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Old 10-21-2022, 01:23 PM   #6026
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw View Post
So splitting off rural parts of states would up the number of rural congress seats. Useful fact.
Right. Every state gets at least one member of the U.S. House of Representatives, regardless of population (not that big of a deal, most of the time).
However, they also get two U.S. Senators -- the same as every other state -- and that's hugely impactful.

The number of electoral college votes equals the number of House districts, plus two for the senators, so the minimum number is three, regardless of the population of the state.

(By comparison, California has 55 votes in the Electoral college. Texas has 38, and New York and Florida have 29 each, followed by Illinois and Pennsylvania, with 20, each.)

The larger population states would still decide the presidency, in most cases.
However, when it came to federal law and federal budget expenditures, as well as appointment confirmations, the 100 U.S. Senators are hugely influential, and the chamber has usually been very evenly split.

Make membership in the U.S. Senate more sensitive to population, and the wealthier, urban states with more people receive a significant advantage.

Spawn off a bunch of low-population rural states based on land area, though, and a small minority of the U.S. population would, effectively, dictate the agenda to the larger, wealthier, majority.

There's no way that would last long, and with so much at stake in a rapidly-industrializing 19th Century United States, the fight would get ugly.

That said, the outcome would be even more predetermined than that of the Civil War of the 1860s.
In modern warfare, population, wealth and industry matter far, far more than the bravery and skill of individual soldiers -- although armies do need at least some of that, too.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 10-21-2022 at 01:28 PM.
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