I’ll bet. You’d love that, wouldn’t you?
I have a question.
Let’s say that through the greatest patriotic, bipartisan spirit since at least World War II, we manage to redraw the map into fifty states of relatively equal population (just for reference, that would be about the population of the Philadelphia, Miami, Washington DC or Houston metro areas.
Then 10 years later, we take another census, and the Senate State of Houston has maintained its 14.39% per decade population growth, while the similarly sized Senate State of Missouri has lagged along with its puny 1.9% growth.
What then? Do we reapportion half of what we now call Arkansas into Missouri to add to its population? Do we shrink the State of Houston and move its northern counties into the State of Texas Aggieland?
Every ten years?
Yes. Every ten years. Just like Congressional and legislative districts now.
However this goes against the original set up of the US. That each State has both types of representation: **proportional **per their population and then **equal **representation to all other states.
Proportional representation of the Sates in the House of Representatives. Here the large states have more say per their populations by the number of representatives.
Equal representation in the Senate. Each State has 2 Senators.
Take California v Vermont. California has much more representation in the US House, while Vermont has more representation in the Senate. In a sense they are equal. Rather clever I think.
This concept of constant (every 10 year) re-apportionment of “States” to fit their population basically negates the concept of “State” as it exists in the United States. They become nothing other than districts for electing Senators. You can’t have a “State” with its own laws, legislature, taxing authority etc etc. if its borders change every 10 years.
The borders don’t change. Where did you get that stupid idea from?
This thread is all about this “stupid idea”.
From the OP
Which would mean (in my hypothetical Senate State of Houston) every ten years, I’m essentially moving to a new state, with a different driver’s license, different taxes, different voting, a different college my kid has to attend to get in-state tuition, a different pension system if I happened to be a public employee, etc., etc.
Like Okrahoma said.
If you’re going to do anything like this at all, abolish the Senate and have a unicameral Federal legislature.