Hawaii and Puerto Rico
If Hawaii wants independence, should we let them go?
If Puerto Rico wants to be a US state, should we let them in?
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yes and no. we should have no more than 15 states, let's redo the whole shabang
give CA, AZ, NM, TX, NV, UT, OK, and half of Colorado back to mexico, TX immediately secedes and lives out their dream of becoming a republic
allow OR and WA to secede, except WA backs out at the last minute realizing they'll have to pay taxes, decides to join forces with Idaho, MT, and WY and becomes an actual Big Sky Country, operating like a US state, but not officially
give the Dakotas and Minnesota to the Canadians
allow New England to organize into its own puritan progressive country, but then MA balks and it ends up just being ME and VT being independent territories begging to be taken back (RI isn't itself without MA, and NH ain't goin anywhere, bub), end up becoming part of Canada
give Florida back to the Spanish, put Louisiana up for auction which ends up getting bought by Brazil for some reason. at the last second force them to take Mississippi as part of the deal, they reluctantly agree
move Chicago to Wisconsin, but allow them Hong Kong status so they don't have to call themselves Packers fans
combine Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas into native American territory. treat them like Guam with resources, but allow self government
make Ohio take Kentucky and Virginia take back West Virginia
make NC take back SC
give Nebraska and Kansas to Colorado as consolation for losing half its land to Mexico. Colorado says thanks but no thanks, NE and KS go back to the native Americans
combine Maryland and Delaware into one
total: 15 states. NY, CT, MA, RI, NH, Carolina, Virginia, PA, OH, WI, MI, GA, AL, TN, MD
as my final act of this USA remake, hire Elon Musk to plant subterranean explosives all along the I95 corridor from Towson to Fredericksburg out eastward to the Eastern Shore. evacuate all non-politicians/lobbyists via his newly created tunnel system and then launch DC politicians and lobbyists and all of that land into the ocean. we'll all send them an email with the "write your congressperson" buttons, but since we know they don't read those, they'll be none the wiser. this landmass starts drifting towards the Mediterranean at which point the newly emboldened Mexican Navy launches cruise missiles at them (hey, we don't really care, do we?)
and that my friends, is how you fix America.
PS, if you're wondering why I didn't mention Alaska, really? they're basically a Northwest Territory without free healthcare, let Canada or the Inuits have it, I don't give a fuck and nor do the other 349.3mm Americans who don't live there
I think its just 331mm total currently.
The United States population on December 22, 2020 was: 330,735,995
https://www.census.gov/popclock/
Give Puerto Rico independence. The island is a complete trainwreck and if it were the state, it'd be the worst state in every single metric (crime, education, health, poverty, corruption, etc.). The strategic importance of it doesn't matter anymore since the US will always dominate the Caribbean with bases in Florida, Colombia, and the Virgin Islands.
As for Hawaii, it is a somewhat similar situation. Outside of the tourist areas, Hawaii is also kind of a dump and ranks towards the bottom of many metrics. And if the native Hawaiians don't like us, then fine, let them leave and we strip them of US citizenship. However, there is a strong counter to this because Hawaii is basically a giant aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific, which will always be important. Maybe make it an autonomous associated state similar to Micronesia but we keep the military base?
It is very unlikely that Hawaii residents would ever vote in large enough numbers for independence. This becomes less and less as the Native Hawaiian population becomes even more multiracial. That said, since the 1970’s there has been a renaissance of native Hawaiian awareness and that continues today, which I felt is the right thing to do to help impoverished native Hawaiians and preserve culture. One issue that’s been stalled is the recognition by the Federal government for status similar to native Americans for native Hawaiians - the implications would be control of land and land use laws. The State of Hawaii does however have something for that, but there isn’t the Federal recognition.
As far as Hawaii being an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the mid-pacific; you better believe it that in the 21st century, the Western Pacific will see the majority of the US military focus with China. With the first line being Taiwan, Okinawa, and the second line being the western pacific islands like Guam and Palau. Hawaii is needed to back them up, as the distance from the West Coast would take too long for support forward bases. That said, I seriously doubt China would ever invade the US.
Democratic leadership are going to invest in a major PR campaign to coax puerto ricans into voting yes for statehood in some referendum. Obviously this will need reciprocation on behalf of US lawmakers and there could be a domestic referendum as well (which will certainly go along party lines)
PR doesn't tho. They've voted against it. It would mean higher taxes for them.
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