In its February 10, 2017 issue, The Week reports that a group Yes California Independence is gathering signatures to allow California to petition to secede from the Union. For this to happen, we don’t need another civil war, but there is a high bar to jump over. Two thirds of both houses of Congress and three fourths of the states would have to approve.

A year ago this would have seemed like just another example of California craziness, but under a Trump presidency, it seems that the most unlikely things can happen, so why not dream a little? California is often a bellwether state. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently offered to swap jobs with Mr. Trump, and while that can’t happen under our Constitution (like me, he is foreign-born and doesn’t qualify) but perhaps there’s a leadership role for Schwarzenegger in this new nation.

Perhaps there’s a role for Washington and Oregon too – at least the western parts – so I have tentatively named it Calicadia, combining California and Cascadia into one. Let’s take a serious look at the opportunities and challenges. What would the ideal Calicadia look like?

The whole thing once approved would start with a Constitutional Convention that would hammer out the basic ground rules. Here are a few ways to go.

First, let’s be a neutral nation like Switzerland. We will need a State / Immigration department (to set up passport and immigration programs & diplomatic relations with our neighbor to the east, the (T)rump United States, as well as with other nations. The existing U.S. military can still have its many bases in Calicadia, but we’ll charge rent. We won’t try to police the rest of the world or impose our views on them – whether upholding dictators or trying to create an American- style consumer democracy. Calicadians first!

Second, let’s look to the systems of government in other western democracies for best practices that have evolved since the United States Constitution. For example, let’s do transitions of government more like the British do. It is crazy that in the U.S. we have an election in early November and inauguration of the new leader almost 3 months later. I think this is due to the founding fathers having to get to the nation’s capital by canoe and horseback. Time to update!

I’ve heard that the outgoing British Prime Minister and his or her goods and chattels are moving out the back door of Ten Downing Street right after Election Day while the new PM’s stuff is being moved in the front door. More importantly, the new Cabinet is in place immediately. Every member of the “Shadow Cabinet” (the opposition party’s leaders) is elected as a Member of Parliament in his or her own right. So they have already been vetted by the voters. Then every Shadow Cabinet member has a portfolio (housing, transportation, education etc). Those Shadow Ministers are very well briefed by the permanent civil service in their agency, led by the Permanent Undersecretary for that ministry, who is a highly respected career civil servant (but knows that he or she will always be #2, under the elected Cabinet Minister). When there’s a change in government, the Shadow Cabinet overnight becomes the real Cabinet, ready for business. Quick physical transition, with everyone up to speed on their issues.

Let’s have universal health care like other western democracies – as a basic human right.

Let’s be open to renegotiating treaties with our tribal sovereign nations, which are many and still face many inequities.

We’ll have a department of economics and trade that will establish tariffs for our products - wine, airplanes, movies, medical devices, software and much more. This department will also be empowered with creating and implementing a Calicadia regional economic policy that distributes jobs and prosperity to all parts of the new nation. This will be done through incentives and the like, similar to what was achieved in Italy, Scandinavia and the UK in past decades. This department will monitor and plan ahead to address technological and environmental changes that will trigger the need for new economic policies and programs.

We’ll have our own science-based department of environment and climate change. All three states in Calicadia are coastal and have vital farmlands, forests and vineyards that will need to adjust to climate change and sea level rise.

Another idea from the parliamentary system – let’s have Question Time, in which the Executive, all the way up to the Prime Minister, is quizzed in front of the Legislative (House of Parliament) about how key issues are being handled. It might help our leaders think better on their feet and maybe even improve their sense of humor, as well as the main goal of keeping them accountable.