Another Modest Proposal

On more than one occasion over the past decade or so I have opined that it may be time to separate the Blue urban areas from the Red sub-urban, semi-rural, and rural areas, particularly after the disastrous Reynolds v Sims and Baker v Carr SCOTUS decisions which destroyed the balance between the cities and countrysides in the states, giving the urban areas total control in some states while leaving the rest of the state at the mercy of those urban areas.

We’ve seen that in states like New York, with the Metro New York City area and the I-87 corridor up to Albany lording it over (and ignoring) the rest of New York State. We’ve seen it in Illinois with the 12 counties making up metro Chicago doing the same to the 90 counties in the rest of the state. We’ve seen it in California where the coastal areas between San Francisco and San Diego treat the rest of the state like serfs. That’s just three examples. There are plenty more.

Here’s one of the many maps showing the breakdown of votes cast in the last Presidential election – Democrat and Republican – at county level.

Click On Image To Embiggen
You see blue areas surrounded by seas of red with most of the blue areas centered around metropolitan areas. I’ve thought the blue urban areas should become their own city-states and separate themselves from the parts of the US that are not looking to become more and more like the old Soviet Union. However, it seems someone else has been thinking about the same thing but has obviously put more thought into it than I have.

His suggestion?

Create 34 new states – really city-states – made up of cities and their surrounding areas that are over 2 million population. Here’s what he has in mind:

While there would be 68 new senators in the US Senate, there would still be 435 Representatives in the House. Some of the Senate seats presently held by Democrats would likely go to Republicans once the states they represent have shed themselves of the blue metro areas. House seats would likely be as they are at present, shifting back and forth between Democrats and Republicans over time.

While the balance of power may not shift all that much at the federal level, at state level power would shift to the suburban, semi-rural, and rural areas, with control and finances remaining in those areas. They would no longer be feeding the blue metro areas, metro areas that in some cases had been bleeding them dry.

Would it work? Would it make things better...or worse? If it didn’t work out would we be able to kick out those Blue city-states from the rest of the US so we don’t become yet another socialist dystopia?

It might be worth looking into.

However, I am still inclined to just kick them out.