Posted by Bruce Bourgoine who blogs at
Kennebec Blues and Dirigo Blue.
The current States ought to be relegated to history. State borders were shaped by varying factors over a period of 183 years of admission to the union raging from simple colonial boundary conversion to outright conquest. The current map does not make economic, geographic, demographic, or efficiency sense. It is time to reconfigure the states addressing the following considerations:
- Regional shared economies,
- Efficient transportation hubs and potential mass transit,
- Climate and improved environmental benefits,
- Energy efficiency gains and natural energy creation potential,
- Urban hubs and rural regions with shared resources,
- Practical sizes eliminating tiny states and partitioning large states,
- Rebalancing the US Senate considering population equity,
- Extending US Senate representation to the current DC population,
- Recognizing and protecting minority electoral influence,
- Integrating or granting independence to all US territories,
- Shared international cultural and trade ties.
New states would use a model constitution and a minimal but reasonable and effective set of laws for a prearranged multi-year period of governance evolution administered by elected governors, elected unicameral legislatures, and current judicial appointees in reconfigured courts.