Government

North Montana: Adding New States If The Democrats Win The Senate

Start thinking like a politician: what if the Democrats make D.C. and Puerto Rico states?

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(Image via Getty)

The Democrats are thinking that, if they maintain control of the House of Representatives and win both the presidency and the Senate, the Democrats should abolish the filibuster. A simple majority of the Senate could then vote in favor of admitting the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as new states.  This would basically guarantee four new Democratic senators, which would give the Democrats long-term control of the Senate.

There may be reasons to grant statehood to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The residents of D.C. and Puerto Rico are American citizens; they’re drafted; they pay taxes (if not, in the case of Puerto Rico, federal income tax); why shouldn’t they have senators?

Conversely, there may be reasons not to grant statehood to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. There may not yet be enough population in those territories to justify statehood; there may not be a local consensus in favor of statehood; perhaps the national capital should be administered by Congress; perhaps Puerto Rico’s economic condition weighs in the balance.

Those are rational arguments.

So they’re beside the point.

I’ll ask you to forget about all that stuff and start thinking like a politician.

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Suppose the Democrats make D.C. and Puerto Rico states.

When the Republicans ultimately regain control of the Senate — as they surely would eventually, because the Democrats propose to add only four new senators — then the Republicans would retaliate. After we had the states of West Nebraska, North Montana, and East Alabama added to the Union, then the Republicans would have the upper hand for a while.

The Democrats know this, of course. The problem with political gamesmanship is that eventually the other party takes power, and the other party retaliates.

What’s a Democrat to do?

Don’t just add D.C. and Puerto Rico as new states. That would create only a small and likely temporary Democratic advantage in the Senate.

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As long as you’re going to play this game, you might as well keep the Republicans out of power for a century or more.

The Democrats should naturally create the states of North, South, West, and East California, adding six more Democratic senators to the mix. The new states of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island would add ten more Democratic senators (although this might give the Republicans an edge in what remains of the old New York). You could carve major cities out of existing states! The state of Atlanta would surely elect two Democratic senators; the rest of Georgia was Republican anyway; that’s a two-seat Democratic pick-up. Imagine how the residents of the Great States of Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown would feel; finally, they gained the power they always knew they deserved!

And surely the Democrats could do better than this; they wouldn’t be constrained by my feeble imagination.

If we had about 75 states, and most of the 50 new senators were basically guaranteed to be Democrats, then the Republicans wouldn’t regain the Senate in our lifetime.

Eventually, of course, the Republicans would win back power. Either demographics would eventually yield a Republican majority or the Republicans would change their policies to appeal to different groups. When the Republicans at last reclaimed power, perhaps in the year 2150, revenge would be sweet. Republicans would naturally be duty-bound to retaliate for the dastardly Democratic deeds.

We’d soon hear about Mid-East, East, and Far-East South Carolina! Six new Republican senators right there! Each sliver of Mississippi and Arkansas would be granted statehood! (“Weather’s fine here in my state, honey. How is it over there, in the living room?”) It would be a triumph of democracy!

I’m glad I won’t be around to witness the show.

I have enough trouble remembering the names of the countries in the former Soviet Union.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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