48 States or more?

How many states should we have?

Dissolve the federal government and establish 50 individual republics, something like the EU.

We'll be less of a threat to the world that way, and people in sane states won't have to kowtow to the South anymore.

for labor, talent, etc. That would be hot! Great idea!

That's not the problem.

The real issue is that we've chosen a representational form of government and that the average person is completely disconnected from their representative.

Consider the 1804 election. The US had 17 states, 176 representatives (or rather 34 senators and 142 representatives), and a population of about 6 million. This implies an average ratio of 1 senator/176,000 people and 1 representative/42,250 people. (Yes, I know it varies by state population, etc.)

As of 2000, we had 281 million people, 100 senators and 435 Representatives. This means on average 1 senator for every 2.81 million people and 1 rep for every 645,000 people.

There are a number of things wrong with it

First, can you imagine each state suddenly having forty nine potentially hostile neighbors to share our part of the continent with? I would have to think that it would come to war fairly quickly, and if you don't like what we are doing in Iraq now, how much less will you like it if that sort of thing is going on within our own borders? Then you have foreign powers like China who would just love it if the United States suddenly ceased to exist as a superpower. There goes Taiwan. Plus those powers would each back one or more states, so we would have wars by proxy in our very laps.

Next, consider how difficult it would be to tackle domestic initiatives without a central authority to oversee them? Isn't that the whole point of the Federal programs that we claim to believe in, that they can do the job better than if they were state or local initiatives? What about problems that cross state boundaries like the environment? It would be even more difficult to solve them if it had to be done by treaty with a foreign country rather than by a federal law.

In short, we should not, even in jest, think of blowing up the union, merely because we find ourselves at a temporary political disadvantage.

Ed. ... Oh, I see you agree with me. I didn't mean to get touchy. I agree 100% that it would be better if the US split up. American Union sounds great.

I think YOU, being blue in one of the reddest states, needs the rest of us pretty bad! Heh.

but our republicans don't seem to be quite so overbearing as the ones down south. You can almost live with them. If Alaska was its own country, our political parties would probably be something different than republicans and democrats. We'd probably break down into multiple parties and just try to work things out. Being an Alaskan kind of overrides everything -- the way being an American used to.

we use both Guam and Puerto Rico and if they want to join then they should.

They have far fewer people than a single Congressional District in nearly any other state ... and the lands are mostly owned by all the taxpayers of the US. Confiscate the other lands and make it a Federal District ... and then give Washington D.C. fair representation in Congress!

It was a land grab, pure and simple. It was nothing but imperialism. We have no right to claim what was not ours to begin with.

Wasn't that the case with most of the southwest? And really.. the entire country?

Instead of asking, "How many states should we have?" The question ought to be, "What is the will of the people?" We can't reverse what happened centuries ago, but at the very least, we can try and correct present wrongs and atone for past ones, and we can start by asking the right questions to get people thinking.

Rather than talking about what states we should and should not have, we should be talking about whether we are happy with the way things are being run in this country, and it's appallingly clear this country is dying as a representative democracy and has been dying for decades.

Talking about national borders is petty and superficial compared to what is happening.

They'd be bluer than blue!
We'd take back the House and Senate instantly,
and no right wing crazy would stand a chance of winning the Presidency.

Guam and PR are a no-brainer. Let's do Washington, DC while we're at it.
More blue states! Bring em on!