So apparently this map is all of the rage. According to its proponents, the advantages of the proposal are that it:

• Ends overrepresentation of small states and underrepresention of large states in presidental voting and in the US Senate
• Preserves the historical structure of the electoral college and the United States unique federal system, balancing power between levels of government
• States could be redistricted after each census - just like house seats are distributed now

And, lucky us, the disadvantages are just:

• Some county names are duplicated in new states
• Local governments would have to deal with shift in state laws and procedures

And that's it! There's no sense of you know, totally destroying the concept of states. Some of these people need to read The Genius of the People and start to understand that states chose to join the United States of America. As such, the constitution itself was designed to give smaller states some checks against the population power of bigger states.

Also, looking at this map, I see that my hometown is suddenly right on the border of "St. Croix" and "Green Bay". While it's true that we're also on the great pop/soda divide, how practical is it that cities would switch from state to state depending on the year? I mean, beyond duplicate county names different states also have different laws. Imagine owning a liquor store on the border. Some years you might not be able to open on Sundays. Some years you would. Ridiculous. Not to mention little things like taxes, insurance, etc. Nah, that's not a disadvantage at all.

And that doesn't even get into the fact that for many of us, our state isn't a mere congressional inconvenience. It's a part of us. I'm from Wisconsin. I'm not from "Green Bay" and I sure as hell aren't from "St. Croix". Them's fighting words. We joke about Minnesconsin, but as anyone can tell you there are fundamental differences between the people of these two great states. The folks who refer to us as "flyover country" may not understand that, but the people on the ground certainly do.

Simply put, policy wonks are trying to fix something that isn't broken. We're not a democracy. However, our representative republic seems to be working out okay.