California: exit stage left?

Right after the 2004 election, my father, who left California a while back for a better position in Texas, called to talk politics. We had an extended and worried conversation. At one point there was an exchange that went something like this:
Dad: We can't afford another 4 years of Bush. Maybe it's time to become an expat, for a while at least. To which I said glibly, snidely, and seriously all at once:
"I already am at expat. I'm in California."
Been thinking about that remark again this week. There is no factual truth in it. But I wonder how much emotional truth I was speaking. The idea of California becoming the Republic of California again is not at all a new idea. We would be just fine as a country. Better than fine, really. A power in our own right. Better suited for nationhood than any other state in the Union. Sorry Texas- it's true. I am deeply loyal to the United States. But how long will it be the country I know and love? Are we in a bad patch of our history? Or have we been poisoned by the fear mongering Right? I have no intention of ever living in a theocracy. Or in a country that goes too long without demanding accountability from its executive. America is an idea much more than a location. How much of the majestic ideas of Jefferson, Paine, Adams, and Lincoln will be chewed away by the petulant, greedy little minds in Bush's world before it's time to leave?