Rebooting The United States of America: Part 1: 80 States
Secession has increasingly been in the news recently. Technically, what is being discussed is partitioning usually, but the word secession catches people’s attention more. After President Trump was elected in 2016 the idea of California seceding from the US was proffered. Since the 2018 mid-term elections, Upstate New Yorkers have again been discussing secession from the State of New York and becoming the 51st state. Another 51st state proposal making the rounds currently is for Eastern Washington State to split off and become a new state called “Liberty”. In many parts of the United States, the citizens do not feel very united, especially with their state government.
U.S. Territories
In addition to the 50 states, the United States has 6 territories Washington D.C. (technically a federal district though it shall be considered with the territories), Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. While American citizens residing in the 5 territories are usually able to vote in presidential primaries, they are not usually allowed to vote for President. Each of the 6 territories has a delegate in Congress, but delegates are different from Representatives. While they have floor privileges, meaning they can participate as part of committees and speak on the floor of the House, they are not allowed to vote on legislation. In essence, US citizens in these 6 non-state entities experience “taxation without representation”, a significant part of what the American Revolution was fought over, as well as effectively being second-class citizens.
The concept of territories is a relic of an outdated world. Territories are left-overs from the times of Imperialism and Colonization. Territories should end. Each territory should be given the opportunity to vote whether they want to become a full-fledged state as part of the United States or to become an independent nation.
Based on polls and votes Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands would likely opt for statehood. American Samoa very well might go for independence or unification with Samoa instead of becoming a state. Guam is geographically part of the Mariana Islands archipelago, but the people of Guam have been resistant to unification proposals in the past, so we’ll keep them separate for purposes of this exercise.
Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. is a somewhat more difficult case, as its status is defined in the U.S. Constitution. Article 1 section 8 says that Congress has “exclusive jurisdiction” in “all cases whatsoever”. In 1973, Congress passed the Home Rule Act allowing Washington D.C. more autonomy, however, Congress can still technically revoke this home rule should they desire to do so. A Constitutional Amendment should be passed granting Washington D.C. the same rights as a state, and Congress should admit the District of Columbia as a state if the citizens there so wish. Since Washington D.C. would no longer be a district and Washington State already exists, we’ll call the new state Columbia.
With the additions of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands we are up to 55 states. Let’s not stop there! Although there is a history of “partitioning” states to form new ones, this has not been done in recent decades. There have however, been many proposals for doing just that. In fact, Mansfield University professor Andrew Shears has created a map with 124 states based on the secession and partition movements in U.S. history.
124 states might be a bit extreme, but creating several new states through partitioning should be examined. Hereafter are some of the more recent proposals that have been given consideration in recent years and should be given serious consideration in the near future as well as the resulting number of states:
Arizona
Led by a group in Pima County, it was proposed that the Southern Counties of Arizona secede and become a new state called Baja Arizona. That makes one more state for a total of 56.
California
In December 2013 venture capitalist Tim Draper launched a proposal to split California into 6 states: Jefferson, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California, and South California. When that proposal failed, he instead proposed “Cal 3” which would break the state up into only 3 new states: Northern California, California, and Southern California. Northern California and Southern Oregon actually attempted to secede and form their own state of Jefferson in October 1941 (most recently, but it has been proposed several times), but circumstances soon put that effort to an end. Let’s adapt the Cal 3 concept and add Silicon Valley, then also create the state of Jefferson, so we gain 4 states here and bring the total to 60.
Colorado
Moffat County in the Northwestern corner of the state has looked into joining Wyoming. Meanwhile, the 7 counties in the Northeastern part of the state have proposed forming the state of North Colorado which would bring us up to 61 states.
Florida
North Lauderdale and South Miami have both proposed splitting Florida into North Florida and South Florida in recent years, so let’s do it. 62 states now.
Illinois
It has been proposed many times that Chicago and Cook County be partitioned and become the state of Chicago, so we’ll do that and bring the running total to 63.
Kansas
In 1992, a group of counties in Southwestern Kansas proposed seceding and becoming West Kansas. Although the idea had significant support, in the end, it didn’t go anywhere. Still, let’s make that happen and create a 64th state.
Maine
Twice since the late 1990’s it has been proposed to partition Maine into a Northern half and a Southern half. The state representative that proposed the partitioning suggested calling the Southern half Northern Massachusetts with the Northern half retaining the name Maine. Alternately, Arcadia has been proposed as a name for the Northern part, so to keep it simple, let’s call the Northern half Arcadia and keep the name Maine for the Southern half. This partition brings us to 65 states.
