01 Reclaiming Democracy: The Case for West Coast Independence
Welcome to Pacific Time. I'm your host, Greg Amorfell. I have loved LA, left my heart in San Francisco, and now I'm sleepless in Seattle. The West Coast is home, and so I come by my idealism honestly. Call me a West Coast Liberal.
Greg Amrofell:Tell me that I'm keeping it weird out West. Accuse me of being woo woo. Great. These are badges of honor. I am a proud member of the West Coast majority that voted resoundingly to protect democracy in the last three presidential elections.
Greg Amrofell:Yes. I believe that real representative democracy is the best way for people to be themselves and for communities to live in concert. Does that make me idealistic? Okay. Look.
Greg Amrofell:Reasonable people who cast their vote for the other guy can have real grievances with the federal government. They have reason to be angry about a political system that shows more interest in fundraising spam and social media hot takes than in solving problems. Like many of us, regardless of who we voted for, I'm disgusted by what we're watching in Washington DC. It's an unambiguous assault on American democracy and decency. It's an attack on a world order where we lead by example and live by the golden rule, doing unto others as we would have done unto ourselves.
Greg Amrofell:The United States, for all its imperfections, has been taken over by the dictatorship Donald Trump promised. He is swinging the wrecking ball and much of what we assumed, loved, and took for granted about The United States is getting demolished. News about this can be disorienting, even depressing. But I'm not depressed. I'm fired up, and I refuse to give up hope.
Greg Amrofell:Why? Because we're lucky on the West Coast. We live in a place that inspires optimism around the world. We are proudly diverse people who are dreamers. We live in one of the world's most beautiful places, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that we power one of the largest and most creative economies in history.
Greg Amrofell:And guess what? We still have huge challenges to balance. Housing shortages and homelessness, drought and water shortages, preventing and responding to natural disasters, protecting public safety, finding clean power, and moving it around on an aging grid, leading in AI, and preparing for dramatic changes that AI will bring to work, protecting our environment and easing regulations for the modernization we need, enabling responsible immigration, providing affordable health care choices to everyone, addressing education declines, closing economic inequalities, establishing equal rights and opportunities for everyone who lives here. The list goes on. States, counties, and cities on the West Coast try to address these issues today within the framework of democracy.
Greg Amrofell:If democracy falls to dictatorship, if the constitutional crisis we feared has arrived, well, then setting the policies and practices that make the West Coast work better for those of us who live here means that we have to face a hard truth. The American experiment is failing. The West Coast is held back as part of a United States system with too many people, too many competing priorities, and utterly unfit leadership. When the founders wrote the US Constitution, they couldn't really imagine a country that spanned three time zones, touched two oceans, and was populated by an awesomely diverse population of 330,000,000 people. So as the wrecking ball swings in Washington DC, is it time for us on the West Coast to cherry pick the best American principles and to talk through the ways we want to start fresh and design something better, something modern?
Greg Amrofell:Is it time for hopeful people on the West Coast to ask hopeful questions? On Pacific time, we're going to ask the what if questions about West Coast independence. Join me in meaningful conversations and bold brainstorms about political and personal sovereignty, about shaping a future that builds on what it means to be an American living on the best coast and about encouraging healthy exchanges that go beyond partisan politics to problem solving. Today, on the first full episode of Pacific Time, I'm setting our agenda with a set of big what if questions that will be at the center of this conversation. I'll explain why you should care, who I am, why I'm doing this, and why I think it's urgent that you listen, share this with your friends and family, and join our community.
Greg Amrofell:So let me ask, what if we cease to recognize a US Federal Government that's broken free of its oath to defend the US Constitution? What if we took this as a chance to wipe the slate clean and decide, unencumbered by destructive politics rooted on the corridor between Washington DC and Florida, that we wanna protect democracy and preserve American ideals here where we live. What if we could define a healthy role for government centered on building and protecting the public goods we value on the West Coast? What if we could expand rights, build alliances, and address problems without the constraints of founding documents that were, no doubt, revolutionary 250 ago, but brutally compromised and badly in need of modernization? What if we could examine how separatism has succeeded and modern representative democracy has worked well elsewhere in the world?
