New California? Eastern Washington? Greater Idaho?
Most of what Trump is doing is temporary. The defunding of agencies, the firing of federal employees, the claw back of appropriated funds will have no lasting effect. Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education but cannot do that without 60 votes in the senate which he will never get. At best he can zero out its budget and let it lie dormant until the next democrat president resuscitates it. The same can be said for all the mayhem caused by Elon Musk and DOGE. It is all temporary. I tell my Trump-hating friends to chill. Trump is actually doing them a favor. By having the courts ultimately decide the limits of executive power Trump is increasing the power of the next democrat in the Oval Office. Shouldn’t the dems be supporting Trump rather than opposing him?
If Trump and the republicans really want to shake things up then why don’t they pursue changing how states can be formed. The western counties of Virginia want to join West Virginia. Thirty three Illinois counties want to leave for Indiana. Counties in California, Oregon and Washington want to leave their states either to form a new state (California and Washington) or to join a neighboring state, eastern Oregon with Idaho. Currently there are twelve successionist movements within the “United” States. There has even been a not so serious resolution by Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene to split the so-called red states from the so-called blue states into separate countries. But that doesn’t address the red counties that want to join blue states and vice versa. Oregon counties would still be stuck in Oregon . Illinois counties will be stuck with Chicago dominated Illinois rather than finding sanctuary in Indiana. The interior counties of California will still have to deal with the progressive coast and the lunatic fringe that rules the California legislature. There are even counties in New Mexico and Colorado that want to join Texas. And what about those poor souls in New York state that have to deal with New York City? Even Saten Island wants to secede from the city. And I’m not even talking about movements that want their state to secede from the entire country because of the burdens imposed by the federal government. There are movements in New Hampshire, Texas and Louisiana that want to make their state an independent country.
So why doesn’t Trump lead a movement to make it easier for counties to either form new states or to merge with neighboring states? The last new state was West Virginia and was formed illegally. The Constitution is the main impediment. First, Article IV Section 3 of the Constitution says that only Congress can create a new state.
“New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”
This makes it almost impossible because in order for the counties to leave one state for another, both state legislatures would have to consent as well as the congress. There is virtually no way that Illinois will set their counties free to join Indiana, or Oregon letting its counties go to Idaho or Washington allowing its eastern counties to become the state of Eastern Washington.
These movements are doomed and their advocates are wasting their time. The last state to be formed out of another state was done so illegally. When the western counties of Virginia voted not to leave the Union at the beginning of the Civil War they were outvoted in the Virginia legislature. However, Lincoln and the north did not recognize the succession. The western Virginia counties formed their own legislature which Lincoln recognized as the true legislature of Virginia rather than the one in Richmond which then was a legislature within the confederate states. In 1861, the rogue legislature in Wheeling voted to join the Union and the congress agreed allowing the new state of West Virginia to be created in 1863. In 1870 Virginia sued to get its counties back. The case was Virginia vs West Virginia and was heard by the Supreme Court where Virginia had no chance of winning. The court in this case and one in 1911 ratified the existence of West Virginia as a state.
What Trump and the republicans should do is to try to amend the constitution to allow an easier path to counties leaving one state for another or for new states to be formed. I am not certain if such an amendment can get two thirds approval in both the House and the Senate and get 38 of the 50 states to agree. But at least they can start the conversation and who knows, maybe a change might be a-coming.
haroldblackphd.com 