they’re in,” Crawford said.
people are tired of arguing
Competing billboards across Prineville call for “Move Oregon’s border” and urge voters to “I Don’t!” and reject the effort.
Leave supporter Josh Derrick, 44, said he believed the situation had gone beyond disagreements over how to live. Fundamental lifestyle differences indicate a lack of common ground, he said.
Derrick sells RVs, most of which require a large pickup to tow. But he also keeps smaller ones on hand to sell to SUV-driving liberals who don’t buy trucks.
“People are just tired of arguing. I want to work and earn money and play with toys and go fishing,” he said.
Derrick said he had never paid much attention to local politics, but became involved after noticing the Greater Idaho Movement.
“I love Oregon. The chances of[the initiative]coming to fruition are pretty slim. But this is getting more people involved in politics.” “This is getting more people involved. “If that happens, I consider it a victory,” he said.
Besides, he laughed, “I don’t hate liberals. We still need their money.”
McCaw, the initiative’s spokesperson, said the Greater Idaho movement will survive even if Crook County’s vote is rejected.
He believes Americans are too divided, and while people with different opinions can coexist, Oregon’s liberal politicians consistently impose their values on rural areas. said. He said if other states decide to follow suit, so be it, there is a process to change boundaries for this very reason.
“I don’t think we can continue on the path we’re on,” McCaw said. “We must recognize that your values are yours, my values are mine, and respect our ability to have different opinions.”
Smith, the store owner, said he may vote against the initiative because he supports keeping Oregon alive. As Smith stuffed his face with McDonald’s hash browns, he said he opened two stores because he believes Prineville and Crook County are good places.
He said he just hopes that Salem politicians listen to Eastern Oregon’s concerns and that this talk of secession dies down.
Smith said he appreciates Oregon’s diversity of thought, lifestyle, geography and employment, saying, “That’s what makes Oregon Oregon. And I’m willing to let that go. I don’t want to.”