Greg Amrofell:And what if we stop trying to protect, oppose, resist, or defend, and went on offense to define the place where we want to live? Look. I'm better at asking questions and facilitating discussions than I am at answering them. So I'm going to be inviting guests who offer expertise, and I'll try to draw out their imagination. So why should you care?
Greg Amrofell:Because our situation isn't very different from that of the Bostonians who threw British tea into the harbor. They were rightly protesting taxation without representation, And we are not well represented in Washington DC. We have voted so resoundingly against Donald Trump in the last three elections that our Democratic majority is taken for granted. Our votes barely count, and we're subject to his retribution. Democratic candidates stop in West Coast cities to raise money, but they spend it in small swing states.
Greg Amrofell:Small swing states that are dwarfed by mid size West Coast cities and counties. And yet, our 50,000,000 people in California, Oregon, and Washington state are represented by only six US senators. We get only six people to weigh in on cabinet appointments, Supreme Court nominees, and many important pieces of legislation. Is it any wonder our values aren't reflected in the federal government, whoever's leading it? And despite or maybe because we're so poorly represented, wow, are we taxed?
Greg Amrofell:Our economy powers the country. Sure. Tech and entertainment hog the limelight, but aerospace, manufacturing, and agriculture are huge in the West. We export tax dollars, subsidizing some truly awful and dehumanizing policy elsewhere in the country. In the meantime, we don't have enough to address drought, wildfire, power, education.
Greg Amrofell:This prompts our state and local governments to get creative with property tax, sales tax, gas tax. What choice do we have to take care of ourselves? And sadly, our tax system enables and encourages gross inequality. Taxes are born by working class people struggling to get by in our beautiful but expensive part of the world. In the meantime, billionaires proliferate and decamp to Texas when it comes time to pay what they can.
Greg Amrofell:Why should you care? Because the political vitriol of national politics isn't about solving problems. It creates and capitalizes on division to produce clicks and views on social media. It's a giant waste of money, a giant waste of energy that just alienates us from one another. Politicians and media oligarchs seem more interested in power than principles.
Greg Amrofell:And let's recognize the contingent now in control of the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court is committed to maintaining power above all else. Principles are nowhere to be seen. People who disagree with them can moan and cry about how soulless they are, and they have a point. But the way to fight the power hungry is by asserting power. The West Coast has all kinds of power, economic, cultural, environmental, geographic, and just in terms of raw human numbers and talent.
Greg Amrofell:Sure. People say we're laid back in the West right up until we're competing. And it's time to throw our collective weight around to empower ourselves. We have to care. Because if we want a bright future here for our kids and their kids, we have to define what that's going to look like.
Greg Amrofell:We have to locate our inner warrior in our meditations, our yoga classes, and our next long walks on the beach. It's time to fight. And I get it. The idea of fighting is scary. A conversation about West Coast independence is scary.
Greg Amrofell:Secession is a scary idea. Nobody wants to be branded a seditionist. We've seen the destruction of civil wars on the news and in our history books. And isn't this new administration showing that it means business about persecuting its enemies? These are reasonable fears.
Greg Amrofell:Unless you recognize that we're here to talk about preserving what we value about America, that this is patriotic. It's reasonable to believe that the possibility of a national negotiated divorce exists with a president who has certainly experienced a divorce and sees himself as a dealmaker. It's reasonable unless you consider that despite imperialism not being on the ballot in 2024, this president seems ready to redefine international borders all on his own. Witness Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Gaza. In the meantime, what's so scary about asking some what if questions?
Greg Amrofell:Letting the assault on functional democracy go unchallenged? That's scary. Asking what if about the West Coast isn't meant to inspire fear. We're all tired of flimsy fear mongering. Open your minds to the possibility that what if questions can inspire hope and lead us to blueprints for how we make ourselves and our communities better.
Greg Amrofell:What if we stop depending on a remote federal government three time zones away? What if we assert our power and make the West Coast the best version of itself? If you're on board, you may then be wondering, who are you, Greg, to be asking these wild what if questions? And that's fair. To begin, I'm thoroughly a product of the West Coast.
