Proponents of Eastern Washington seceding hold first press conference

Vague plans to split Eastern Washington off into its own, new state seem to come up every few years, and it recently got its own press conference. That’s a start.

A press conference was held recently in Moses Lake to discuss plans for those east of the Cascades to secede and split into a separate state called “Liberty,” which they say would better serve the political and cultural needs of residents alienated by Western Washington, reports The Spokesman-Review.

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KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney is not entirely confident that this will ever happen.

“It’s bonkers, it’s ridiculous. It’s a bit like the south thinking they should secede from the union. The state of Washington isn’t going to go for that. And secondly, I’m not sure that they could survive on their own economically,” he said. “It’s pretty sparse pickings on the east side of the state.”

At the press conference, proponents argued that the 51st state would benefit both the rural conservatives to the east and urban liberals to the west, and that people would have gun and property rights unaffected by Western liberal restrictions.

For co-host John Curley, the Eastern Washington secession may be far-fetched, but he somewhat understands the disillusioned sentiment behind it.

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“If you look at the state of Washington, you get socialists on the left, you get freedom fighters on the right, and the state really is divided politically and the people over in Eastern Washington are like, ‘This is ridiculous. We’ve got a point of view. We’d like to be able to have our ideas presented in a way that at least someone would consider them. Why don’t we split?'” Curley said.

“‘Let’s slice off and remove ourselves from the rest of these loonies that are over on the left hand side’ … Do you think the people of Eastern Washington and their points of view of the world and how it should operate are well represented by Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell?”

“Because they’re outnumbered in the state,” Tom responded. “Every state has has a conservative and a liberal leaning there … I don’t know how comfortable you think a blue Democrat feels in Alabama, but they’re not proposing, ‘Well, you know, we have to leave the state.’ It’s bonkers.”

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Volunteers for Liberty state plan to establish a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which would allow them to take part in political activities. They currently have a booth at the Spokane County Interstate Fair that runs through September 15.

Listen to the Tom and Curley Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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