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California has had it with the federal government

Bloomberg Opinion Today
Bloomberg

Gavin Newsom Declares California a 'Nation-State' — Francis Wilkinson

California this week declared its independence from the federal government's feeble efforts to fight Covid-19 — and perhaps from a bit more. The consequences for the fight against the pandemic are almost certainly positive. The implications for the brewing civil war between Trumpism and America's budding 21st-century majority, embodied by California's multiracial liberal electorate, are less clear.

Speaking on MSNBC, Governor Gavin Newsom said that he would use the bulk purchasing power of California "as a nation-state" to acquire the hospital supplies that the federal government has failed to provide. If all goes according to plan, Newsom said, California might even "export some of those supplies to states in need."

"Nation-state." "Export."

Newsom is accomplishing a few things here, with what can only be a deliberate lack of subtlety.

Read the whole thing.

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