Greg Amrofell:I was born and raised in Southern California. I played soccer alongside huge orange groves. I had a blast living in San Francisco in my twenties at the start of the .com era, then went on to Berkeley for business school with a really amazing group of people from around the world. I became a grown up living in Seattle, working in tech, starting a company, and working at a big public university, all while raising two amazing kiddos. I find great peace getting outside and joining good people around the table.
Greg Amrofell:Our options are so abundant here. I've loved body surfing in Newport Beach, hiking to the top of Half Dome and Rattlesnake Ridge, running across the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight, meditating in Marin. I've loved picnicking in Napa with great wine and food, road tripping down the Oregon Coast to the Redwoods, snowboarding the canyon at Mount Baker and the peaks at Palisades, finding fantastic strip mall pho, recommended by Jonathan Gold, may he rest in peace, practicing yoga with my daughter on the dock by Lake Washington, playing pickleball with my son at Green Lake, and sipping beers by the Burke Gilman Trail. Lately, I serve up a lot of seafood feasts with my girlfriend. Salmon, spot prawns, oysters, and mussels that we've harvested from the Salish Sea.
Greg Amrofell:I could go on because I love living on the West Coast. And I haven't even come close to doing everything on my bucket list. As for work, I've had one of those careers that zigged and zagged. I was a young crusading journalist and political advocate. I volunteered as a high school teacher.
Greg Amrofell:I spent most of my career in tech, and it's probably fair to call me a first generation tech pro when I was working with early internet companies and then joined Microsoft. I put my technology skills to work when I cofounded a consultancy and explored big ideas with leaders whose names you've probably heard. I was also a global health advocate during COVID. In a nutshell, I love designing and building products, services, and experiences. I'm a believer in true stories well told, even better when they're joined with real data and compelling visualizations.
Greg Amrofell:I form strong convictions, loosely held. I'm an idealist who believes in markets, but I almost never choose the path that's for pure profit. I love being part of and leading teams full of eager people empowered to make their own talent shine. I also love engaging stakeholders and hearing varied perspectives. In my life and career, I've been a bit of a troublemaker.
Greg Amrofell:Good trouble, as the civil rights leader John Lewis might say. And Pacific time will, I suspect, call on all of this. I'm not a professional journalist nor a political insider. I am insatiably curious and love conversations that reveal challenging insights. I love translating insights to action, and I'm just willful enough to persist when someone questions an idea of mine.
Greg Amrofell:And I am an interested citizen of the West Coast. On my career and life journey, I've come to really enjoy asking what if questions. Basically, it's applied science fiction. Imagining the future is fun and revealing, whether that future is utopian or dystopian. And I found it highly effective to explore what's possible and what's to be avoided on the way to helping people get from where they are to where they wanna go.
Greg Amrofell:And the important work goes beyond brainstorming and filling whiteboards up with post it notes. In my experience, the communities and teams that truly deliver visionary breakthroughs and game changing innovations, they get curious about what causes other people pain and dissatisfaction, and they work tirelessly to create solutions that address real problems, that delight people, that honor each human's dignity by helping them be and feel more successful. This is my frame of reference for Pacific time. I want to ask what if questions of experts, visionaries, and leaders representing a wide spectrum of thinking and experience. I wanna help them.
Greg Amrofell:I wanna help us ask great questions about imagining a better future for us on the West Coast. Why is now the best time to be asking about West Coast independence? You might be wondering if speculation about an unlikely national separation is worthwhile at a time when we're trying to literally fight fires and fend off dictatorship. You might think that daydreaming about an independent West Coast is tilting at windmills or maybe even dangerous. This kind of thinking is exactly what has believers in democracy on their heels.
Greg Amrofell:Donald Trump won this election, but his government is being run by people who had a vision and a precise specific playbook in project twenty twenty five that they are executing with little regard for the way government typically operates. What's our alternate vision? Or are we content to complain, oppose, and resist? I worry so, and I hate that. It's confirmation that The United States has become hopelessly unwieldy, that solving real problems for real people requires narrowing our focus.
