independence for Hawaii in the next decade?

I remember seing a TV-program some years ago about the Hawaiian seperatist-movement

Is this considered to be a strong movement? - and are an independent Hawaii a realistic scenario to happen in the next decade ?

I’m not so sure about the first part of your question, but the second half just doesn’t seem even remotely possible to me. I can’t imagine the US giving up a place that is such a strategic launching point for Asia, militarisitically.

Further, I can’t really imagine the bulk of Hawaiians agreeing with such a movement either, since many base their livelihoods on mainland tourists.

Found this cite on a Hawaiian independence movement. I’m doubtful that this is anything more than a fringe group…sort of like the Hispanic groups in the continental US who want an independent South West (some of my family are involved in this equally unlikely movement).

From the cite:

This seems more a GD question, but judge for yourself.

-XT

But would it make such a difference to mainland tourists? Even if it does it become its own country it won’t mean we can’t go there.

Consider that there is no precedent at all for the peaceful or successful secession of a US state, nor any clear process in the Constitution to follow. Given that, independence for Puerto Rico seems about a billion times more likely than for Hawaii. (And unlike Hawaii, the independence movement in PR is actually politically significant.)

No, but it sure helps attract people and money from the rest of the US. Does Hawaii add more in taxes than it recieves in federal funding? That would be a good place to start.

In the United States, a State cannot unilaterally declare itself separate from the United States. Since no State has ever left the United States permanently (and the only States to have ever left did so without ever being recognized as separated by the government and these States were ravaged by the U.S. military and forcibly made to accept their place in the United States) I’m not sure there is any decisive idea on what form such a separation would take (if I’m wrong, I’d be genuinely interested in learning about this.)

At the very least, removal of any State from the union would probably require the consent of the Federal government–I think the American Civil War has more or less settled that particular issue.

But perhaps 3/4ths of the States could modify the constitution in such a way as to allow individual States to leave at will.

Such a constitutional amendment would almost definitely have to be introduced via constitutional convention

In any case, while I’m unsure of the legal nuances of Hawaii becoming a sovereign state, I can most assure you that the practical reality is that Hawaii is not remotely close to becoming a sovereign state. Nor will it become one within in the foreseeable future.

I find it to be strange that Hawaii are an american state since it’s so long away from the mainland. Is Hawaii even a a part of the American continent?

It was a big deal shortly before the millennium, as that was the hundred-year anniversary of the overthrow. There was a lot of talk of sovereignty, and many ethnic Hawaiian groups seemed to come out of the woodwork to position themselves as representatives of the Hawaiian community/potential leaders of the sovereign nation.

Unfortunately, although many non-ethnic Hawaiian supported some form of independence to Native Hawaiians, nothing ever materialized. (I personally did not support any independent Hawaiian nation, mostly because I didn’t think any group demonstrated competent leadership.) I didn’t pay much attention to any legislative proposals that would have granted Hawaiians independence, although I do know there were efforts made in that direction.

All talk of sovereignty seems to have disappeared in the last few years. As far as I can tell, the only lasting effect of the Hawaiian independence movement is an increased interest in the Hawaiian language and culture. You can now get a degree in the language at UH, and I think there is a Hawaiian-only school somewhere.

I’m not sure why being part of the American continent matters one way or the other but…is this a trick question? If not, the short answer is…no. It’s an island.

-XT

It’s actually lots of islands.

Yes…I mis-typed that. It is lots of islands that are volcanic in nature and not connected to the American continent.

-XT

It might. Needing a passport sometimes hampers people’s travel plans. Not always, but I wonder if it would have an effect.

Hawaii is composed of hundreds of islands. And it’s not easy for a U.S. state to secede (it’s been tried, remember?) . . . though it might as well be part of Japan.

Secession could happen easily enough if both sides wanted it. However, it’s my impression that neither a majority of Hawaiians nor a majority of mainlanders want it to happen.

I found this on wikipedia:

“Easily?” How would it happen, exactly? What’s the easy process for secession, or are you just making this up?

In the middle of the Pacific, so, no, not even part of the same continental shelf. Not in the Americas at all, actually.

Sort of like how French Guiana is part of France despite being across the Atlantic.

Hawaii is singular.

I think that constitutionally Giles is closer to on target than the “it takes a constitutional amendment” view. In 1946 the Philippines, an American territory, were granted independence, after a period as a Commonwealth (the Puerto Rico/Northern Marianas usage of the word). It took a resolution from the territorial government and one from the U.S. Congress. It would be my opinion that what the Civil War settled (and that absurd court case over State bonds during the Confederacy ratified) is that U.S. states have irrevocably given up the right to secede unilaterally. If there were common agreement between a state and Washington that it deserved to go its own way, then the Philippine precedent (and the regular offer of independence to Puerto Rico at plebiscite time) would suggest that Congress and the state government, in concert, can do it.

As for Hawai’ian independence, though, it’s my understanding that it is a fairly small minority which is seeking it – nowhere near as strong, even, than the Scottish independence people.

Hawai’i the state is composed of eight main islands, six of them being the state proper and the other two a military reservation and a privately owned estate, along with a chain of islets and reefs geographically within Hawai’i state (and Honolulu county) but administered by either the Interior or Navy Department (Fed. Gov’t.).