Whenever a new “rebellion” is born in our corner of the West, we are usually thrilled. Removed from the sprawls of Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, the rest of the West is often forgotten except when uprisings come back into fashion. We are sometimes defined by stubborn rebellion, as we currently are in light of the new “Greater Idaho” movement.
Midway through February, western conservatives presented their newest scheme to free their rural communities from the more populous centers of their states.
According to the succinctly named “Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho,” there is real momentum behind proposals to redraw Oregon, Idaho and California’s borders to reposition the rural areas of northern California and most of Oregon within new Idaho boundary lines that would stretch to the Pacific Ocean.
There are a variety of sides to be considered, but the two important ones are these: rural Westerners have often sought separation from their liberal governments with proposals like these, and these grand designs are always doomed to fail because of very simple numbers.
The first western re-balancing movement started in 1941, when rural Westerners sought to separate California north of San Francisco and about half of rural Oregon from their liberal state lines. Their movement started with “weekly secessions” that included brandishing rifles and closing down portions of highways.
While we can take solace in the fact that nobody is attempting another armed standoff, 1941’s quickly-defeated movement has smoldered over the years in many forms as the Sagebrush Rebellion and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. There is always going to be disconnect in the West. The region’s DNA has been split between the conservative rural and liberal urban for more than 200 years.
The one thing we know for sure is that none of these statehood or independence movements have gained steam, because they come
from vocal but overstepping minorities. No movement has ever made it out of a handful of counties and garnered serious attention. Not just in the state legislatures, but even among the federal government that these movements hate so much.
The reality is that state and national legislatures could never be convinced to upend the dynamics of our states. Our schools, taxes and public works are all tailored to the concepts of states that have been molded by generations of families, politicians and trends. Moving and even resettling the disgruntled parties would take less work than trudging through years of bureaucracy and decades of aftershock for new lines on a map that may not even produce the same advantages as initially desired.
Governor Brad Little chimed in saying he is “not surprised by the movement one bit,” but otherwise there is no real reason to believe this will amount to anything more than another footnote. Ballot initiatives for the movement have made it on to two of the 24 Oregon counties that would theoretically change hands.
There’s at least one bad joke to be made about how former Oregonians would have to pump their own gas and cross a new border for marijuana, but there isn’t much that is funny here. These movements simply want their cake, and to eat it too.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected]