Secession by Tom Reynolds
There is a movement to divide New York State into three “sub-states” in order to free most of the state from the oppression of rule by NY City liberals, who hate the 2nd Amendment. There are other possible approaches, too.
Deep Blue states are often pictured as being completely made up of left-wing Democrats instead of just being dominated by left wing Democrats. As in New York State and others, there tends to be a sizable portion of the state that believes in traditional conservative American / non-liberal values, such as the right to “keep and bear arms”. Oregon is one such state with that split personality.
Oregon’s population is centered along the northwest coast. The rest of the state is primarily rural and the large population of urban areas along the coast dominate Oregon’s politics. Of course, those dominant population centers are heavily liberal Democrat, which sounds a lot like New York State. Several counties in southern and western Oregon have grown tired of the liberal dominated status quo and are trying to do something about it; they have started a movement to secede from Oregon and join Idaho. Idaho’s values more closely align with those of the seceding counties.
Changing states would be a very technical process – and very political. The counties would have to vote for the change as well as the legislatures of both Oregon and Idaho and the federal legislatures in D.C. And politicians have been known to vote for their own benefit rather than their constituents’ benefit.
Which raises an interesting possibility in New York State. The southern tier counties from Tioga to Chautauqua (and maybe Broome) would seem to be prime candidates to move from New York to Pennsylvania. There are probably several counties north of them, in the Finger Lakes region in particular, that might also join in such a movement. What might be some of the issues?
Psychologically, it might be difficult for some people to think of changing their address from NY to PA. Disturbing the status quo is, for some people, disturbing.
Pennsylvania is not as reliably conservative as Idaho and it has heavily Democrat population centers at both ends of the state. Those centers would not like seeing their power diminished by conservative voters joining Pennsylvania.
Conservative counties in NY that are not leaving might not want to see other conservative counties leave. It would leave them even more under the thumb of NY City.
It would diminish NY’s overall representation in Congress and increase Pennsylvania’s but probably not, of itself, change the overall breakdown between Republicans and Democrats in the House. Pennsylvania’s one Democrat Senator would not like it.
New York is a reliably deep blue state while Pennsylvania is a battleground state. After this move, New York would be virtually ignored in Presidential elections while Pennsylvania would get even more attention – and more federal “goodies” to entice its vote.
Hydro fracking is legal In Pennsylvania and most of these NY counties are sitting on an ocean of natural gas. The economies of these counties would jump after this move and Pennsylvania would see a boost in its tax revenues. There would be no loss in revenue to NY since there is no revenue from hydrofracking.
Gun owners will love Pennsylvania’s gun laws as compared to NY’s.
The Republican Party controls both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature, but not as overwhelmingly as the Democrats control New York. This move would probably add to the Republican majority. Pennsylvania’s governor is a Democrat so they have split government.
Grocery stores in Pennsylvania still use plastic bags. (That got my vote!)
In summary, there is an alternative besides Divide NY and the status quo. Each of you must decide which, if any, you prefer and if it has a greater possibility of succeeding. But the important thing to remember is that we have possibilities.
Tomorrow, we will discuss another alternative.
