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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

#41

Post by ssully »

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.

This is pretty common in a lot of blue states. It's been a thing in Illinois for years, and it's been getting louder for the last year and a half. The gist is the rural area's feel underrepresented compared to the metropolitan area's. So in Illinois case, the rural area's feel like the state puts more focus on Chicago.

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

#42

Post by mlinksva »

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).

Which strikes me as a good idea. Particularly since DC retrocession and merging low population states (also elegant) have no legs.

Every metro with population above median or average of existing US states should have the option of forming a new state. Seems to work for Berlin/Bremen/Hamburg in Germany, and various metros in other countries.

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

#43

Post by nickff »

taylorfinley wrote: post #28
setpatchaddress wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see Congress going along with this in exchange for DC statehood. But, while we're talking about things that won't ever happen, we should also combine the Dakotas into one state. Lot of government administrative resources wasted for very few people actually living there. And we're paying for four senators, where two is way more than necessary to represent that population.

Population of California: 39,656,838* Population of North + South Dakota: 1,645,198* Persons per senator in California: 19,828,419 Persons per senator in the Dakotas: 411,300 Getting highly-overrepresented people to give up their overrepresentation is a hard ask. *latest US Census figures

It's not over-representation, as the senate was never supposed to represent citizens, it was supposed to represent the states. At the time of the declaration of independence, there were some states much larger than others; Virginia had a population of ~747k, and Delaware was at ~59k.

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

#44

Post by nimbius »

"Western Maryland lawmakers have periodically raised concerns in the Maryland General Assembly that their part of the state is different from the rest of the state, with a more conservative political outlook"

this type of political huckstering happens periodically between US states, most famously the exhausting routine of Californian politicians demanding the state be carved into a north and south (with Los Angeles curiously a northern city in most maps.)

When your brand of political ideal is so toxic or disinteresting to a state that you seek to bifurcate the state itself, you're missing the point of political discourse and abdicating the role of statesman.

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

#45

Post by fnimick »

ssully wrote: post #41
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.

This is pretty common in a lot of blue states. It's been a thing in Illinois for years, and it's been getting louder for the last year and a half. The gist is the rural area's feel underrepresented compared to the metropolitan area's. So in Illinois case, the rural area's feel like the state puts more focus on Chicago.

Why shouldn't the state put more focus on Chicago? The rural areas are a net drain on state finances and are kept afloat by the "liberal hellhole" that they hate.

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

#46

Post by tut-urut-utut »

taylorfinley wrote: post #28
setpatchaddress wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see Congress going along with this in exchange for DC statehood. But, while we're talking about things that won't ever happen, we should also combine the Dakotas into one state. Lot of government administrative resources wasted for very few people actually living there. And we're paying for four senators, where two is way more than necessary to represent that population.

Population of California: 39,656,838* Population of North + South Dakota: 1,645,198* Persons per senator in California: 19,828,419 Persons per senator in the Dakotas: 411,300 Getting highly-overrepresented people to give up their overrepresentation is a hard ask. *latest US Census figures

But that’s my design. Senators were never supposed to represent population proportionally. That’s what congressman are for, senators represent a state.

If you want pure proportional representation then you need to dismiss senate, and change congressional election to nation wide proportional system. Afterwards you wouldn’t even need states anymore.

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

#47

Post by mlinksva »

eatonphil wrote: post #14

> a media market based in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA? On a map the western parts of Maryland seem vaguely as close to Pittsburgh as they are to Baltimore. Even if they were closer to Pittsburgh, PA why would media in Pittsburgh, PA cover events in western Maryland (since it's still kind of far away and Pittsburgh isn't that big a city)? I also don't know what they mean by "media market" being in Pittsburgh, again, if…

Yes. The westernmost county in MD is considered part of the Pittsburgh PA media market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Media_Market

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

#48

Post by throwaway6734 »

eatonphil wrote: post #14

> a media market based in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA? On a map the western parts of Maryland seem vaguely as close to Pittsburgh as they are to Baltimore. Even if they were closer to Pittsburgh, PA why would media in Pittsburgh, PA cover events in western Maryland (since it's still kind of far away and Pittsburgh isn't that big a city)? I also don't know what they mean by "media market" being in Pittsburgh, again, if…

Pittsburgh is much more culturally rural-white than Baltimore

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

#49

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #24
knubie wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Cal 3 proposal actually made some sense as it would have given the people living there more representation in congress in the form of 4 new senators, as well as more local control. You would think that there would be broad support for the proposal considering a lot of people in these large left-leaning states often complain that their vote is not "worth as much" as a vote in a less populated state.

Nobody on either side liked the Cal3 proposal because it just turns one California into three Illinois. You'd still have major urban areas mostly controlling each state but fighting the rest of the state every step of the way. It works from a "keep the number of red and blue senators" fairly constant perspective but it doesn't actually solve anybody's complaints about lack of self-government.

[deleted]

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

#50

Post by mrtranscendence »

Fun fact: they would be moving from the state with the highest median household income to the state with the lowest. I suppose this would only make Maryland richer by that metric.

Personally, I’d rather cut my own foot off with a rusty steak knife than live in West Virginia, which has basically nothing going for it except some decent wilderness. It doesn’t help that I have relatives there who love the confederate flag and decorate the back of their truck with a few iron crosses. Maybe they’d fit in among the residents of western Maryland.

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