• leadore@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Something that might work out better and would be a lot easier to do (thought still not very easy), would be to split into 3 (or 4?) states.

    California has almost 12% of the US population concentrated in that one state! By far most of the states contain about 2% or less of the US population each.

    By splitting, the population would be better represented in the Senate with 6 senators between them instead of only 2, and there might be a net gain in some other benefits that are given on the state level.

    edit: I see that someone had already brought this idea up, but IMO it’s a good idea that they should seriously consider!

    • Desert Hermit@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The State of Jefferson would have started this process, but WWII got in the way. Except that was all predicated on being super racist.

      I think if you get a legit Cal3 proposal, you might end up with a Cal4 where they pull from the six-state version where “Silicon Valley” is its own state shows up so that there can be some technopolis with custom laws and insane cost of living. Essentially, turning SFO into another Manhattan.

      I would never move back to CA as it is, but if there was a breakup, I might actually go for it.

      • peregrin5@lemm.ee
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        24 hours ago

        The racists all wanted to leave the US because it wasn’t racist enough. However now the racists are in power and they don’t want to leave anymore.

    • ModestMeme@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      The right wing has wanted this for years because California is very conservative outside of its cities. Splitting the state up would guarantee a Republican Senate.

    • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      Careful. Texas has some long forgotten provision where they could easily do the same thing, into 5 states. and they’d all be red.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        If they split California into 3, the northern state might be red (or swing) but the other two would definitely be blue because of SR and LA. Look at a map of election results by county.

        With Texas, at least a couple of them would have to be blue because some would contain the blue urban areas. Same with FL, at least one new state would be blue. if CA, TX, and FL all did it. If they divided into 5 states it might even out. Of course there would have to be negotiations to get enough people and the parties to agree to the boundaries, which should prevent too much of an advantage to one side or the other, especially if people don’t want their cities be split between two states.

        But regardless of the results for the Senate, the point is that the people in most populous states of this country are not getting their fair representation in our federal government and that needs to change.

        Then of course as long as we’re altering our makeup of states, we have to give the citizens DC representation and make that a state. And Puerto Rico should be able to decide if it wants to become a state as well.

        • McWizard@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          German here, so excuse my ignorance, but wouldn’t it be easier to change the voting system to one that counts each vote as equal on a state level and get rid of the voting people stuff? Last time I checked you’re no longer riding horses to Washington…

          • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 day ago

            but wouldn’t it be easier to change the voting system to one that counts each vote as equal on a state level and get rid of the voting people stuff

            Country wide that requires a constitutional amendment, which requires 2/3 of all states to agree. It’s been tried, the cuckservatives rage and bitch like the children they are because it would mean they’d never win again, so it never goes through

            There’s an effort to make it so that individual states will ignore the EC called NAPOVOINTERCO that would basically force the US to use a popular vote system, but it’s not got enough individual states signed on yet to activate itself

            When it comes to the US, this is a simple rule to follow: federal change is nearly impossible because of the babies in the GOP, while states are easier but can change a whole lot less overall