Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of counties in a given State want to secede from their current State and join with another as they believe to be more in tune with their beliefs and culture. Often, it’s in States that have a tremendous “gap” between a State’s urban and rural areas. Frankly put, the more conservative rural areas are tired of being pushed around by the far more progressive cities. The latter so out dwarf the former that the former are shut out of almost every political decision. What’s the sense of sticking around when your “Representation” has been taken from you? Wikipedia has a list of the States in which its own residents can’t stand it anymore:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California (many times!), Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York (many times), North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington (ESPECIALLY Washington!), Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Well over half – and remember, our country was BORN by an act of secession – so why is this looked upon so poorly? But THIS idea puts all that talk to bed (emphasis mine, reformatted):
Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate calls for state-level electoral college
One candidate in Colorado’s gubernatorial election has called for eliminating its one-person, one-vote approach in favor of a state-level electoral college to weight votes according to population. Greg Lopez, a Republican candidate for Colorado’s governor, has pitched the idea of using an electoral college-based approach for statewide political office, arguing the current system favors large cities at the expense of more rural counties.
EXACTLY why we see so many attempts at splitting off – the culture gaps, the value systems, and worldviews no longer mesh. The Founders had the right idea on this. Nowadays they are derided by the Left because “oh, it was only small colonies way back then” yet the principle of the Electoral College, the 50 state level races for President, smooths out the population (and therefore, the outlooks) densities. Isn’t this EXACTLY what goes on in the States mentioned above?
Boston drives the rest of MA, NY City drives NY State. Chicago dominates the rest of Illinois. Southern CA can ignore Northern California. For all intents and purposes, Portland and Seattle could care less about their fellow residents.
Here in NH, it’s similar: most of the population is Concord and below. The Lakes Region is a relative satellite and, truth be told, Plymouth marks the end of civilization concerning density. The cities dwarf the more suburban surrounds, they both crush the sparser areas. This idea could be applied here.
However, given Sununu’s recalcitrance (MY WAY OR NO WAY!!!) over the more simple redistricting this year, it would be hard to implement (at least now). But how WOULD those slices happen? By the State Reps + the State Senator in a county? What about overlaps? Should we start from scratch? Rejigger things such that the North and West get the same attention as the more densely populated South and East. Redo the Counties?
I don’t have answers and perhaps the idea doesn’t fit as well here as in other States. We are, after all, a State where its largest city is only about 117K people and the smallest city, Lebanon, is only 14K. Contrast that will the millions in each of the States mentioned above for density contrasts.
What is your take on this?
asdf