Greg Amrofell:I'm choosing to focus on my neighborhood, the westernmost band of the country highlighted in bright blue on the last three presidential election maps, united in believing America deserved a more competent, more inclusive, and more inspiring leader who could be counted on to protect democracy. Look. I'm betraying my political bias. I'm also revealing my political blindness. Trump didn't go away and won in 2024 despite his obvious and well reported limitations as a human and a leader.
Greg Amrofell:While Kamala Harris won the West Coast in a typical Democratic party route, more votes came for Donald Trump from my home state of California than from any other state. In my idealism and privilege, in my ride up the tech industry elevator, I failed to recognize that lots of people were getting left behind. Inequity was growing at an exponential pace, and the on ramps to upward mobility were narrowing. Legitimate grievance most certainly lives on my beloved West Coast. Donald Trump's return to office makes him the voice of valid discontent.
Greg Amrofell:Because, yes, it's amazing to live here on the West Coast, but damn, it's expensive. So Pacific time may be liberal, but it isn't going to be partisan. It will also be personal. As we speak, members of my family are panicking about their access to medicine that helps them be their true selves. I'm watching civic minded friends leave the country or lose their jobs advancing health around the world.
Greg Amrofell:I'm watching hardworking immigrants cower in fear about undeserved arrest because of their last names. So Pacific time may have a liberal bias, but I see being liberal as keeping an open mind and subscribing to the rules that enable individual freedom. So I'm also listening to the reasonable right. What if on the West Coast we can move past the partisan put downs and embrace our pronouns as we and us? What if our proximity to the Pacific and far away from Washington DC binds us more strongly than the labels that perpetuate the failing politics and media that divide us and enable this decline into dictatorship?
Greg Amrofell:Given our resources and creativity, is the West Coast in position to address the reasons most of us voted against Donald Trump as well as the reasons a good number of our neighbors voted for him? Big question. Do we on the West Coast even know our own strength? Did you know that 15% of The US population reside in the West Coast states of Washington, Oregon, and California? That's 50,000,000 of us.
Greg Amrofell:Did you know that these same three states are estimated to represent at least 15% of the country's total GDP? That this would make us the fourth largest economy in the world behind the rest of The US, Germany, and China? Did you know that LA County is bigger in population than all but a handful of US states, or that the fires in LA covered more ground than several major US cities? Did you know that the West Coast exports federal tax, giving away much more than we get back? And given the long list of challenges we face on the West Coast, wouldn't you like a bunch of that money back to tackle our problems?
Greg Amrofell:I'm asking the what ifs of West Coast independence now because I'm interested in knowing how we'd govern ourselves if we had the chance. What policies would we put into place to build on our strengths and address our challenges? It's not easy starting from a blank slate. Doing this could be complicated, expensive, and risky. Independence, real sovereignty, may not be practical or even attractive, but asking about it, really exploring it, can make the West Coast better.
Greg Amrofell:It can also help each of us see the individual roles we can play to make ourselves and our communities better. And what if we don't ask? Then we face a different set of really hard questions. Are we chaining ourselves to a sinking American ship? Are we accepting dictatorship and siding with fascism?
Greg Amrofell:Are we giving in to racism and sexism? Are we letting amoral people prescribe our morality? Are we letting insensitive people who show almost no self awareness tell us what it means to be masculine, feminine, or human? Whether or not the West Coast can or wants to secede may be beside the point. Pacific time is about organizing our thoughts and asserting our power so we can shape and protect the country that we want.
Greg Amrofell:So what can you do? What actions can you take right now? If the conversation I've described sounds constructive, maybe even uncomfortably provocative, you're a Pacific Time person. I'd argue that all of you, my 50,000,000 neighbors on the West Coast, are living in Pacific Time, and there's no time to lose. Join in by taking these three steps.
Greg Amrofell:First, follow Pacific Time on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Two, share this episode with your friends and neighbors. Invite debate. Open civil conversations inspired by the what if questions we'll be asking on the show. And three, join the conversation with a growing number of like minded West Coasters on the most open minded platform I've found online.
Greg Amrofell:We're on Substack at Pacific Time Podcast. That's Pacific Time Podcast on Substack. This is Gregg Ammerfeld. Thanks for being here with me in Pacific Time. And let's keep asking, what if about West Coast independence?