

For as long as I can remember, many of the people there have harbored ambitions to secede from the rest of California and form their own state. It’s red-state Trump territory that has long been sidelined by the broader liberalism of California’s coastal cities. The closest real town is Redding, a sprawling hodgepodge of suburbs, strip malls, and freeways.
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You had to drive 25 miles just to get gas.

Our only community buildings were a post office and two bars. The backdrop of my formative years was a tiny gold rush town a couple hundred miles north of San Francisco. But before my move to the big city, I spent most of my life in rural California.
