Breaking Up is Ours to Do
16th September 2021
With talk of D.C. statehood, there’s renewed interest in redrawing state boundaries across the U.S. Upstate New York doesn’t have much in common with New York City, or eastern Washington with Seattle. We’ve long been aware of this, but what’s new is the depth of the divide between, say, Washington’s Lincoln County (73% Trump) and King County (75% Biden). And it’s not just how they vote. In their most fundamental beliefs, they’re almost two different countries.
That doesn’t mean we’ll rejigger the map, however. Before that can happen, we’d need three things. First, it couldn’t happen without a perfect political alignment, with the party engineering the split ensconced in power in both the state and in the federal government. Second, the split would have to advantage that party. And third, the change must be seen to be excused by the extraordinary circumstances of the time.