The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(05-23-2021, 10:59 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(05-23-2021, 09:29 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Some countries neatly divide themselves between rural and urban areas in what are the sub-national divisions. To do so in America would require splitting states into their rural and urban areas. Yes, I can imagine people in rural areas to want to distance themselves from the giant cities through some sort of secession... but I can imagine cities in some "Red" states seceding, too. Example: Nashville is much more liberal and sophisticated than the rest of Tennessee.

Or, we could revert to federalism.  If urban areas resort to more cooperation and specialization to handle their larger problems, let these problems be addressed by urban areas.  The federal government could deal with things like a common defense which effect everybody.

Federalism within the States? That would be new, but perhaps not prohibited in the Constitution. I can easily see "Chicagoland", which would extend far enough out to the the Wisconsin state line in the north, to Elgin and Aurora in the west, and Joliet in the southwest as a veritable state within the state as the basis of a regional government. A rural-urban divide is legitimate, but a divide based on race, religion, or social class would not be. Compacts between states involving only parts of both states are well established in the New York-New Jersey Port Authority which owns and maintains the bridges, tunnels, and ports in the New York City metro area but has no authority over anything in Binghamton or Atlantic City. Such would seem relevant to northwestern Indiana, whose problems are not infrastructure. 

Quote:But the federal government has been into one size fits all national solutions, often to big for the rural population, to small for the urban.  Federalism seems a more constructive perspective than splitting the states.

The rural-urban divide is real, and the urban-suburban divide is getting obsolete. It is clear that towns of similar size across state lines -- let us say, Coldwater, Michigan and Angola, Indiana -- have much more in common with each other than with Lansing or Detroit (Coldwater) or Indianapolis (Angola), even if Angola and Coldwater are in different media markets. Taxing the Hell out of rural, low-income Illinois to support the high-cost Chicago area for its exensive public sector while starving the rural areas is unjust. Let people in Greater Chicago pay for that. On the other hand, starving the public sector of Chicago to keep taxes low in low-cost rural Illinois is not such a good idea, either.