California's secession movement continues, softly

I have posted a few times on the burgeoning secession movement of disgruntled blue states, mainly California. Formerly, we could consider "CalExit" a minority movement in the state (it is too large, though, to call it a fringe movment). But now the state's government is getting into the act, though more softly than the actual secessionists. The American Interest reports,

The fantastical push for “CalExit” might be on hold for now, but America’s Left Coast giant is nonetheless beginning to symbolically sever ties with the rest of the United States—a significant provocation that could have wide-reaching consequences down the line. The Sacramento Bee reports that California is banning publicly funded travel to a growing list of red states.

California is restricting publicly funded travel to four more states because of recent laws that leaders here view as discriminatory against gay and transgender people.

All totaled, California now bans most state-funded travel to eight states.The new additions to California’s restricted travel list are Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota.

They join Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee as states already subjected to the ban.

California Attorney Xavier Becerra announced the new states at a Thursday press conference, where he was joined by representatives from ACLU Northern California and Equality California.

“We will not spend taxpayer dollars in states that discriminate,” Becerra said.

As we noted when California inaugurated this policy, American federalism is based on the agreement that different states can pursue different policies (within Constitutional bounds) while retaining equal status within the union. California’s decision to escalate the culture war with “sanctions” against states with different political orientations represents a direct challenge to America’s federal structure.

Which is the intention, not a side effect.

Update: Tennessee fires back: