FIXING THE BLUE STATES

[This Monday’s Archive was written on November 24, 2004, reflecting thinking of conservative think-tanks of how to expand the red-blue state divide in the former’s favor.  Now, 20 years later, this coming November will likely increase the divide, perhaps even substantially, so their plan to fix blue state Dems may well be made real by a Trump White House. Read on to learn how hilarious is what they mean by “fix.” It’s a great plan!]

TTP, November 24, 2004

We’ve all had a good laugh at the moonbat barking of Blue State Liberals about seceding from Red State America. To keep the fun going, let’s flip the secession meme around and talk about red counties seceding from the blue states in which they are politically imprisoned.

An inspection of the map above shows that Blue States like California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan are mostly colored red – that is, a substantial majority of the counties in those states voted for Bush.

Why should, one might ask, the overtaxed red counties of say, California, put up with being oppressed by insufferable blue counties? Why shouldn’t they secede, and join a fully red state with no personal or corporate income taxes like Nevada?

To see how, we must drive along Interstate 80 connecting Salt Lake City and Reno. As you come to the Utah-Nevada border, you’ll pass through a sad little town on the Utah side called Wendover. There’s little business, its population of 1500 is dwindling, the housing is sub-standard. Right across the border in Nevada, however, is the flourishing community of West Wendover. Over 5,000 folks live there and it’s growing 10% a year, with new homes going up and small businesses doing well.

What West Wendover doesn’t have, and Wendover does, is a municipal airport. There isn’t room for one on the Nevada side, as the Feds own the available land. So the two communities want to merge. This means changing the state border so that 10,000 acres of Utah in which lie Wendover and its airport would be a part of Nevada.

It turns out this can be done – part of one state can secede from that state and be annexed by another – if the legislatures of both states agree and Congress gives its consent. Thus Utah Congressman Jim Hansen and Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons introduced HR 2054 entitled “TO GIVE THE CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO AN AGREEMENT OR COMPACT BETWEEN UTAH AND NEVADA REGARDING A CHANGE IN THE BOUNDARIES OF THOSE STATES.” (Jim Hansen has since retired. Rob Bishop now represents Utah’s 1st District and has indicated he will work with Jim Gibbons to submit a similar bill in the upcoming 109th Congress.)

What’s holding the deal up in the Utah and Nevada legislatures is – surprise – everybody wants something for nothing. Wendover is $13 million in debt for a new elementary school and airport renovations, and wants West Wendover to assume it in a merger, with the latter refusing. A little mutual compromise to mutual benefit should solve this. Once effected the merger can serve as a precedent.

Think of what such a precedent could portend. Red counties in blue states could tell their neighbor blue counties they don’t have to put up with bible-thumping racist redneck homophobe ignoramuses too dense not to understand that liberals are a superior form of human evolution with the moral authority to demand blind obedience.

California, Oregon, and Washington would be coastal strips, with the rest of these states happily in low-tax Nevada or Idaho. Or the other way around, maybe Chicago could bail from Illinois and leave the rest of the state alone, just as New York City could with New York.

At the very least, such possibilities could sober up Blue Staters regarding silly secessionist threats. What should sober them up further is how the Republicans are going to shrink the number of blue counties.

Here’s the post-election analysis of GOP think-tank conservatives I know at the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society:

The key weakness of Democrat-Liberal power structures is that they cannot survive without government support, such as the trial lawyers and unions (government unions in particular and most especially the NEA teachers union). Thus what is most destructive of these power structures is

(1) Tort reform, such as caps on lawyers’ fees;

(2) Voter ID, requiring photo ID in all federal elections and immigration authorities cooperating with state election officials to remove illegal aliens from voter rolls;

(3) Labor union reform, such as expanding competition between competing unions and fully implementing laws allowing union members to deduct from their dues that portion used for political purposes.

The key way to increase Democrat voters is to increase the number of government workers and those dependent on government. The key way to increase Republican voters is to increase the number of savers and investors. The growth of the investor class through tax-reduction and regulation-reduction, while shrinking the number of government workers and dependents by reducing government spending, is the path to continued Republican power.

Achieving political peace between Democrats and Republicans is another matter. It will come only, as one of the think-tankers told me, when the Democrats learn to live with their minority status – just like the Republicans were before 1994 under House Minority Leader Bob Michel, whose political credo was “You’ve got to go along to get along.”

“When boisterous barnyard animals,” he observed, “are ‘fixed,’ they become calm, happy, don’t cause trouble, and are much more satisfied with their lives. Our continuing to expand our electoral majority will eventually ‘fix’ the Democrats in a similar way. Bitterness and rage are very destructive, but when it burns out – as it will – there will be peace in the political barnyard. The Democrats will be pleasant and sedate once they know their place in the pecking order. You know, Bob Michel is a very friendly and happy guy.”