We, the undersigned People of the State of California call upon our state elected officials, as our only truly democratically authorized governmental representatives, to provide these fundamental protections for Californians, in the following manner:

A. Assuming for all California residents the role of primary insurer and ultimate guarantor of our political, civil, and human rights;

B. Buffering Californians against chaos, dysfunction, and predatory policies at the federal level;

C. Defending Californians from hostile actions from domestic and international actors intent on undermining California’s democracy and civil society;

D. Protecting the life and liberty of California’s residents from terroristic and authoritarian actions from nationalists, populists, and white supremacists;

E. Preserving California’s environment against exploitation and degradation from unsound developmental policies imposed from outside California.

 

The People of the State of California call for these urgent actions because of the following actions taken by the current federal administration, aligned states, and other regional parties that constitute an urgent existential danger to California residents:

1) The aggressive and intentional adoption of anti-democratic practices in a coordinated manner, including the dismantling of voting protections and online election security, partisan election oversight, purging of voter rolls, reduction of voting opportunities, and other illegal and unethical actions;

2) The aggressive and intentional politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal Judiciary, Congressional oversight committees, and federal government agencies such as the Justice Department and the IRS, and the intentional undermining of the belief in democracy, the rule of law, the notion of good governance, reasonable compromise, and respectful consensus;

3) The aggressive and intentional undermining of science and rational evidence-based systems of analysis and the reckless disregard and active acts of misinformation pertaining to environmental issues, and in particular, the dangers posed by human generated climate change;

4) The aggressive and intentional attacks on the freedom of the press, including calling the press the “enemy of the people” and characterizing any negative reporting as “fake news” while at the same time conducting aggressive propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at deceiving the American public on issues crucial to their safety and well-being;

5) The aggressive and intentional enactment of economic and taxation policies that increase the already historic levels of wealth inequality in the United States and the dismantling of labor rights including the ability to unionize or engage in collective bargaining;

6) The aggressive and intentional dissemination of white supremacist ideology that validate and further normalize the already extensive and deeply entrenched institutional racism and violence that communities of color experience routinely experience in everyday life;

7) The aggressive and intentional dissemination of anti-immigrant scapegoating and the implementation of immigration policies that punishes the children of immigrants raised in the U.S.A., separates children from parents, and places asylum seekers and refugees in internment camp conditions that violate their human rights;

8) The aggressive and intentional implementation of harsh and restrictive policies concerning women’s reproductive rights, control of their own bodies and right to be free of sexual violence and harassment in all aspects of their lives; 

9) The aggressive and intentional rolling back of the rights of transgender people including the right to serve in the military and the promulgation of rules that allow health care providers and other service providers such as physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and teachers to discriminate against LGBTQ people based on religious grounds;

10) The aggressive and intentional dissemination of propaganda and disinformation that specifically disparages and maligns California while adopting federal policies that penalize Californian taxpayers and make California into even more of a donor state, with resources that rightfully should go to addressing California’s own problems and needs being transferred to other states;

11) The aggressive and intentional coordination of tactics and strategies with foreign authoritarian governments and the weakening and undermining of American ties to Western democracies, traditional allies, and the multilateral liberal world order;

12) The aggressive and intentional weakening of gun safety laws and normalizing of the threat of violence in the national discourse against communities of color, immigrants, politically progressive and liberal voters, women, the LGBTQ+ community, religious minorities and other regularly disparaged and maligned groups which has routinely resulted in the murder and attempted murder of individuals within those groups.   

 

The People of California call upon our state elected officials to acknowledge that they understand the gravity of these threats by the current federal administration along with aligned states and other regional parties, and that they will undertake protective measures using all the powers and resources possessed by California as a top economic, political, and cultural global power.  

We furthermore call upon our own elected officials in California to undertake these measures in a manner that is peaceful, legal, and in conformance with the norms of democratic civil society.