A New Map for America
I&#x27;ve long advocated redrawing state borders, similar to how they&#x27;re shown in <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tjc.com&#x2F;38states&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tjc.com&#x2F;38states&#x2F;</a><p>The main factor is that cities (metro areas) should not cross state boundaries, because this creates an administrative nightmare.  Look at all the problems between NJ and NY because the NYC metro area includes all of northern NJ, but it has its own separate state government.<p>There&#x27;s many, many places in this nation where different parts of a state have entirely different cultures, and really shouldn&#x27;t be in the same state together.  &quot;Upstate&quot; NY and NYC are a prime example here, but so are Chicago and rural Illinois, plus maybe the Seattle and Portland areas and the eastern sides of their respective states.  Maybe a lot of people would be happier with their states broken up so they don&#x27;t have their local politics dominated by people hundreds of miles away who don&#x27;t share their values, and would prefer to team up with similar parts of neighboring states (eastern WA and OR might want to just join Idaho for instance).<p>themagician is correct though: there&#x27;d be little agreement on how to redraw things.  My idea for dealing with that is to make it voluntary, at the county level, and proceed county-by-county at moving state lines around, or having referenda elections on larger changes (such as folding Rhode Island either into the eastern half of Connecticut, or combining both of those with Massachusetts).  Combine this with an election system that allows people to make multiple choices.  For instance, let a voter in Spokane WA rank the following choices in their order of preference: 1. stay in WA with Seattle, 2. Become part of a separate, independent state of eastern WA, 3. Become part of a new state that includes eastern WA and OR together, 4. Become part of a new state that includes #3 and the ID panhandle, 5. Join ID.<p>The fundamental theme is that people in every locality should have the right of self-determination, something that politicians usually seem to sneer at.  If voters in Charlotte, NC don&#x27;t want to be part of that state any more, they shouldn&#x27;t have to be, and if they can get the counties surrounding them to join them in creating a new state, or just merging with TN or VA, they should have that right.  Of course, there are big issues of feasibility which must be considered.  But a lot of break-ups wouldn&#x27;t be that hard to do, such as separating NYC from upstate NY.