Eastern Oregon wants to join Idaho, forming a hammer-shaped mega-state. It’s an excellent idea and could provide a template for lowering the temperature nationwide.
On Jan. 10, Republican Oregon state Sen. Dennis Linthicum introduced the “Greater Idaho” bill, which would authorize formal “discussion between Oregon and Idaho governments regarding the relocation of Oregon and Idaho border.”
The bill notes that 11 of the 15 counties in eastern Oregon have already “approved ballot measures regarding making eastern Oregon a part of Idaho” and that eastern Oregon has more in common economically with Idaho than with the coastal parts of the state. Also, even though the proposed borders would transfer about 65 percent of Oregon’s territory to Idaho, only nine percent of the state’s population — some 400,000 people — actually live there.
Plot to give 65% of Oregon to Idaho moves forward https://t.co/TUvPc9lVDD
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 16, 2023
Idaho has voted for a Republican in every presidential election since 1968. Oregon hasn’t gone for the GOP since 1988, and yet every four years, the eastern half of the state lights up cherry red. Those rural Oregonians would almost certainly be happier if they could remove hard-left Portland’s birkenstock from their throats. (RELATED: Oregon Gov’t Student Health Survey Asks 11-Year-Olds If They Are Trans)
According to the U.S. Constitution, it’s possible to form a new state “by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States” with the “Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”
Changing the borders of existing states works the same way: the legislatures of the states involved must come to an agreement, and that agreement must be approved by Congress.
Political polarization is reaching a boiling point in this country. That’s true both between states — with Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom erecting billboards in Texas and Florida promising escape from draconian abortion restrictions — and within states. Just this week, several conservative Illinois sheriffs refused to enforce the state’s new assault weapons ban. Virginia experienced a similar flare-up a few years ago before Republicans took back the state in 2021. (RELATED: Blue States Attempted To Crackdown On Guns. Firearm Sales Skyrocketed Instead)
There always have been and always will be issues that have to be settled at the federal level. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln correctly predicted that the Union would not survive “half slave and half free.” I fear that his words could also apply to the divisions (particularly on abortion and gender ideology) that plague us today.
If we want to avoid calamity, our best chance is to ensure that Americans are generally organized into political communities that reflect their values and then let them govern themselves with minimal federal interference. This happens in part when people vote with their feet, as seen in recent migrations from California to Texas or from New York to Florida. But not everyone has the resources or the desire to pick up and move. Some people are loath to leave behind the graves of their ancestors, and a party that calls itself conservative should respect that. The best solution, then, is to tweak existing state borders to avoid situations in which majorities of one ideological persuasion tyrannize large minorities from the opposite camp. Greater Idaho would be a great start.
While we’re at it, there are other adjustments we could make:
Give a chunk of deep-blue Northern Virginia back to the District of Columbia. These areas were originally part of D.C., and were unconstitutionally returned to Virginia in 1847 because wealthy Alexandrians who ran slave markets on the Potomac were afraid Congress would ban the trade in the District. Let other Democratic NOVA suburbs vote on joining D.C. as well.
On this date & the following day in 1846, Virginia held a referendum on retrocession from the then-square District of Columbia. Arlington voted no, Alexandria (sadly then home to an intense trade in enslaved people at its port) voted yes. pic.twitter.com/URUY15ByeQ
— Council of DC (@councilofdc) September 1, 2022
Then, make D.C. a state. The Democrats would get two more senators and a new representative in the House. They’d also get to virtue signal about correcting the historic injustice of letting racist southerners gobble up half of the capital. Meanwhile, Virginia would be back in play for Republicans. Around 300,000 people live in the area that was unconstitutionally retroceded to Virginia. That’s larger than Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory in 2016, though smaller than Biden’s in 2020. The GOP would have a stronger position in the state legislature and a solid chance at flipping Tim Kaine and Mark Warner’s Senate seats.
Pennsylvania could also do with some tinkering. Its Republican-leaning northwestern and central counties might consider uniting with increasingly red Ohio. The southern parts of upstate New York could do the same. For denizens of southwestern PA who are weary of being governed by the dark blue blob in the southeast, West Virginia beckons. Maryland’s solid red Garrett, Allegheny and Washington counties could also let country roads take them home to the place where they belong.
South Georgia could unite with Florida. Eastern Colorado could join Kansas. We might end up with some ugly boundary lines — what map-based video game enthusiasts call “border gore” — but that’s a small price to pay for a little more harmony. Any redrawing of borders that makes a blue state bluer and a red state redder is a good idea.
Grayson Quay is an editor at the Daily Caller.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.