Maryland
There have been a few proposals to partition Maryland in recent decades proposing either the Eastern or Western section split off. Although one of the leading proposals for the Eastern half calls for the creation of a state called Delmarva as a combination of Delaware and counties from Maryland and Virginia, we’ll just take Kent and Sussex Counties from Maryland and call them Delmarva. For the Western part, the westernmost counties have considered succession a few times under various proposals, so let’s take the three westernmost counties and call them Antietam. Delmarva and Antietam make a total of 67 states.
Massachusetts
Although the proposal for the islands south of mainland Massachusetts to secede is a bit older than many of the proposals we are looking at, it was very popular so it is included here. Although other states were interested in the islands joining them, including New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, we’ll keep it simple and say Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands would just form their own state called Nantucket. 68 states now!
Michigan
Oddly, the Upper Peninsula to the north of Wisconsin is part of Michigan, despite its physical separation from the rest of the state. It has been proposed to have the Upper Peninsula become its own state, Superior, which would be number 69 in our count.
New Jersey
In 1980 a nonbinding resolution in favour of forming a state of South Jersey was passed by 5 of the 6 counties that voted on the measure. Let’s include this one and create a 70th state.
New York
New York is another state that could potentially break up into multiple states. Increasingly there have been calls for areas of the state to secede and become their own states, or at least to become autonomous regions under home rule. Blending a couple of the proposals, let’s say New York split into 6 states: New Amsterdam (Upstate New York), Niagara (Western New York), Hudson Valley, New York consisting exclusively of New York City, Staten Island, and Long Island. Creating 5 states from New York brings our total to 75 states.
The Pacific Northwest
In addition to the proposal for Southern Oregon to join Northern California in forming the State of Jefferson, it has also been proposed that Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington, and Western Idaho secede from these states and instead form a new state called either Lincoln or Cascadia. Eastern Washington itself has been considered to become Cascadia without the other two parts. Let’s keep the three areas together in one state and call them Cascadia. We’re now at 76 states.
Texas
Uniquely, under the resolution admitting Texas to the United States, there is provision for dividing it into 5 states, so let’s do that. The Northernmost part of Texas jutting up under the Oklahoma panhandle can become North Texas, the Southwestern part has been proposed to become the state of Lincoln but for to keep it simple, we’ll call it South Texas. The areas around Austin and San Antonio can keep the Texas name. Dallas-Fort Worth and the Northeastern part of the state can become Texarkansas, and for simplicity’s sake, let’s make the fifth state out of the Gulf Coast areas from Houston down to Corpus Christi and call it East Texas. With the partition of Texas, we are at a total of 80 states.
Just for fun?
This is a fun exercise, but really, what would be the reasons for putting it into action and what would the results be? We’ll talk about the results in a future post. As for the reasons, most of the time secession and partition movements are based on feeling an area is not fairly treated or is unduly controlled by the state government. In the Pacific Northwest for example, Oregon and Washington are split by the Cascade Mountains. The Western parts of both of these states are largely Democratic leaning and this is where the larger cities are. The Eastern portions by contrast are rural, sparsely populated, and largely Republican leaning. There are enough people in the Portland, Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene metro areas in Oregon’s Willamette Valley that these cities dominate state politics. The rest of the state simply has to follow their lead whether they want to or not.
Similarly, in New York, the state is politically dominated by New York City and Long Island. A small heavily populated area effectively controls the state politically. Other regions of the state have very unique situations and challenges, and would benefit from very different solutions.
As discussed earlier, giving the territories the opportunity to become states would allow the people living there to be equal citizens to those in the current 50 states, and gives them a say so they are not being taxed and dictated to without representation. Representation is what most of these proposals boil down to. When states are too big some people are better represented than others. People that feel represented tend to be happier and feel better about their state and country.
Similar to increased representation, an increase in the number of states would also make it more likely that states and representatives would be more likely to be more responsive to the will and concerns of their constituents.
It would be likely an increase in the number of states, especially ones that are more representative, would help alleviate some of the concerns about the Electoral College. The Electoral Votes of large winner take all states that are divided into new states would also be more representative of the will of the people.
Lastly, it is likely an influx of new states would increase engagement in the American body politic. At the least, more states would mean more people would need to be involved in state government and the U.S. Senate. Ideally, it would also draw attention to the political process and get more people involved in state and local politics, or at least more people following what is going on in their world.
Currently the United States consists of 50 states and 6 territories including the District of Columbia. Many people feel disconnected and underrepresented. The U.S. government and electoral systems could use some significant updates. Increasing the number of states and doing away with territories would be a good step along the way to a new, improved, and rebooted United States of America.
This post was edited 8/30/2019 to add Silicon Valley as a state to be created from the Partition of California in order to make 80 States because of a previous counting error.
Post edited 6/27/2020 for formatting, SEO, and categorisation.
Garrett Leeds is the founder of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Project
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