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Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

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Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#31

Post by pmyteh »

rscoots wrote: post #23
pmyteh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state). National Democrats would also like two more Senate seats (and both DC and Maryland are predominantly Democratic, DC a…

By these arguments nearly every sizable city in the country should be its own state. >DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state).

I mean, maybe? Bremen, Hamburg, and Berlin are Länder (the German equivalent of states). You could certainly make an argument for, say, NYC being its own state; it'd be bigger than Delaware. But a lot of these things are historical accidents: West Virginia only exists because of the Civil War, California would certainly not be one state if founded now, while DC isn't a state at all. And given that the boundaries of the states are entrenched by the constitution there's a heavy status quo bias as to what might happen in the future.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#32

Post by throwaway6734 »

rscoots wrote: post #23
pmyteh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state). National Democrats would also like two more Senate seats (and both DC and Maryland are predominantly Democratic, DC a…

By these arguments nearly every sizable city in the country should be its own state. >DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state).

Yes this would be ideal

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#33

Post by dane-pgp »

dbcurtis wrote: post #7
umvi wrote: post #5

Tangential, but instead of making DC into a new state, why not just absorb it into Maryland? Virginia already absorbed the part of DC rhombus west of the Potomac.

Because one party wants two more uncompetitive senate seats.

And the other party doesn't want people having representation at all.

For the record, the popular vote percentages for the Democrats in the past 3 senate elections were: 53.0%, 58.2%, and 47.0%. That averages 52.7%, so gaining an extra two senate seats would still mean the Democrats were under-represented.

(I know that the purpose of the senate is not to represent each citizen equally, I just thought it was worth pointing out which parts of the country have the most grounds for complaint).

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#34

Post by etempleton »

nemacol wrote: post #6

I am not sure I understand the goals here. Gerrymandering 2.0? WV lost a seat in the 2020 census. Would move seats from Maryland to WV. From Blue to Red. I like to idea just to square off WV's eastern panhandle. It would look nice on a map with a flat top.

Western Maryland, like most states, is already gerrymandered and that is likely their key complaint. It wouldn’t make much of a difference if it wasn’t gerrymandered, but I am sure it feels like they lack a voice politically.

Fracking is likely the real motivator. There is rich natural gas reserves that were being fracked in Western Maryland before the state banned it.

Fracking was absolutely causing local environmental harm, but it was also bringing in jobs and tax revenue and people vote with their wallets.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#35

Post by throwaway6734 »

dsizzle wrote: post #27
nemacol wrote: post #6

I am not sure I understand the goals here. Gerrymandering 2.0? WV lost a seat in the 2020 census. Would move seats from Maryland to WV. From Blue to Red. I like to idea just to square off WV's eastern panhandle. It would look nice on a map with a flat top.

I would have guessed the seat in western MD is already Red, but it turns out that it's grouped in with Potomac and is D+8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland%27s_congressional_dis...

Maryland has very aggressive gerrymandering

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#36

Post by wtallis »

rscoots wrote: post #23
pmyteh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state). National Democrats would also like two more Senate seats (and both DC and Maryland are predominantly Democratic, DC a…

By these arguments nearly every sizable city in the country should be its own state. >DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state).

Every sizable city that isn't already part of a state.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#37

Post by munk-a »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #26
fsckboy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or when part of Massachusetts did spin off and become Maine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Maine

Massachusetts claim to Maine in the first place was opportunistic and tenuous to begin with whereas the borders of WV and MD (or many of the other states people want to rearrange) have been where they are now for 100+yr.

I strongly believe we only really think that in retrospect because the borders changed long before any of us were born.

Additionally, while splitting off Maine was for a good cause - it was essentially just a hack to keep the senate balanced in the lead-up to the civil war.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#38

Post by Kalium »

rscoots wrote: post #23
pmyteh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state). National Democrats would also like two more Senate seats (and both DC and Maryland are predominantly Democratic, DC a…

By these arguments nearly every sizable city in the country should be its own state. >DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state).

A lot of people in those areas would agree with you.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#39

Post by throwaway0a5e »

rscoots wrote: post #23
pmyteh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state). National Democrats would also like two more Senate seats (and both DC and Maryland are predominantly Democratic, DC a…

By these arguments nearly every sizable city in the country should be its own state. >DC doesn't want to be part of Maryland (they like being independent and feel that Maryland's concerns are not theirs) and Maryland doesn't want DC (they feel it would move the centre of gravity of the state even further towards the DC suburbs, making it worse for the further-flung parts of the state).

> By these arguments nearly every sizable city in the country should be its own state.

I think that's worth considering. It would get rid of a lot of the left/right gridlock at state levels. Cities would be mostly free to do as they wish without rural areas holding them back and rural areas would be free to do as they wish without cities holding them back. This would also greatly reduce the amount of BS that needs to get done at the federal level because a ton of that stuff is not interstate issues but an end run around the fact that the blue team and the red team can't do what they want at the state level so they try and get the feds to do it to the whole country.

And before anyone says "but money" I would like to remind them that freedom isn't free.

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