CMV: The USA has way too many states
Americans are so used to seeing the number 50 that nobody stops to ask whether it actually makes any sense.
Why do we need:
Two Dakotas
Two Virginias
A Rhode Island
Delaware existing as a separate entity
Wyoming having fewer people than many suburbs
50 governors
50 DMV systems
50 education bureaucracies
50 overlapping state legislatures
50 separate sets of weird laws
At some point this stops being “federalism” and starts becoming administrative clutter from the 1700s.
We already function more like regional blocs anyway:
The Northeast
The South
Great Lakes
Texas
West Coast
Mountain West
So why not actually organize around that reality?
For example:
Merge the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho into one large Northern Plains state
Combine most of New England into one state
Merge Delaware into Maryland
Combine the Carolinas
Fold Rhode Island into Massachusetts
Maybe even merge Oregon + Washington
People act like states are sacred ancient civilizations instead of arbitrary lines Congress drew while people traveled by horse.
And before people say “local representation,” most tiny states actually distort representation:
Wyoming gets the same Senate power as California despite having a microscopic population
Tiny states get massively disproportionate federal influence
Presidential elections become weird because of the Electoral College
Federal funding formulas get warped
Meanwhile we’re paying for duplicate bureaucracies everywhere.
I’m not even arguing for eliminating state governments entirely. I’m saying 50 is probably double what’s rational for a modern country with planes, internet, federal highways, and instant communication.