Douchey Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper is putting down nearly a million dollars of his own money — $750,000 to be exact — in an effort to divide the state of California into six territories.
The proposal — which would split the Golden State into the Northern state of “Jefferson,” North California, Central California, Silicon Valley, West California and South California — ignores many divisive issues that have shaped the state, from water politics to agriculture.
Tim Draper, a Republican venture capitalist, must collect 807,615 signatures to make the ballot by July 18, according to the Bee. Even if he does, the final approval would fall to Congress.
Why is he doing this and why do I say he’s a douche?
Because, from his perspective, California’s size and diversity has made it ungovernable. According to him, the state government is “dominated by a large number of elected representatives from a small part of our state, both geographically and economically.”
That’s a nice line, but his version of an idealistic, divided California would conveniently sever Silicon Valley off from the rest of the state. Virtually every big-name tech company based in the San Francisco area from Google to Twitter and Apple would end up governing themselves.
I suspect his true concern is not representative government, but state tax dollars collected in Silicon Valley being redistributed beyond his gated community.
The good news is Draper’s proposal has absolutely no chance of actually being implemented.